At a Glance
- Tasks: Lead market development in adult social care, driving innovation and high standards.
- Company: Join Cambridgeshire County Council, committed to community wellbeing and sustainable services.
- Benefits: Enjoy a comprehensive wellbeing package, flexible holidays, and professional growth opportunities.
- Other info: Inclusive environment with support for personal and professional development.
- Why this job: Make a real difference in people's lives while shaping the future of care services.
- Qualifications: Strong leadership, commercial insight, and experience in care or related sectors.
The predicted salary is between 52515 - 56054 £ per year.
The Market Development Manager plays a pivotal role within the Adult Social Care Commissioning and Market Development service, shaping how local care and support markets evolve to meet the needs of communities across Cambridgeshire. The team works collaboratively across commissioning, contract management and market shaping, ensuring the Council meets its statutory duties while delivering high‑quality, sustainable services that make a real difference to people’s lives.
In this influential role, you will lead and drive market development activity, championing innovation, continuous improvement and high standards of care across the sector. You will work closely with providers and partners, building strong, trusted relationships while overseeing key projects that support a resilient and responsive care market. Using insight, data and market intelligence, you will identify opportunities, address gaps in provision, and proactively manage risks to ensure the right services are in place both now and for the future. Your work will have a direct and lasting impact—supporting the Council to navigate financial and market pressures, strengthen service sustainability, and deliver better outcomes for residents.
By embedding commercial best practice and leading on value‑for‑money and benefit realisation, you will help shape commissioning decisions, support local economic growth, and ensure adult social care markets contribute positively to community wellbeing and independence across Cambridgeshire.
What will you be doing? As Market Development Manager, you will take a leading role in shaping and strengthening local care and support markets across Cambridgeshire. You’ll work at the heart of commissioning, contract management and procurement activity, ensuring services are high‑quality, sustainable and able to meet both current and future demand. Day to day, you will drive forward innovative approaches that improve efficiency, quality and outcomes. This includes developing cost‑effective solutions, enhancing oversight of provider performance, and ensuring services remain financially viable and resilient in the long term.
You will provide strong commercial leadership across a range of commissioning and contract management activities, influencing how services are sourced, contracted and delivered. This will involve embedding robust pricing approaches, leading commercial challenge, and strengthening supplier engagement to ensure the Council achieves maximum value for money. A key part of your role will be working closely with providers and partners to build a diverse, responsive and resilient market. You’ll champion inclusive growth by supporting local providers, enabling innovation and helping to create a market that contributes to wider community wellbeing, economic development and strategic priorities.
You will also lead on savings, benefits realisation and performance tracking—ensuring that efficiencies, improvements and commercial gains are clearly defined, actively monitored and fully realised across programmes. Using insight and data, you will continuously review sufficiency forecasts and strategies, ensuring commissioning approaches remain proactive, evidence‑based and responsive to emerging needs. Alongside this, you will have opportunities to deputise for senior leadership, providing additional strategic oversight and contributing to wider service direction when needed.
About you We are looking for a person who is motivated and forward‑thinking, who can bring strong leadership, commercial insight and a passion for improving adult social care markets. You will be someone who enjoys working collaboratively, thrives on delivering improvement, and is confident in influencing both peers and senior stakeholders. You may already have direct experience within care and support markets, or you may bring transferable skills from a related sector—You will demonstrate the ability to think strategically, interpret complex information, and translate this into impactful outcomes.
You will bring experience of developing and delivering strategic plans, working collaboratively with teams to support long‑term organisational goals, identifying and leading continuous improvement and efficiency initiatives, with a clear focus on tracking performance and realising tangible benefits. You will have experience of leading and developing high‑performing teams, setting clear expectations and using insight to drive performance improvement, as well as managing projects from initiation through to delivery, ensuring outcomes are achieved and benefits are realised.
Your application will demonstrate effective project and resource management, the ability to balance priorities within a dynamic environment, the application of risk management and governance principles, including experience of market oversight and responding to provider or market challenges, driving improvement, transformation or efficiency through commissioning, procurement or service redesign.
You will be someone with experience of contributing to market and commercial strategy development, ideally within care and support or a related sector, delivering measurable commercial outcomes through commissioning, procurement and supplier engagement activity, managing contracts across their lifecycle, with a strong understanding of compliance, performance and risk management. You will have the ability to embed commercial awareness across multi‑disciplinary teams and confidently influence decision‑making at a senior level.
You will be someone who can demonstrate these strengths through a variety of professional experiences and someone committed to making a positive difference to communities and residents.
