Business Development Consultant, Life Sciences

About us

CF is a leading consultancy dedicated to making a lasting impact on health and healthcare. We work across the entire healthcare system — with NHS providers and commissioners, global life sciences companies, health technology businesses, and health investors — to improve population health, accelerate and embed the adoption of innovation, and drive growth. Our consultancy serves the entire healthcare sector, from healthcare systems and life sciences to health tech and sector suppliers. CF’s multi-disciplinary team provides end-to-end services, spanning strategy, finance, performance, organisational improvement, data and digital. We also create optimal policy conditions for healthcare advancements through evidence-based thought leadership, taking a proactive stance on key issues. Our Life Sciences practice operates at the intersection of health systems and industry. We are trusted by leading global pharmaceutical companies for our ability to combine deep NHS relationships, whole-population linked data assets, and strategic expertise. Our ambition is to reach £10m in Life Sciences revenues by 2030, with significant reach across UK, EU, and Canadian markets. As an inclusive and values-driven organisation, we are committed to excellence and are honoured to have received multiple industry awards. CF has unmatched access to UK healthcare data and specialist data science expertise, enabling delivery of positive and meaningful change.

About the role

The Business Development Consultant is a pivotal role within our Life Sciences team and exists because CF’s growth depends on commercial relationships, which depend on the right people. It is a commercial development role that requires analytical fluency rather than purely technical work and will suit someone who finds the commercial dimension of consulting more natural, and exciting. You will work closely with the Managing Partner, Life Sciences Director, and BD Manager to build CF’s pipeline, deepen key account relationships, develop compelling proposals, and bring CF’s thought leadership to the right audiences at the right moments. You will be responsible for supporting the development of our business plan, business development strategy including raising awareness, key account management, managing our opportunity pipeline, and ensuring the high quality of proposals and bid processes. You will be given real ownership — of named accounts, of BD workstreams, of proposal processes — and are expected to operate with pace and sound judgement in an environment that rarely offers complete information, a full brief or settled structure. This role offers an extraordinary opportunity for professional growth within a supportive development environment. You will gain invaluable experiences, unlocking your potential to reach new heights in your career journey.

Responsibilities

• Client engagement and relationship development

• Engage directly and substantively with senior client stakeholders — Director to C-suite level — in life sciences and health system settings, advancing relationships through the quality of conversation as much as the quality of materials.
• Take ownership of named accounts within the BD pipeline, with accountability for the quality and progression of those relationships over time, not just the proposal outputs they generate.
• Represent CF at key industry events in the UK (ABPI, NICE, NHSConfED) and internationally (ISPOR, ESMO, ASCO, ECO), building CF’s visibility and identifying commercial opportunities.
• Develop own network and thought leadership profile, including engagement with pharma market access and procurement communities and attendance at forums like Young MCA.

• Support the full BD lifecycle from opportunity identification and qualification through to proposal development, contracting, and ongoing relationship management.
• Lead BD workstreams under the direction of the BD Manager and Partners, coordinating inputs, managing timelines, and owning outputs sent to end.
• Use LinkedIn Sales Navigator, HubSpot CRM, and AI tools (including Claude and Copilot) to identify, track, and pursue target clients across the top-20 global pharma landscape.
• Register CF on procurement MSA platforms and manage ongoing compliance with client BD processes.
• Provide timely pipeline reporting to the senior leadership team and contribute to practice governance and strategy cycles.

• Develop compelling, tailored proposals and pitch materials that articulate CF’s capabilities in the context of specific client challenges — not generic capability statements.
• Ensure proposals reflect CF’s distinctive assets: whole-population NHS linked data, Health Strata® population health intelligence, and the ability to bridge health systems, life sciences, and investing.
• Manage bid compliance — clarification questions, portal submissions, pricing coordination, CV and case study collation — to the highest quality standard and with minimal supervision.
• Maintain a structured repository of proposal content, case studies, and BD materials in CMap and HubSpot; integrate lessons from bid outcomes to sharpen CF’s commercial proposition continuously.

• Co-develop analytically led thought leadership for peer-reviewed journals (BMJ, Health Affairs, ISPOR), trade press (HSJ, Pharmaceutical Market Europe), and LinkedIn — demonstrating CF’s expertise and generating inbound interest.
• Monitor and synthesize sector developments: MHRA regulatory change, NICE decisions, NHS commissioning policy, pharma launch dynamics, and competitor activity — identifying time-sensitive opportunities for CF to add value.
• Support the marketing function in developing conference content, award submissions, and digital presence optimised for UK and EU Canada audiences.

