Remote Business Development Principal in Chelmsford

For uncompromising cat parents who want the best, KatKin is revolutionising cat health by transforming the lives of cats through superior nutrition. We’re Europe’s first fresh-cooked cat food, made with 100% human-grade meat, gently cooked and frozen to lock in freshness. As a disruptor in the $185bn pet food market, KatKin was founded to challenge the low standards set by the traditional cat food industry, which is worth $50bn globally and is this fastest growing segment in the pet care market.

The concept for fresh food is well established in the US, particularly in Dog, with the Farmers’ Dog surpassing >$1B in sales proving the scale of the opportunity. KatKin is vertically integrated across R&D, manufacturing, sales, and marketing. To date, we've delivered around 62 million fresh meals to over 270,000 happy, healthy cats across the UK. Our team of over 150 spans several locations, including London, USA, and our state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Haverhill, Suffolk. We also have customer service teams in both London and South Africa.

KatKin operates a direct-to-consumer (D2C) model supported by a first-class, dedicated customer service team. In addition to our eCommerce channel, our Fresh food and Pantry products are also sold through a growing number of select third-party platforms, including Ocado, Amazon, and Pets at Home. Where the competition cuts corners, catfishes customers, and puts profits over health, KatKin puts cat well-being first. No shortcuts. No secret recipes. We’re cutting the fluff, thinking fresh, and channelling hardcore love into industry-wide change.

If you want to join an ambitious, mission-driven, high-growth startup that’s making a genuine difference to cats’ (and their people’s) lives, you’ll love working at KatKin. You’ll be surrounded by knowledgeable scientists, big creative thinkers, astute business minds, and a whole team of hardcore cat parents. We’re a small, entrepreneurial, creative team, focused on the mission to give all cats the food they deserve - 100% fresh human-grade meat.

As a Business Development Principal, you’ll have end-to-end ownership of high-impact work and projects that are critical to driving our growth and innovation. Reporting directly to the co-CEO and founder, you will work cross-functionally to answer the big questions, identify opportunities and develop and implement strategies to unlock new revenue streams, improve operational efficiency and deliver value for our customers.

In our fast-paced start-up environment, you’ll need to be scrappy, resourceful, and hands-on. You should be comfortable wearing multiple hats and making decisions in ambiguity. You’ll play a pivotal role in shaping KatKin’s future with your ability to manage complexity, influence stakeholders, interpret data and deliver results.

KatKin Business Development initiatives to date have included:

• Management of large scale production change
• Launching new acquisition channels (direct sales and influencer marketing)
• Key support on fundraising
• Launching and scaling retail in UK and EU
• Scoping international DTC expansion
• Reviewing and owning internal initiatives such as company-wide employee survey and onboarding

End-to-End Initiative Ownership: Autonomously lead high-priority, cross-functional initiatives from ideation to execution, delivering measurable business impact - first initiative will focus on Fresh and Pantry product NPD, building on product strategy work currently underway.

Strategic Problem Solving: Tackle complex business questions using a hypothesis-based approach (e.g. what should our Fresh product range be?). Where relevant, synthesize internal and external data, leverage team expertise, and conduct market research to bring clarity and direction in ambiguity.

Stakeholder Management: Build strong relationships with internal teams and external partners, aligning priorities, securing buy-in and driving collaboration to achieve objectives.

Scrappy Execution: Take a practical, hands-on approach to overcome resource constraints, adapting quickly to shifting priorities and challenges, while still delivering high quality results.

Data Analytics: Leverage data to support storytelling, inform decision-making, measure impact, and optimise initiative performance.

Influence and Leadership: Act as a thought leader within the organisation, fostering a culture of innovation, ownership, and excellence.

Team management: Oversee direction and delivery of work of the Business Development Manager who will report directly to you.

Experience in strategy and business planning: Ideally, you have a background in strategy consulting combined with hands-on experience working within a business environment.

Proven track record of delivery: You have owned the scoping, planning and delivery of high impact commercial and/or operational initiatives.

Problem solving ability: You thrive solving problems in a fast-paced environment, bringing structure to complexity and simplifying in ambiguity. You are able to apply a hypothesis based approach to your work to quickly get to the right answer.

Project management skills: You are organised and excel at managing multiple projects and stakeholders simultaneously in a time-sensitive, fast-paced environment.

Analytical mindset: You excel at distilling data into key insights and actionable takeaways to support your work. You can effectively present them in a way that is easily understood by others.

Effective stakeholder management: You can collaborate with diverse stakeholders, leveraging strong influencing skills to secure alignment and buy-in.

High Bias for Action: You combine big-picture thinking with a practical ability to execute, quickly identifying and acting on "two-way door" opportunities.

High growth potential: You are driven and looking to continue to develop and grow as a senior leader at KatKin.

High performance personality: Demonstrated achievements in demanding work, academic, sporting, and/or personal extracurricular pursuits.

Thrive in an in-office setting: You value face-to-face connections, collaborative teamwork, and dynamic energy that comes from working alongside passionate people.

Alignment with Core Principles: You align strongly with KatKin’s core operating principles: Think Big, Relentlessly High Standards, Never Give Up, No Egos, Urgency Matters and One Team.

Career-Defining Opportunity: Play a pivotal role in scaling KatKin quickly.

Competitive Package: Competitive salary, AXA Health Insurance, including optical and dental coverage, annual personal development budget, company-contributed pension, EMI equity option grant.

Culture and Perks: A small, close-knit team with no egos, 33 holiday days each year.