Business Development Manager

About the role

Up Learn is looking for a strategic, hands-on Business Development Manager to lead and deliver our GCSE and incremental new business growth at a critical stage in the company’s expansion. This role is designed to add senior selling capacity, protect execution quality, and ensure we capitalise on the significant GCSE opportunity without compromising existing revenue streams.

You’ll take predominant ownership of GCSE sales activity while also operating as a senior individual contributor across new business and MAT-level deals. The role blends leadership, strategy, and frontline selling and will suit someone who thrives in complex, relationship-led sales environments.

This role reports directly into the Head of Sales, also working closely with the Chief Revenue Officer.

This is an ideal role for a commercially sharp sales leader who enjoys closing deals, shaping go-to-market strategy, and acting as a role model for high performance in a mission-driven EdTech company.

About us

At Up Learn, we’ve built one of the world’s most effective learning experiences by combining cognitive science, instructional theory, and artificial intelligence. Our mission is to give every learner the most effective path to success, and vision a world where every learner achieves more, faster, through adaptive, mastery-based learning.

We’re the market-leading platform for A Levels, with seven courses on offer and 1 in 3 A Level students using Up Learn. Over the next year, we’re launching GCSE Science and accelerating growth, expanding our impact to millions more students.

Our results speak for themselves: 97% of students who complete our courses achieve an A*/A, even those who started with lower grades. And a large-scale evaluation of Up Learn in schools found usage is associated with 9 months additional progress, with grade improvements across whole year groups.

And for every paying student, we provide a full scholarship to a student in need - ensuring high-quality education is accessible to all.

About you

You are a high-performing, commercially driven sales professional with a strong track record of closing complex new business and leading by example. You’re comfortable operating at pace in a high-utilisation sales environment, and you bring a thoughtful, structured approach to qualification, pipeline management, and deal progression.

You enjoy getting into the detail of deals, working closely with multiple stakeholders, and navigating longer, more governed buying processes. You’re also someone others naturally learn from - whether through informal mentoring or more formal leadership - and you care deeply about execution quality and predictability.

Key Responsibilities

Sales Strategy & Leadership:

• Take predominant ownership of GCSE sales activity, shaping and executing the GCSE go-to-market strategy alongside the Head of Sales
• Act as a senior role model within the sales team, demonstrating excellence in deal execution, qualification, and pipeline management
• Provide informal mentoring and selective line management support to junior team members
• Work closely with Marketing, Product, Customer Success, and Data to ensure cross-functional alignment and GCSE readiness

New Business & GCSE Growth:

• Lead new customer acquisition for GCSE, managing complex, multi-stakeholder sales cycles
• Absorb and convert incremental new business demand that cannot be sustainably managed by the existing team
• Ensure GCSE opportunities receive sufficient time, depth, and strategic focus to maximise conversion
• Help refine value propositions, sales materials, and objection handling for a newer, more competitive product category

MAT & Complex Deal Ownership:

• Own and close MAT-level opportunities, including both inbound and self-generated leads
• Navigate centralised procurement, governance requirements, and longer decision cycles
• Build strong relationships with senior school and trust leaders, acting as a trusted commercial partner

Existing Business & Renewals:

• Be able to additionally manage sales at A Level, protecting and growing existing revenue streams
• Identify and execute GCSE upsell opportunities within existing partner schools
• Balance new business and existing business priorities to maintain revenue predictability

Pipeline, Performance & Execution Quality:

• Improve qualification depth and pipeline signal across new business opportunities
• Maintain accurate forecasting and CRM hygiene to support revenue planning
• Protect team-wide performance by improving time-per-deal and reducing capacity strain

Requirements

Essential:

• 5+ years’ experience in B2B sales, with a strong track record in complex or consultative sales environments
• Proven success closing new business with long or multi-stakeholder sales cycles
• Experience selling into schools, MATs, or similarly governed public-sector environments
• Strong commercial judgement and ability to prioritise effectively in high-volume pipelines
• Comfortable operating as both a senior individual contributor and a people leader
• Excellent communication and relationship-building skills
• Data-driven approach to pipeline management, forecasting, and performance
• Experience using CRM systems (HubSpot preferred)

Bonus / nice to have:

• Experience selling EdTech or SaaS products
• Prior involvement in launching or scaling a new product or market
• Understanding of the UK secondary education landscape, particularly GCSEs
• Experience mentoring or line-managing sales team members

Benefits

We provide a great set of benefits that all focus on helping Up Learn team members lead healthy and fulfilling lives.

Working at Up Learn gives you:

🤸‍♂️ Awesome colleagues! We’ve put together a cracking team, and now you’re part of it you’ll shape the future of it

💚 Meaningful, fulfilling and engaging work that has an immediate positive impact on tens of thousands of students and the potential to impact millions of students

🧠 The opportunity to build the future of education and accelerate humanity’s ability to learn

💪 Tons of opportunities to learn and develop a wide range of skills

🏠 Up Learn supports a hybrid working environment with a minimum of two days in the office per week (one team day and one company day) and the rest is up to you!

Key benefits:

💰 A competitive salary + bonus package

📈 Meaningful stake in the company’s growth and success (equity share options)

🌴 ~35 days of paid holiday per year made up of: 26 days of bookable holiday, plus bank holidays, plus unlimited ‘extra days’ (i.e. if you need a few more days, no problem)

🐤 Significantly enhanced parental leave

🦷 Level 6 (highest level) dental insurance

☕ Paid-for coffee breaks (a great chance to get to know the team)

🏃 Monthly & quarterly paid-for socials and quality time with your work colleagues as well as an in-office shower room to make sporting activities easier to join

⭐ A spacious and bright private office in Old Street, with delicious coffee, a selection of teas and unlimited snacks and drinks

🚲 Cycle-to-Work: we are registered so you can buy a bike and accessories tax-free

📖 Unlimited budget for any work-related books you need

👨‍👩‍👧 Family access to Up Learn: your family and close relatives get unlimited access to any Up Learn course for free!

Our core values:

🫶 CARE: Put people and mission first. Celebrate success together.

✅ OWN: Take responsibility. Step up. Transparently own outcomes.

💡 LEARN: Live for learning. Seek feedback. Turn challenges into opportunities.

🚀 ACT: Prioritise progress. Challenge what’s possible. Move the needle.