Business Development Manager

Role overview

As a BD Lead for Core Brands at GoPlaces, you will own the end-to-end business development cycle for our core brand portfolio. You will be responsible for identifying, cultivating, and closing new brand partnerships, taking prospects from first conversation through to signed contract. Working closely with our Revenue Operations function, you will build commercially rigorous proposals and ensure every deal is structured to deliver profitable growth for both GoPlaces and the brand. You will represent GoPlaces externally at category-specific events and briefings, and internally you will be a key voice in shaping our go-to-market approach for the core brand segment. You will need to be comfortable operating with a high degree of autonomy, managing your own pipeline, and proactively flagging opportunities or blockers to the Global Head of Commercial.

Core responsibilities

1. Own end-to-end BD for core brands

• Identify, approach, and cultivate prospective brand partners across core brand categories (mainly Beauty and FMCG).
• Manage active pipeline from first contact through to signed contract, maintaining momentum and clear next steps at every stage.
• Build and present commercially accurate proposals in partnership with Revenue Operations.
• Develop a deep understanding of each prospect's brand, product range, and commercial priorities to tailor the GoPlaces proposition.

2. Pipeline management and reporting

• Deliver weekly pipeline updates into the CRM; flag blockers and opportunities to Global Head of Commercial.
• Maintain pipeline hygiene and ensure all activity is logged accurately for commercial dashboards.
• Work closely with the Lead Gen Marketer to convert top-of-funnel leads into qualified opportunities.
• Collaborate with RevOps on deal structuring, opportunity sizing, and commercial modelling.

3. Represent GoPlaces externally

• Attend and represent GoPlaces at category-specific events, briefings, and industry forums.
• Build and maintain a network of brand-side decision-makers and industry contacts.
• Support Global Head of Commercial on enterprise-level pitches where core brand expertise is needed.

Who you are

• Naturally commercial and results-driven. You're someone that would be excited by having ambitious sales targets.
• A confident communicator who can build rapport quickly and present persuasively to brand-side stakeholders.
• Highly organised and disciplined with pipeline management - you don't let deals go cold.
• Comfortable with ambiguity. You're the type of person that would be energised by working on a vague, unstructured problem that no one in the company has thought about before.
• Independent. You're happy to operate without lots of managerial oversight. You know your manager is there whenever you need them for guidance, but you are happy to mostly set the direction for your projects yourself.

Essential qualifications

• 3-5 years' experience across commercial or business development, ideally working in a start up or fast paced company.
• Significant experience owning and managing a sales pipeline end-to-end.
• Experience building and presenting commercial proposals to external stakeholders.
• Strong analytical skills with the ability to interpret financial models and commercial data.

Preferred qualifications

• Existing knowledge, understanding and experience of selling on Social Commerce platforms (primarily TikTok Shop).
• Experience working at a start-up.
• Established network within beauty, wellness, or FMCG brand categories.

What we offer

• Up to £55,000 salary