Business Development Director - Artificial Intelligence

An exciting opportunity for a driven, high potential individual to help develop new business opportunities across Public Sector, Commercial and Healthcare sectors for Kainos plc (LSE:KNOS), one of the UK’s fastest growing technology companies. This is a new business sales role in the AI Practice and includes defining and executing the go-to-market strategy for AI services. 

The business development director role is a senior role in the AI Practice, reporting to the Head of AI and will,  

• Help develop the ‘go-to-market’ strategy for our AI offerings and take responsibility for sales & marketing related activities within the Practice.  

• Manage and take ownership of the sales pipeline, qualifying and prioritising opportunities that will deliver AI sales against target. They will prioritise new business opportunities.  

• Be an individual sales contributor for AI. Manage and reporting on progress against agreed financial targets including sales and pipeline development.  

• Develop strong partnerships, particularly with Microsoft, as a source of new business opportunities.   

• Manage and coach other Business Development team members.  

• Collaborate with existing business development and account teams to sell AI services to our customers and prospects. Contribute to key account planning sessions to ensure data offerings are well promoted and positioned for success. 

• Promote Kainos externally as an AI leader, developing new campaigns and events.  

• Be a critical ambassador for Kainos externally and will embrace and promote the culture, values and behaviours that makes Kainos unique. 

Personal Attributes: 

The right person will be passionate about using data and AI to solve customer challenges, who is a self-starter and is success driven.  They will:  

• Have 5+ years proven success in new business software services sales, having taken accountability for delivering against financial targets.  

• Be proficient at consultant-led selling, capable of engaging with senior customers and prospects to understand business problems. They will understand the AI technology landscape and be able to communicate this to senior customers.  

• Have larger AI deal experience (£3m+). 

• Have experience developing new business offerings.  

• Have experience working in or selling to the commercial sector.  

• Be customer success focused, with proven ability to help customers deliver value from technology.  

• Have a solid understanding of data technology trends and their potential impact on current & future projects.  

• Be a team player, able to collaborate well with other sales, account, data & AI subject matter experts and engineers.  

• Be able to travel to meet customers and to Kainos offices (weekly travel within the UK & Ireland)

• Be highly knowledgeable of the sales process and deal commercials including constructing complex commercial offers. 

• Have a proven track record of delivering against targets (quarterly and annually). 

• Have demonstrable ability to communicate, present and influence credibly and effectively at all levels of the organisation, including executive and C-level. 

• Ability to operate in a highly competitive and pressurised environment, making sensible decisions that don’t compromise Kainos. 

• Have excellent negotiation skills, both from a commercial and contract perspective as well as a proven ability to resolve escalations and diffuse issues. 

• Have excellent networking skills and an ability to generate meetings with new prospects. 

• Have excellent writing and presentation skills – especially the ability to articulate a complex proposition in a concise, clear and compelling way. 

• Have strong leadership and influencing skills – the ability to lead a multi-functional bid team, to influence key Kainos and customer stakeholders.