We value our colleagues in Cambridgeshire County Council and have developed a number of benefits in addition to the basics like annual leave, sick pay, pension and mileage:
- A comprehensive wellbeing package to cover all aspects of wellbeing, both in and out of work, which can also be accessed by your family
- Buy up to 4 weeks additional annual leave (pro‑rata) through our salary sacrifice scheme
- Take your bank holidays flexibly to better suit your personal circumstances
- Make Additional Voluntary Contributions (Shared AVCs) to your pension with tax and National Insurance savings
- Access to development opportunities, apprenticeships and qualified coaches to support your personal and professional growth
- Paid volunteering hours each year so you can make a positive impact on our community during your normal working day
- Access to Peer Support Groups through our IDEAL staff equality, diversity and inclusion network
- Opportunities to nominate and receive Employee Recognition Awards
- An Our Cambs Rewards account, giving you access to in‑store and online discounts as well as our Car Lease and Cycle to Work schemes
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, along with our employee network 'IDEAL' and self‑organised peer support groups help us to foster an inclusive, supportive and safe working environment where people feel valued, respected, and empowered. We collect relevant diversity data for monitoring as part of the recruitment process to understand the diversity of our applicants and monitor any trends throughout the recruitment processes so that we can take meaningful action. We are proud to be a Disability Confident Leader. We fully support providing reasonable adjustments throughout our recruitment process, as well as when you join us, and we encourage candidates to contact the Hiring Manager to discuss any adjustment needs.
Through a Guaranteed Interview Scheme, we will offer an interview to all applicants who disclose a disability and meet the essential criteria for a job vacancy. On your application form you can indicate you are disabled. Some examples of reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process could include additional time to complete an assessment or printing a document on pastel coloured paper with larger font size and line spacing. We would value talking about what might be possible to enable you to join us and thrive, so if there is something that would help you to do your best during your journey with us, please get in touch.
Market Development Manager in Huntingdon employer: Grafham Water Center
Cambridgeshire County Council is an exceptional employer, offering a supportive and inclusive work culture that prioritises employee wellbeing and professional growth. As a Market Development Manager, you will benefit from a comprehensive wellbeing package, flexible working arrangements, and access to development opportunities, all while making a meaningful impact on local care markets and community wellbeing in the vibrant setting of Huntingdon.
StudySmarter Expert Advice🤫
We think this is how you could land Market Development Manager in Huntingdon
✨Tip Number 1
Network like a pro! Get out there and connect with people in the adult social care sector. Attend local events, join relevant online forums, and don’t be shy about reaching out to professionals on LinkedIn. Building relationships can open doors that a CV just can’t.
✨Tip Number 2
Show your passion! When you get the chance to chat with potential employers, let your enthusiasm for improving adult social care shine through. Share your ideas on market development and how you can make a difference—this will set you apart from the crowd.
✨Tip Number 3
Be prepared for interviews! Research the Council’s current projects and challenges in the care market. Think about how your skills can help address these issues and come armed with examples of your past successes. This shows you’re not just interested, but also ready to contribute.
✨Tip Number 4
Apply through our website! We’ve got all the latest job openings listed there, and it’s the best way to ensure your application gets seen. Plus, you’ll find tips and resources to help you ace the process. Don’t miss out on your dream role!
We think you need these skills to ace Market Development Manager in Huntingdon
Some tips for your application 🫡
Tailor Your Application:Make sure to customise your application to highlight how your skills and experiences align with the Market Development Manager role. Use keywords from the job description to show that you understand what we're looking for.
Showcase Your Impact:When detailing your previous roles, focus on the impact you've made. Use specific examples of how you've driven improvements or led successful projects in care and support markets. We want to see how you can make a difference!
Be Clear and Concise:Keep your application clear and to the point. Avoid jargon and ensure your writing is easy to read. We appreciate straightforward communication, so make it easy for us to see your strengths.
Apply Through Our Website:Don't forget to apply through our website! It’s the best way to ensure your application gets to us directly. Plus, you'll find all the details you need about the role and our team there.
How to prepare for a job interview at Grafham Water Center
✨Know Your Market
Before the interview, dive deep into the adult social care market in Cambridgeshire. Understand the current challenges, key players, and recent developments. This knowledge will help you demonstrate your insight and show that you're genuinely interested in shaping the local care landscape.
✨Showcase Your Leadership Skills
Prepare examples of how you've led teams or projects in the past. Highlight your ability to influence stakeholders and drive improvements. Use the STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result) to structure your responses, making it easy for the interviewers to see your impact.
✨Emphasise Collaboration
Since this role involves working closely with providers and partners, be ready to discuss your collaborative experiences. Share specific instances where you've built strong relationships and how those partnerships led to successful outcomes. This will illustrate your ability to work effectively within a team.
✨Prepare for Scenario Questions
Expect scenario-based questions that assess your problem-solving skills and strategic thinking. Think about potential gaps in the care market and how you would address them. Practising these scenarios will help you articulate your thought process clearly during the interview.
