Strategic Business Development Manager

Our world-leading Time & Frequency department is seeking a Strategic Business Development Manager to help bring a new generation of resilient timing services to the UK market.

This is an exceptional opportunity to join the global authority in precision timing at a defining moment for UK digital infrastructure.

Backed by a government investment of £180 million in the National Timing Centre (NTC) programme, we are developing a world-first resilient time distribution capability that will provide industry with a robust complement to satellite systems (such as GPS) – which are increasingly vulnerable to disruption from solar storms, jamming and spoofing.

This will underpin essential services, including:

• Telecommunications,

• Online banking,

• Emergency response,

• Transport networks, and

• Wider digital and data-driven operations.

Together, these services form the backbone of modern society - and your leadership will help ensure they remain secure, reliable and robust even if global navigation satellite systems fail.

Key responsibilities:

This is not a traditional sales position supporting an established portfolio. You will help create the market for a new technology, define how we engage priority sectors and convert emerging customer requirements into credible commercial and adoption opportunities.

• Set and lead the business development strategy for National Timing Centre products and services; defining priority markets, customer groups, propositions and routes to market.
• Identify and prioritise markets and customers where resilient timing could deliver significant benefits; considering customer need, dependencies, regulation, procurement routes and drivers.
• Develop sector-specific value propositions; translating complex scientific and technical capabilities into credible solutions
• Drive opportunities from customer discovery and qualification through proposition development, business cases, bids, tenders and commercial progression, whilst managing commitments, dependencies and risks.
• Collaborate with world-leading Scientists and Engineers to develop pilots and demonstrators that build customer confidence and support the transition from initial interest to operational adoption.
• Build senior relationships and strategic partnerships across government, regulators, industry and tech providers.
• Represent NPL nationally and internationally, using industry forums and to strengthen market understanding, partnerships and adoption.
• Identify and address barriers to adoption; such as technical, commercial, regulatory, procurement and organisational challenges, ensuring customer insight informs product development, design and deployment.
• Oversee the opportunity pipeline, providing programme leadership with evidence-based reporting on performance, market developments, adoption barriers and risks.