Business Development Manager (Open & Short Courses)

Organisation: Cranfield University

Faculty or Department: Commercial

Based at: Cranfield Campus, Cranfield, Bedfordshire

Hours of work: 22 hours per week, normally worked Monday to Friday. Flexible working will be considered.

Contract type: Permanent

Salary: Full time starting salary is normally in the range of £37,897 to £45,580 per annum, pro rata, with potential progression to £52,067 per annum, pro rata (22 hours per week)

Apply by: 14/04/2026

Role Description

About the Role

This is an exciting opportunity for a motivated, customer‑focused sales professional to join our dynamic Commercial Team as a Business Development Manager (Open & Short Courses), working 3 days per week as part of a job‑share.

In this pivotal role, you will drive participant recruitment, lead conversion activity and build strong customer and corporate‑partner relationships across a diverse portfolio of open, short and contextualised programmes. You’ll act as a trusted adviser to prospective participants and organisations, using your expertise to recommend the right solutions and contribute to our annual commercial targets.

You will represent Cranfield at events and work collaboratively with education development, marketing, account management and academic colleagues to ensure a seamless customer journey and a consistent, high‑quality experience. This role is perfect for someone who thrives in a sales‑oriented environment where insight, initiative and relationship‑building make a measurable impact.

About You

You will bring proven experience in participant recruitment, consultative sales or account management, ideally within higher education, executive development or a similar B2B environment. You’ll be confident engaging with senior‑level stakeholders, translating product knowledge into compelling value propositions, and using data to inform decision‑making and identify opportunities.

You will be organised, proactive and resilient under pressure, with excellent communication skills and the ability to manage a busy pipeline of leads. Strong analytical ability, commercial awareness and a commitment to exceptional customer experience are essential. Experience of CRM systems and digital engagement tools will also be an advantage

About Us

As a specialist postgraduate university, Cranfield’s world-class expertise, large-scale facilities and unrivalled industry partnerships are creating leaders in technology and management globally. Learn more about Cranfield and our unique impact here.

Our Values and Commitments

Our shared, stated values help to define who we are and underpin everything we do: Ambition; Impact; Respect; and Community. Find out more here.

We aim to create and maintain a culture in which everyone can work and study together and realise their full potential. We are a Disability Confident Employer and proud members of the Stonewall Diversity Champions Programme. We are committed to actively exploring flexible working options for each role and have been ranked in the Top 30 family friendly employers in the UK by the charity Working Families. Find out more about our key commitments to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion and Flexible Working here.

Working Arrangements

Collaborating and connecting are integral to so much of what we do. Our Working Arrangements Framework provides many staff with the opportunity to flexibly combine on-site and remote working, where job roles allow, balancing the needs of our community of staff, students, clients and partners.

For an informal discussion about this opportunity, please contact Graham Bell, Director of Digital Education on (E): Graham.bell@cranfield.ac.uk

Please do not hesitate to contact us for further details on E: hrrecruitment@cranfield.ac.uk. Please quote reference number 5274.

Please note that we reserve the right to close this advert prior to the stated closing date should we receive sufficient numbers of applications. Therefore, we would encourage you to complete and submit your application as soon as possible.