Senior Business Development Officer (interim cover)

This is an exciting time to be joining the Business Development team, which has expanded over the last two years to now count nine members with an increasingly global outlook. The successful candidate will join this well-established team, 2 years into their current 3-year fundraising strategy, with a healthy pipeline of prospect donors plus strong relationships in the donor ecosystem and across ClientEarth’s senior leadership.

Please Note: This role is a fixed-term contract running until 31 August 2027

Important dates to note:

• Deadline to submit an initial application: 9 November 2026
• If your profile passes initial screening, you will be asked to submit additional information in the form of three additional questions.
• The deadline to submit your answers is 12 November 2026
• If we do not receive a response to these questions by the deadline we will assume you are no longer interested in the role.
• Interviews will take place the from the week beginning 16 November - 20 November 2026

Please also review the "Our Hiring Process" section at the bottom of this advert to learn more about the stages involved for this specific role.

Key Responsibilities

• Proactively undertake research to identify, qualify and prioritise new funding prospects/ opportunities to support a pipeline of high quality leads to guide future fundraising efforts.
• Determine prospect funder alignment with ClientEarth’s strategic funding priorities, producing recommendations about next steps, including cultivation, for review by senior Business Development colleagues.
• Draft clear and compelling written fundraising materials including cases for support, funding proposals, and concept notes
• Meet with funder contact points to understand their interests/priorities, present proposals and provide insight to ClientEarth’s work. Sensitive management of funder expectations to be undertaken as needed, and with the support of the Business Development Manager

See the job description for a full list of duties for this role.

Skills, Knowledge & Expertise

• Experience of working in a fundraising or business development role for a charity, NGO, private or public entity
• Experience of drafting compelling and successful proposals for trusts, foundations and statutory institutions and securing multi-year grants, ideally at the six-figure level and above
• Experience of coordinating the engagement of a variety of internal and external stakeholders during complex, multi-stage proposal development processes
• Strong project management skills to lead the proposal development process to meet funder deadlines, including stakeholder management

See the job description for a full list of requirements for this role.

Note to candidates: We know that long lists of criteria can be daunting and that some candidates will not apply for a role unless they feel they are 100% qualified. If you feel you meet at least some of the essential criteria, we still encourage you to apply.

Job Benefits

Flexible working: We are proud to be a Flexa accredited Employer. Visit our Flexa Employer page for more information on our approach to flexible working. Our flexible working policy allows our people the choice to decide to work from home/another location in the country where their contract of employment is issued for 80% of their month, with the other 20% of their month being office-based. See our benefits page for more: Benefits | ClientEarth Careers as well as our flexible working FAQ.

ClientEarth values diversity and inclusion and the benefits this brings. We aim to appoint the most suitable candidate at all times and welcome applications from people from all different backgrounds. See our Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) at ClientEarth | ClientEarth journey page for more.

Please note that ClientEarth is only able to employ those who have the pre-existing legal right to work in the UK.

ClientEarth is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice or legal services to third parties.