• Support CF’s expansion into EU and Canadian markets by developing awareness of EU HTA frameworks (including Joint Clinical Assessment), reimbursement dynamics, and pharma procurement processes across Germany, France, Spain, and Canada.
• Assist in the development of data partnerships and client relationships in EU 4 markets and Canada, in line with CF’s 2030 growth strategy.
• Engage with EU-based pharma teams at global HQ level, with awareness that EU Can consulting budgets are typically five times larger than equivalent UK-only engagements.

• Collaborate across the Life Sciences, Health Investing, and marketing functions to ensure CF presents a coherent, cross-practice offer to shared clients.
• Contribute to CF’s knowledge management — file structure, template development, best practice capture — so BD function becomes more effective with each engagement cycle.
• Support junior analysts and consultants in understanding BD processes and CF’s commercial proposition.

Skills and experiences

We are looking for candidates with the following skills and experiences:

• Essential (including attributes which are critical and key drivers for success)

• Experience: 2+ years in business development, strategy, management consulting, or a BD-adjacent role in a life sciences or health context.
• Technical literacy: Proficiency with MS Office; working knowledge of or clear appetite for CRM systems (HubSpot preferred), LinkedIn Sales Navigator, AI productivity tools.
• Commercial orientation: A demonstrable track record of developing client relationships or commercial opportunities — not just supporting them.
• Client presence and intellectual credibility: Ability to establish credibility quickly with senior stakeholders (Director to C-suite levels such as a VP of Market Access or Head of Franchise) and hold substantive conversations on health system, market access, or evidence generation topics without extensive seniority cover, for example no Partner attending every meeting.
• Judgment: Able to make sound judgments with incomplete information and maintain momentum without a fully defined brief or settled timeline.
• Pace and resilience: Proven ability to operate in ambiguous, fast-moving environments — managing competing priorities, making sound judgments with incomplete information, and maintaining quality throughout.
• Communication: Excellent written ability — able to draft proposals, briefings, and thought leadership in clear, professional prose with minimal editing required.
• Analytical fluency: Able to interpret evidence, synthesize multiple sources, and generate a point of view rather than a summary.

• Deep knowledge of a specific therapeutic area (CVRM, oncology, neuroscience, or rare diseases) or methodological domain (HEOR, RWE, market access) sufficient to underpin credible client conversation.
• Experience engaging with EU or Canadian pharma markets, HTA bodies, or reimbursement frameworks.
• Familiarity with the NHS data landscape — linked datasets, DARS, OpenSAFELY, SDE infrastructure — and its commercial applications in life sciences.
• Experience with CMap or equivalent project and BD management platforms.
• Postgraduate qualification in a relevant discipline.

Flexible working

Our default is to work in person with our clients, but we also support remote working. Team members can work from home one day per week as standard, and we offer an additional 44 remote working days per year. This allows you to work from home up to two days per week — subject to client needs — or use your allowance in blocks, depending on what works best for you. Office hours are flexible within our core hours of 10am–4pm.

Our commitment to Diversity & Inclusion

We are committed to building an inclusive and supportive culture where diversity thrives, and all our people can excel. We only recruit, promote and reward our people based on their skills and contribution, without regard to gender, race, disability, religion, nationality, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, marital status, or other characteristics. We are Disability Confident Accredited, and we want you to feel comfortable and able to perform at your best in the recruitment process, if you require any reasonable adjustments for any part of the recruitment process, please let us know.

We offer a competitive and flexible reward package designed to support you at work and beyond it. You will benefit from a generous holiday allowance that grows with your career (minimum of 25 days), a strong employer pension contribution, and the freedom to tailor benefits to suit your lifestyle, from wellbeing and fitness to financial protection. We are committed to supporting life’s important moments, with enhanced family leave, income and life protection, and access to practical benefits that make everyday life easier, such as interest‑free loans and travel support. Your wellbeing matters to us. You will have access to a comprehensive wellbeing and employee assistance programme, preventative health benefits, and initiatives that support an active, balanced way of working. Above all, we invest in our people; offering flexibility, security, and benefits that grow with you, so you can do your best work while building a sustainable and rewarding career.