Business Development Manager (Traded Services)

Job Introduction

About Us

Together, we’re the moment makers

Together, we’re shaping children’s education for the future. Every day, our colleagues are helping to transform the lives of the residents of Oxfordshire.

Oxfordshire County Council is committed to delivering educational excellence for our children and young people through continuous and innovative improvements across our educational system. Our ambitious transformation programme, “Delivering the Future Together”, aims to make us an employer, partner, and place shaper of choice. As the sector looks ahead to the biggest structural change in half a century, can your educational leadership expertise contribute to the legacy Oxfordshire County Council delivers for future generations?

As the education sector enters a period of unprecedented change—through national reform, evolving SEND frameworks, and the future direction of local authority involvement—we are creating a new role to help shape and strengthen our traded services and partnerships with schools.

While our traded services have a strong foundation in supporting local authority maintained schools, this role will support the continued development of our offer beyond the maintained sector. This includes building relationships with system leaders, multi-academy trusts and wider education partners, ensuring our services remain relevant, high-quality and responsive to a broader and increasingly diverse school system. Through this, the role will help position Oxfordshire County Council as a trusted partner—offering expertise, insight and value across the whole education landscape, not solely within our statutory footprint.

Alongside national education reform, local government is also undergoing significant structural change. As proposals for local government reorganisation continue to develop, this creates both opportunity and uncertainty for how services are delivered, commissioned and sustained over time. This role will play an important part in helping the council navigate this evolving landscape—ensuring our traded services remain responsive, sustainable and aligned to the needs of schools, while strengthening relationships and positioning Oxfordshire as a trusted and effective partner in a changing system.

About the Role

This is an exciting opportunity to join Oxfordshire as a Business Development Manager, focused on building on our existing traded services offer—primarily serving the education sector—and supporting this to grow sustainably in a changing landscape.

You will play a central role in:

• Strengthening relationships with schools and education partners
• Understanding system need and translating this into service development and improvement
• Identifying opportunities for growth and income generation across traded services
• Supporting the council to respond strategically to national reforms and local priorities

Working closely with service managers, assistant directors and wider services, you will help ensure our offer to schools is coherent, responsive and high-quality—supporting both statutory functions and traded provision. This is not a traditional sales role. It is a strategic, relationship-led post that combines system leadership with commercial awareness, helping the council navigate change while maintaining strong partnerships with schools.

You will:

• Develop and deliver business development and customer engagement plans to support service growth and uptake
• Build strong, trusted relationships with schools, partners and clients, acting as a key point of connection between services and the education system
• Work with services to understand demand, evaluate performance, and shape offers that respond to evolving need
• Identify new opportunities for income generation and service expansion, informed by market insight and system intelligence
• Lead or support development of business cases, proposals and traded service models
• Support integrated working across services, ensuring a coherent and coordinated offer to schools and settings
• Monitor customer satisfaction and use data to support continuous improvement and strategic decision-making
• Contribute to the council’s response to national policy developments, advising on the impact and opportunities in relation to traded services
• Oversee traded service income performance, working with service leads to support budget planning, forecasting and income generation, and providing clear reporting and insight to senior managers to inform strategic decision-making

About you

You will be a commercially minded and relationship-focused professional who enjoys working at the intersection of education, public service and business development. You will have a track record of identifying opportunities, building strong partnerships and translating insight into action. Comfortable influencing at all levels, you will combine strategic thinking with the ability to deliver practical outcomes and manage competing priorities in a complex environment.

We are looking for someone with strong communication and analytical skills, who can build credibility with schools, trusts and partners, whilst using data, market intelligence and customer feedback to drive service improvement and sustainable growth. An understanding of the education sector and the challenges facing local government would be advantageous, alongside a genuine commitment to improving outcomes for children and young people through high-quality services.

Rewards and benefits

• ompetitive salary
• Annual leave starting at 29 days per year (plus bank holidays)
• Access to the Local Government Pension Scheme
• Agile and flexible working
• Employee Assistance programme including access to health and wellbeing support 24/7
• Childcare vouchers, cycle to work scheme, electric car scheme, range of staff discounts including travel, holidays, insurance, food, health and leisure activities

Your office base may be subject to change as we are currently transitioning between temporary and permanent office locations due to the closure of County Hall. If this is applicable to you, you will be notified, but no reimbursement will apply in respect of travel.

Our commitment to:
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

At Oxfordshire County Council we are proud of our diverse workforce. Everyone is accepted for who they are, regardless of age, disability, gender identity, marital status, race, faith or belief, sexual orientation, socioeconomic background, or on maternity or family leave. We have a number of staff network groups which provide peer support, education and safe spaces for all.

Our commitment to:
Guaranteed Interview Schemes

As a Disability Confident employer, we guarantee an interview for disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the job. We also guarantee interviews to care leavers who have completed further education and who meet the essential criteria for the job. For those leaving care without any further education, we guarantee an interview for our apprenticeships. We are also committed to helping and supporting those transitioning from HM Armed Forces to civilian life and guarantee an interview for those demonstrating the essential criteria for the role, within three years of leaving the service.

Our commitment to:
Safeguarding

Oxfordshire County Council are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and adults. We expect all employees, workers and volunteers to share this commitment. We will ensure that all our recruitment and selection practices reflect these commitments.

Our commitment to:
Flexible Working

We are open to discussions about flexible working, which can include flexi-time, full time and part time working, job sharing, nine-day fortnights and annualised hours, depending on the requirements of the role and the service.

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If you encounter any issues with the application system, please contact: schoolimprovement@Oxfordshire.gov.uk