Business Development Lead

Designability is a national charity that supports disabled people to live with greater independence. Our expertise is in person-centred design, creating products and services with and for disabled people to enable greater freedom and choice, every day. Our work focuses on understanding the needs, challenges and aspirations of disabled people by placing them at the heart of everything we do. Through person-centred design, these invaluable insights, combined with creativity and specialist skills, help to inform design decisions at every stage of a project. This results in innovative, engaging and practical designs of accessible products and services to transform the everyday lives of disabled people. Over the last 50+ years, we have worked on a range of pioneering projects from the multi-award-winning Accessible Pushchair design and national guidance on Accessible Electric Vehicle Charging to our flagship Wizzybug powered wheelchairs for very young children. We collaborate with organisations, businesses and partnerships to help create positive change in the world of accessible design. To date, we've transformed over 300,000 lives in the UK. Here at Designability, we will be working on many exciting developments over the next few years. Our plans including growing the team, moving the workshop to a new Bath location, starting multiple new projects, and embarking on our largest-ever piece of research with disabled people to shape our future priorities. We’re at the beginning of a journey to develop and diversify our income streams at Designability. This includes the implementation of a new major donor programme, a new corporate partnership strategy and developing our consultancy income. We’re looking for someone who: ·        Has a successful track record of securing new income within a five-figure range and above. ·        Is a confident relationship builder and communicator at all levels. ·        Has proven experience in client and partnership management to maintain strong relationships. ·        An expert networker, able to spot opportunities to upsell and cross well to maximise opportunity for the client and Designability. ·        Understand donor and client motivations and able to create bespoke propositions to match these. This is a fantastic opportunity to join our dynamic team at an exciting time of growth across our charity, and to make a meaningful difference through our work supporting disabled people to live with greater independence. Benefits that come with working for Designability Looking after its employees is important to Designability – supporting everyone to be happy and healthy means that we live our values of being creative, practical and inclusive and in turn meet our mission to enable disabled people to live with greater independence. We offer a range of employee benefits, including flexible working, a generous annual leave allowance and substantial employer contribution pension scheme. Designability is committed to recruiting the best person for the job, based solely on their ability and individual merit as measured against the criteria for the role; through a process that is fair, open, consistent and free from bias and discrimination.  All applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, colour, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, age, disability status or length of time spent unemployed. We are proud to be a Real Living Wage employer and accredited as a Disability Confident Employer, committed to making reasonable adjustments. To apply: Please submit your CV and a covering letter , detailing how your skills and experience meet the criteria contained in the Job Description. We are happy to provide information about this role in alternative formats where possible and receive applications in alternative formats . All applicants must be willing to undergo safeguarding checks, including checks with the Disclosure and Barring Service and employment references.  Closing Date for applications: Applications are being taken on a rolling recruitment basis Interview date: Successful applicants will be offered a mutually convenient interview date. Interviews will usually be held at our Bath offices. Start date: Early April 2025