Business Development Manager

The Social History Archive, part of DC Thomson, is recruiting for an experienced Business Development Manager to join our team in London, UK. This two-year-old start-up has ambitious growth plans, and this role is pivotal to achieve those ambitions. The business is autonomous but supported by both Findmypast and DC Thomson. This role is global facing, and the individual will manage a sales pipeline in the UK and beyond both directly and via 3rd party agents where appropriate.

While the focus is initially on The Social History Archive, there will be opportunities to leverage the role into other related B2B products, increasing commercial opportunities and driving growth across the group. The Social History Archive powers academic research and teaching through unparalleled access to British, Irish and former Empire historical sources. We offer academics and researchers access to the most comprehensive collection of British, Irish and former Empire historical resources anywhere online. Catering to a range of academic interests, the ever-growing archive contains hundreds of millions of images of historical records and newspapers. Thanks to partnerships with prestigious institutions and archives like the British Library, we deliver a diverse range of primary sources, enabling research into the people, places and events that have shaped the world.

The Business Development Manager will foster long‑term relationships both virtually and in person with customers to understand their research and teaching needs. The successful candidate will display in-depth knowledge of our content and the customer universe to progress the sales pipeline. The role will be principally operational initially, and the successful candidate will be expected to shape those operations to most effectively deliver growth. Progression opportunities include the evolution of Business Development into a more strategic function, and taking on management responsibilities as the team grows.

Key responsibilities include:

• Market and opportunity development: Identify new revenue opportunities, including untapped segments, regional initiatives, consortia, partnerships and complementary products or services that could extend our B2B products’ reach. Maintain a visible presence in academic and library networks through active participation in sector groups, events and online communities, ensuring our products remain front of mind for key decision makers.
• Sales leadership and commercial execution: Take ownership of the lead to conversion journey for the Social History Archive and other products, ensuring activity supports both acquisition and long‑term retention objectives. Represent our products at sector conferences, user meetings and partner events, building relationships that lead to sustainable pipelines of new and expanded business.
• Relationships and advocacy: Build strong, consultative relationships with prospective and existing customers, taking time to understand local teaching, research and budget pressures and aligning the Archive’s value proposition accordingly. Nurture long‑term account relationships, seeking out opportunities for expansion, integration with other services and deeper embedding of the Archive in teaching and research workflows.

Skills

Essential:

• A commercially focused, opportunity‑seeking mindset, with the initiative to open new avenues for growth as well as deepen existing relationships.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills, with the ability to adapt messaging for librarians, academics, senior decision‑makers and internal stakeholders.
• Strong organisational skills and the ability to manage a broad portfolio of products, accounts and prospects, often across multiple regions or countries, while maintaining attention to detail.
• Comfortable presenting in person and online, including to larger groups, and confident using virtual meeting and webinar platforms as part of the sales toolkit.

Desirable:

• Familiarity with Hubspot.

Experience

Essential:

• Demonstrable experience in hitting and or exceeding substantial growth targets.
• Significant experience working with academic libraries or closely related institutional markets, including familiarity with their procurement models, budget cycles and decision‑making processes.
• Experience managing complex, consultative sales cycles involving multiple stakeholders, such as librarians, academics, procurement and consortia representatives.
• Strong commercial awareness, with a track record of delivering sustainable revenue growth in a content, digital or services environment.

Desirable:

• Comfortable working in a startup culture or environment.
• Previously built trusted customer relationships with university libraries.
• Demonstrable ability to sell archive content to university libraries.
• Evident interest in history, the humanities, education or in connecting users with relevant source material, and the confidence to discuss these with specialists and practitioners.
• Well‑established networks within the academic library community, and the ability to use these networks to open doors and gain insight.
• Clear understanding of the competitive environment for library collections (ideally social history / primary source), or the ability to acquire this rapidly and use it to inform positioning and negotiation.

Behaviours that will help this role succeed:

• Being More Curious – Uses evidence and insight to challenge assumptions and shape decisions.
• Experiment with Purpose – Tests new approaches, learns quickly and scales what works.
• Owning the Outcomes – Takes end‑to‑end accountability for commercial results and relationship health.
• Being More Collaborative – Shares insight, tools and learning to maximise portfolio performance.

Closing date for applications: 26th May 2026 at 12:00 noon.