Business Development Manager, Life Sciences

About us CF is a leading consultancy dedicated to making an enduring positive impact on health and healthcare. Our purpose is to make a lasting, positive difference to health and healthcare. Our mission is to be invaluable to our clients, supporting them to innovate and make lasting improvements — and to build an exceptional company that attracts, develops and retains a trusted team. CF serves the entire healthcare sector — from health systems, life sciences companies, and health tech to investors and the voluntary sector. Our Life Sciences practice helps pharma, biotech, and medtech clients drive rapid adoption of innovation, enabled by our deep health systems expertise and unmatched access to health data.

About the role CF is seeking a Business Development Manager for its Life Sciences practice. Our practice is built on cultivating relationships grounded in trust, combined with demonstrating genuine insight into clients' challenges. Business development at CF is both relational and substantive: it requires the ability to engage as a peer with senior client stakeholders, combined with domain expertise, structured thinking, and collaborative problem solving. We do not use outbound origination and prospecting. But you will only succeed in this role if you enjoy meeting new people, taking initiative, and working as a team to pursue a set of proactive priorities and to respond with agility to inbound requests.

The BD Manager works alongside the practice's Managing Partner and Director as a domain-expert contributor — deepening client relationships, shaping bespoke propositions, and ensuring that CF's intellectual offer reaches the people who need it most. This is a player-manager role. The BD Manager has line management responsibility for two roles: the BD Consultant (a CF consultant on rotation into business development) and the BD Digital and AI-Enabled Intelligence Coordinator (a role shared with the Health Investing practice). The BD Manager leads by example rather than by delegation alone — remaining personally active in client relationships, proposal development, and thought leadership, while directing, supporting, and developing a small team.

What you will do:

• Build and sustain client relationships: Maintain and develop a portfolio of senior relationships across priority pharma, biotech, and medtech accounts, with a focus on market access, medical affairs, and commercial functions. Engage clients in genuine problem-solving conversations — bringing insight, asking the right questions, and helping clients to articulate challenges that CF is positioned to address.
• Lead proposition and proposal development: Contribute domain knowledge and client insight to proposal development — helping to frame the problem correctly and ensure the proposed approach is grounded in clinical and commercial reality.
• Manage the commercial pipeline and client intelligence: Own the BD pipeline, ensuring every active opportunity has a clear owner, status, and next step.
• Build thought leadership and market presence: Identify thought leadership opportunities aligned to CF's service lines and target audiences, and work with the practice leadership to shape and develop content.
• Lead, develop, and direct the BD team: Set clear priorities and work-plans for both team members, ensuring their time is focused on the activities most likely to advance client relationships and drive pipeline conversion.
• Support the BD operating rhythm: Prepare agendas, materials, and action logs for pipeline meetings and steering groups.
• Ensure commercial governance and compliance: Ensure all bids and proposals are compliant with both client requirements and CF's internal policies.

What we are looking for:

• Commercial drive: Takes personal responsibility for contributing to CF's commercial success.
• Problem solving: Able to work through complex, incomplete commercial and client problems and provide clear guidance on the way forward.
• Teamwork: Works effectively as part of the practice leadership team alongside the Managing Partner and Director.
• Continuous learning: Always seeking to deepen expertise and stay current in a fast-moving sector.
• Sector expertise: Deep, practical knowledge of the life sciences sector.
• Client relationships: Creates authentic relationships based on honesty, reliability, and genuine care for client success.
• Managing delivery: Makes things happen in practice.
• Data and AI literacy: Comfortable using data and evidence to inform commercial decisions.
• Communication: Communicates in CF's register: straightforward, jargon-free, and authentic.
• Sector influence: Builds a reputation as a respected voice in health and life sciences.
• Business growth: Leads strategic growth initiatives, develops new client relationships.
• Building an exceptional company: Takes responsibility for developing CF's people, culture, and capabilities.

CF values CF's four values — Be Connected, Uphold Standards, Inspire Change, and Create the Future — are not aspirational statements. They reflect how we work. For this role, Be Connected is particularly central.

25 days holiday per year, increasing by one day per year of service to a maximum of 35 days. 7% employer pension contribution (employee contributes 3%). Flexible benefits programme including cash plan and ClassPass subscription. Income protection: 75% of salary in the event of long-term incapacity. Life insurance: four times basic salary. Enhanced family leave policies. Interest-free loan of up to £10,000. Interest-free season ticket loan, repayable over 12 months. Workplace nursery scheme. Up to four weeks fully remote working per year. Employee assistance and wellness programme (Lifeworks). Membership of the Health Service Journal.