Business Development Executive

Responsibilities:

Business Development and Revenue Growth:

• Develop and implement annual and quarterly business development plans aligned with the company’s strategic and revenue objectives.
• Identify and pursue new business opportunities across pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology companies, contract research organizations, healthcare institutions, government agencies, academic institutions, development partners, and investors.
• Build and maintain a strong pipeline of qualified business opportunities.
• Generate leads through industry research, networking, conferences, referrals, partnerships, and direct client engagement.
• Convert qualified opportunities into signed contracts, purchase orders, framework agreements, and strategic partnerships.
• Support the commercialisation and market expansion of Xcene’s services and products.

Client and Partnership Management:

• Establish and maintain strong relationships with sponsors, clients, investigators, institutions, regulators, manufacturers, distributors, and strategic partners.
• Serve as a primary commercial contact for prospective clients during the opportunity-development stage.
• Understand client needs and coordinate internal teams to develop appropriate solutions.
• Conduct regular follow-up with clients and partners to strengthen relationships and identify additional opportunities.
• Support client retention, account growth, and cross-selling across Xcene Group services.

Proposals and Commercial Management:

• Lead the preparation of expressions of interest, capability statements, proposals, quotations, requests for information, requests for proposals, and tender submissions.
• Coordinate feasibility assessments, cost estimates, timelines, and operational inputs from relevant departments.
• Maintain proposal trackers and ensure all submissions are accurate, competitive, compliant, and delivered on time.
• Participate in commercial negotiations and support the development of pricing structures, contract terms, and partnership models.
• Work with Legal, Finance, Quality, Regulatory, and Operations teams to ensure agreements are commercially viable and operationally achievable.
• Maintain organized records of proposals, contracts, client communications, and business development activities.

Market Intelligence and Strategy:

• Conduct market research to identify emerging trends, competitors, potential clients, new products, therapeutic opportunities, and industry developments.
• Monitor developments within the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, clinical research, laboratory, diagnostics, and healthcare sectors.
• Develop market-entry and client-acquisition strategies for priority services, products, therapeutic areas, and geographic markets.
• Provide management with regular reports on market opportunities, competitor activity, client needs, and commercial risks.
• Recommend new services, products, partnerships, and markets based on identified opportunities.

Internal Coordination:

• Work closely with operations, clinical research, laboratory, regulatory, quality assurance, finance, marketing, and project management teams.
• Ensure that business commitments made to clients are clearly communicated and can be delivered by the relevant operational teams.
• Facilitate opportunity handover meetings following contract award.
• Monitor the transition of new opportunities from business development to project initiation.
• Support the development of marketing materials, corporate presentations, service brochures, and client-specific capability documents.

Conferences and Corporate Representation:

• Represent Xcene at conferences, exhibitions, investor meetings, industry events, scientific meetings, and networking engagements.
• Coordinate client meetings, site visits, presentations, and corporate capability demonstrations.
• Deliver professional presentations on Xcene’s capabilities, services, products, infrastructure, and regional experience.
• Develop relationships with professional associations, trade organizations, government agencies, and industry stakeholders.

Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree in business administration, marketing, pharmacy, life sciences, public health, biomedical sciences, or a related discipline.
• A master’s degree, MBA, or relevant professional certification is an advantage.
• Minimum of five years of experience in business development, sales, partnerships, account management, or commercial strategy.
• Experience within the pharmaceutical, clinical research, biotechnology, laboratory, diagnostics, healthcare, or life sciences industry is strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated experience developing proposals, managing client relationships, negotiating commercial opportunities, and closing business.
• Proven ability to meet revenue and business development targets.
• Experience working with local and international clients is an advantage.

Required Competencies:

• Strong commercial awareness and business-development capability.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Strong proposal writing and presentation skills.
• Effective negotiation and relationship-management skills.
• Ability to understand technical and scientific service offerings and translate them into clear client solutions.
• Strong analytical, market-research, and strategic-planning skills.
• Ability to manage multiple opportunities and deadlines simultaneously.
• High level of professionalism, integrity, accountability, and confidentiality.
• Ability to work independently while collaborating effectively across departments.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office, customer relationship management systems, proposal trackers, and business reporting tools.
• Willingness to travel locally and internationally when required.

Preferred Personal Attributes:

• Results-oriented and commercially driven.
• Proactive, confident, and persuasive.
• Highly organized and attentive to detail.
• Relationship-focused and client-centered.
• Comfortable engaging senior executives, scientific leaders, regulators, investors, and institutional partners.
• Able to operate effectively in a fast-paced and evolving organization.
• Committed to advancing healthcare, research, pharmaceutical development, and innovation across Africa.

Key Performance Indicators:

• Achievement of agreed revenue and contract-value targets.
• Number and value of qualified opportunities added to the pipeline.
• Number of new clients and strategic partners secured.
• Proposal-to-contract conversion rate.
• Timeliness and quality of proposal and tender submissions.
• Growth of existing client accounts.
• Accuracy and consistency of business development reporting.
• Client retention and satisfaction.
• Number of strategic meetings, presentations, and partnership engagements completed.
• Successful handover of awarded projects to operational teams.