"Business Development Specialist Senior"

Job Details

Posted: 17-Jul-25

Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan

Categories: Staff/Administrative

Internal Number: 266134

A cover letter and resume are important submissions for the hiring team to get a sense of your experience. In the cover letter, in two pages or less, please let us know how this role aligns with your career aspirations and skill set. Submit both a cover letter and resume as one file (because of system limitations).

New Partnership Pipeline Development

• Independently drive, research and identify high-potential organizations and key decision-makers who align with our strategic partnership personas and focus areas.
• Build a comprehensive understanding of priority sectors and evaluate trends in workforce development, education innovation, and emerging technologies to inform partnership strategy.
• Assess new markets and analyze business opportunities for prospective partners' workforce learning needs and challenges, tailoring engagement approaches to fit prospective partners' strategic priorities.
• Facilitate partnership outreach efforts by guiding creation of customized partner-facing materials (e.g., presentation decks, case studies, storytelling content) that resonate with potential partners.

Relationship Management

• Build and expand partner relationships across the full relationship lifecycle with external partners (industry, nonprofit, and government), identifying key moments to intentionally engage and steward toward long-term collaboration.
• Ensure business development team provides outstanding project management support during discovery, scoping, solution presentations, and closing deals.
• Engage in and participate in follow-up from monthly partnership engagement events, such as introductory webinars, workshops, or high-level meetings.
• Actively nurture early-stage relationships with prospective and pilot partners, using sound professional judgment in elevating partner conversations to senior leadership.

Data Analysis Support

• Manage collection and preliminary analysis of data from pilot programs, collaborating closely with individuals in Online Learning's Content and Product Strategy, Platform Strategy and Course Operations to track key metrics for evaluating program effectiveness and user engagement.
• Contribute to internal reports and presentations, in collaboration with Analytics and Finance teams, to clearly demonstrate the measurable impact and ROI of our educational solutions, helping to validate product-market fit.

Process Improvement and Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Proactively identify opportunities to refine and streamline our partner discovery and engagement processes, contributing to the development of a light, repeatable, and scalable sales process.
• Track key Education Solutions objectives and success metrics, helping us report on achievement of program milestones.
• Collaborate closely with peers in Marketing, Online Learning and other internal teams to ensure alignment, share insights, and deliver a cohesive partner experience, including refining and implementing a service model that supports positive, repeatable engagement with external partners and internal design teams.
• Bring forward solutions and recommendations for any issues or challenges identified during the partnership development cycle.

Supervision and Team Management

• Supervises a business development team by recruiting, training, delegating and overseeing assignments, project deliverables, providing mentorship, and managing performance reviews, personnel and fiscal responsibilities.
• Engage AI tools and coach others on using AI tools in day-to-day work to support partnership development and internal operations, using a core set of approved systems and a structured framework for piloting and evaluating use.
• Plan for team growth to support business development work focused on building long-term strategic partnerships with external organizations.
• Contribute to goal-setting within the education solutions domain and collaborate with other domains and teams to achieve shared goals.
• Coach and develop early career team members while contributing to shaping and sharing a culture of shared ownership and standard of excellence in business development across CAI.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Education, Communications, or a related field, along with 5-7 years of experience and progressive responsibility in business development, management consulting, account management or client success roles.
• Partnership & Relationship Acumen: Proven ability to support and contribute to client or partner relationship development, including initial outreach, managing and advancing conversations, and fostering positive engagements.
• People Management: Supervisory experience in an environment that emphasizes growth mindset, coaching and developing others.
• Project Management & Organizational Skills: Demonstrated capability to independently manage projects from start to finish and handle multiple tasks, including working on projects that involve multiple internal teams and using enterprise technology tools to streamline collaboration.
• Analytical & Problem-Solving Aptitude: Strong analytical skills with the ability to assist in data collection and derive actionable insights; proactive in identifying issues and suggesting solutions. CRM experience to drive business development and partnership growth is strongly preferred.
• Communication & Collaboration: Proven ability to build rapport and collaborate effectively with internal teams as well as external stakeholders.
• Industry Interest: Familiarity with trends in workforce learning and talent development coupled with a proactive, results-oriented mindset and eagerness to learn.
• Must have their own transportation and be willing to travel up to 25% of time on the job, mostly within 4-hour drive of the office but also willing to do some air travel. Be able to make multi-night trips, both domestic and international.

Please Note: This is a 5 year term limited position with the possibility of renewal depending on funding. The mode of work for this position is Hybrid. Must have legal authorization to work in the United States.

The salary for this position will be based upon the selected candidate's education and experience. Excellent benefits are available.

Salary Information: The general salary range for this position is $85,000 - $93,000.