Head of Market Development in London

At AAT it’s our mission to make it possible for more people to experience the opportunities a career in finance brings, through our accessible qualifications and supportive community. We are the UK’s leading qualification and professional membership body for vocational accountants. We pride ourselves on providing practical qualifications that meet the needs of both employers and employees, as well as products and services to support our members and customers throughout their careers.

Term: Permanent

Location: We have hybrid working in place, with 1-2 days per week, in our office in Canary Wharf.

We’re looking for a strategic, forward-thinking leader with a passion for driving growth, shaping markets and building impactful partnerships. If you thrive in a high paced environment, enjoy leading high performing teams and are energised by identifying new opportunities, this role offers an exciting opportunity to influence AAT’s commercial success and long-term direction.

What exactly will you be doing?

As our Head of Market Development, you will play a pivotal role in driving AAT’s growth ambitions, both in the UK and internationally. You’ll lead our market development and business development teams, shape market-entry strategies and build strategic commercial partnerships that strengthen AAT’s presence, relevance and revenue opportunities. Working closely with senior leaders and cross-functional teams, you will ensure our market activity aligns with AAT’s overarching vision, delivers commercial value and supports our mission as a forward-looking professional body. You will lead with clarity, ambition and commercial insight developing a high performing culture that motivates teams to deliver exceptional outcomes.

Major objectives

• Develop and execute growth-focused business and market development strategies across the UK and international markets.
• Identify and pursue new commercial opportunities through research, insights and market analysis.
• Build, manage and develop a high-performing market development and business development team.
• Lead strategic partnerships, sponsorships and commercial relationships to maximise revenue and long‑term value.
• Create and oversee market development plans that align with AAT’s strategic objectives and support sustainable growth.
• Monitor market performance, pipeline activity and key metrics to inform senior decision-making.
• Collaborate with senior leaders and cross-functional teams to align commercial, product and marketing activity.
• Oversee budgets, forecasts and financial performance to ensure targets are met and resources are optimally allocated.

What are we looking for?

• Extensive experience in B2B sales and delivering revenue growth.
• Proven success leading high‑performing teams and driving sales capability.
• Experience managing commercial partnerships and embedding them into growth strategies.
• Strong analytical and strategic planning skills, including market insights and pipeline forecasting.
• Experience entering and growing international markets.
• Excellent relationship‑building and stakeholder engagement skills.
• Strong written, verbal and presentation skills with the ability to influence at all levels.
• A proactive, confident and commercially minded approach to identifying opportunities and managing risk.
• Ability to perform effectively in a fast‑paced, high‑ambiguity environment.

You’ll be joining AAT at an exciting time, helping shape the future of our markets and driving meaningful commercial impact. This role sits at the heart of AAT’s growth plan. It offers the opportunity to shape our commercial future, strengthening our relevance in established markets while unlocking new opportunities. You’ll lead work that directly contributes to AAT’s mission, brand impact and financial sustainability. If you’re a dynamic commercial leader who enjoys steering strategy, unlocking market opportunities and building influential partnerships, we’d love to hear from you.

What are the benefits?

At AAT we believe in treating our staff well and this is reflected in our wide-ranging benefits, which include:

• Hybrid working (1-2 days per week in our London office) and opportunities for further flexible working.
• 25 days’ annual leave, increasing one day per year up to a maximum of 30 days plus bank holidays.
• Great pension scheme, life assurance and critical illness cover.
• Health cash plan.
• Enhanced maternity and shared parental leave contributions of up to 6 months’ full pay depending on the length of service.
• Regular wellbeing initiatives.
• Cycle2Work scheme and much more.

Closing date: The planned closing date for this role is 23 February 2026 at 17.00, however, we reserve the right to close the role earlier than planned. It’s an exciting time to join AAT and we would love you to join us on our journey. In 2023 we achieved one-star company status in the Best Companies survey and we have recently launched our strategy to 2030. We are committed to being an inclusive and welcoming place to work. We encourage applications from diverse candidates and make recruitment decisions based on skill and experience. We have a Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) Champions group, which leads on our D&I strategy and organise events to celebrate and raise awareness. We are a disability-confident committed employer and have signed up to the Race at Work Charter. We have also signed up for the Women in Finance Charter and in 2022 we exceeded our target for appointing females into senior positions. Come and help us to make AAT an even better place to work!