Senior Business Development Manager

Job Description

About the role

Etc. is the innovation arm of BT Group. We accelerate how BT builds products that connect customers to the beating heart of the country – our network. We reimagine how our network, data, people and partners come together to help businesses transform, and to keep society connected. Within this, the Data and Developer Solutions unit is developing a pipeline of emerging propositions spanning data collaboration, advanced analytics and platform-based services.

We are seeking a Senior Technical Business Development Manager to identify, shape and validate new commercial opportunities for these propositions. This is a critical role operating at the front end of growth – developing and validating early stage product incubation and innovation opportunities to help create repeatable business models that can be scaled into the wider organisation.

You will work directly with customers to understand problems, test demand and develop early commercial use cases. The role includes leading proof-of-concept activity and converting validated opportunities into initial commercial agreements.

This is a highly hands-on role operating in a low-certainty environment. Success requires the ability to open doors, build early credibility and turn ambiguous customer interest into clear, validated opportunities that can scale.

The role sits at the intersection of product, commercial and customer, with a material influence on which propositions scale and how they are taken to market.

What you’ll be doing

• Own early-stage opportunity creation and initial commercialisation, without responsibility for scaled sales execution or quota carrying
• Identify and engage priority customers to explore new use cases and opportunities
• Open doors and build early-stage relationships with senior stakeholders in target organisations
• Map customer needs and validate demand for emerging propositions
• Lead PoCs, pilots and structured discovery to test technical and commercial viability
• Convert validated opportunities into initial commercial agreements where appropriate
• Shape use cases, value propositions and commercial/financial models
• Build and manage a focused pipeline of early-stage partnership opportunities
• Work closely with Product, Design and Data teams to inform roadmap and proposition development
• Collaborate with sales teams to transition opportunities for scale
• Engage partners and external stakeholders to unlock open innovation, co-creation and routes to market
• Represent BT credibly in customer and industry engagements
• Capture and synthesise market insight to inform GTM strategy and investment decisions
• Track progress using BD metrics (e.g. validation, PoC progression, early revenue traction)

Essential Skills / Experience

• Proven business development track record – creating, validating and progressing new opportunities in enterprise environments
• Strong communication and influencing skills – able to engage senior stakeholders and translate complex ideas into clear commercial narratives
• B2B data and insights knowledge – experience of data and insight products, B2B business models and delivery mechanisms including API, platform and data clean rooms
• Zero to one experience and mindset – comfort working in low-certainty environments with a bias for action and hands-on ownership
• Experience with CRM tools – strong working knowledge of using CRM and reporting tools

Desirable Skills / Experience

• Experience working with customers across multiple industries and customer types
• Understanding of enterprise buying environments and complex sales cycles
• Experience operating in roles that bridge product development and commercial execution
• Demonstrated ability to understand and explain complex concepts and data
• Understanding of data regulations and methods used for the safe and secure processing of data
• Experience supporting international or multi-market opportunity development
• Strong stakeholder mapping and account planning capability
• Experience shaping early commercial models, market sizing, pricing and go-to-market approaches
• Ability to translate customer insight into structured opportunities and propositions
• Experience working cross-functionally with Product, Engineering and Commercial teams
• Knowledge of UK and International mobile network operators
• Entrepreneurial mindset with strong commercial curiosity and delivery focus

Our Package

Tailored benefits make a real difference. That’s why we offer a comprehensive range to support your growth, wellbeing, and everyday life. You can design the package to suit you and your lifestyle. Your core benefits include:

• Company car scheme (or cash alternative)
• 15% on target annual bonus
• Private healthcare for you and your family
• Access to an online private GP 24/7 for you and your immediate family
• Market-leading paid carers leave with up to 2 weeks off
• Equalised maternity, paternity, and adoption leave – 18 weeks’ full pay and 8 weeks’ half pay
• EE and BT products, including mobile and broadband
• Market leading Pension scheme – 5% from you and 10% from us
• Holiday purchase scheme
• You can select additional benefits, including healthcare, dental, gym memberships and more when you’re ready.

BT Group is the UK’s leading communications group and the holding company behind some of the country’s most recognised brands – including BT, EE, Openreach and Plusnet. Our purpose is as simple as it is ambitious: we connect for good. Our customers include consumers, small, medium and large businesses, public sector organisations and other communications providers.

BT Group’s role is about setting direction, unlocking value and creating the conditions for our brands and businesses to thrive.

Having come through the most capital-intensive phase of our fibre investment, our focus now is on what comes next – simplifying how we operate, using technology and AI to work smarter, and organising ourselves to serve customers better and grow sustainably. Group teams shape strategy, policy, brand, capital allocation and transformation, helping the whole organisation perform at its best.

We have a singular culture that unites all our people: we are customer-first challengers, who are committed, clear and connected. These behaviours unite us as one team to deliver for our colleagues, our customers, our stakeholders and the country. Joining BT Group means working at the heart of a business that matters to the UK, with the opportunity to shape decisions, influence outcomes and help set the future course of one of the country’s most important companies.