05th August, 2026
Head of Business Development & Strategic Partnerships
Location: Leeds/Manchester (Hybrid)
Salary: £90-100k Excellent Executive Package + Bonus + Benefits
Lead Strategic Partnerships That Shape the Future of UK Business Finance
An exciting opportunity has arisen for an experienced commercial banking leader to join a highly respected financial institution as Head of Business Development & Strategic Partnerships.
Reporting directly to the Chief Development Officer, you'll play a pivotal leadership role in shaping commercial strategy, leading an experienced partnerships team and building long-term relationships with banks, lenders, investors and institutional partners across the UK.
This is far more than a relationship management role. You'll influence strategic direction, help develop new financial products, identify emerging market opportunities and represent the organisation at Executive level with key stakeholders across the financial services sector.
If you're looking for a role with genuine strategic influence, Executive Committee exposure and the opportunity to shape the future direction of a growing organisation, we'd love to hear from you.
The Role
- Leading a team of experienced relationship managers, you'll be responsible for developing and executing the organisation's partnership strategy while identifying and originating new commercial opportunities.
- Working closely with Executive leadership, Product, Investment and Risk teams, you'll ensure commercial partnerships continue to deliver value whilst identifying opportunities for future growth.
- You'll also play a key role in helping shape new products and commercial initiatives by identifying trends across the lending, banking and wider financial services markets.
Key Responsibilities - Lead, mentor and develop a high-performing Strategic Partnerships and Relationship Management team.
- Develop and deliver the organisation's commercial partnership and business development strategy.
- Build and strengthen senior relationships with banks, specialist lenders, institutional investors and financial services partners.
- Identify, originate and negotiate new commercial opportunities and strategic partnerships.
- Work collaboratively across Product, Investment, Commercial and Risk functions to bring new opportunities to market.
- Influence future product development by identifying changing customer needs and market trends.
- Represent the organisation with regulators, government bodies, trade associations and senior industry stakeholders.
- Drive continuous improvement across customer relationship management, reporting and commercial processes.
- Lead strategic projects on behalf of the Chief Development Officer and deputise when required.
- Foster a collaborative, high-performance culture focused on innovation, customer outcomes and continuous improvement.
- About You
- You'll be an accomplished commercial leader with significant experience developing strategic partnerships within financial services
You'll bring: - Senior leadership experience within commercial banking, corporate banking, private credit, specialist lending, structured finance, institutional finance, asset management or wider financial services.
- A strong track record of building and growing strategic commercial partnerships.
- Experience originating complex commercial opportunities and negotiating senior-level transactions.
- A deep understanding of SME, commercial or institutional finance markets.
- Experience influencing Executive stakeholders and leading cross-functional initiatives.
- Strong commercial judgement with the ability to balance growth, customer outcomes and risk.
- A collaborative leadership style with experience coaching and developing high-performing teams.
- Excellent communication, negotiation and stakeholder management skills.
- Experience of structured finance, capital markets, government-backed finance or regulated financial services environments would be advantageous, but is not essential.
Why Join?
This is an opportunity to join an organisation where you'll have genuine influence over commercial strategy, product development and long-term growth.
You'll work alongside an experienced Executive leadership team, lead high-profile strategic partnerships and represent the organisation across the UK financial services market.
In return, you'll benefit from:
Executive-level visibility and influence.
A highly collaborative leadership team.
Hybrid and flexible working.
Competitive salary, bonus and comprehensive benefits package.
The opportunity to shape strategy and drive meaningful commercial impact.
Excellent long-term career progression within a growing organisation.
If you're an experienced commercial banking or financial services leader looking for your next strategic leadership challenge, we'd love to hear from you.
If this sounds like you, apply today or contact us for a confidential discussion.
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