Are you looking for a hybrid role? Are you a strategic thinker with a passion commercial development? Do you have experience in contract negotiation? Do you thrive on building lasting partnerships and income generation? 

Organisation: Royal Air Force Central Fund

Job Title: Commercial Development Manager

Location: Hybrid - working from home and the Fund's offices in Buckinghamshire with some travel

Hours: Part time (minimum of 30 hours) or full time (37.5 hours) per week, weekdays

Salary: Full time - £35,000-£38,000 plus benefits (30 days annual leave plus Bank Holidays, contributable pension, death in service benefit, private health insurance and other health & wellbeing benefits)

About Us

Originally founded more than 100 years ago by RAF personnel, today we are an independent charity that supports the RAF through our grants, programmes, partnerships and properties to ensure personnel can access sport and physical activities at all levels to enhance their time whilst serving. 

About the Role

Working collegiately with stakeholders, the Commercial Development Manager will promote the delivery of commercial benefits to RAF Sport through commercial and charitable income generation, partnerships and procurement. 

Key Responsibilities:

Commercial Income Generation

• To provide proactive account management of existing sponsorship and commercial partner relationships on behalf of RAF Sport.
• To support the RAF Sports Associations to identify and develop their rights offer to potential sponsors and partners and to demonstrate and report ROI for sponsors and partners.
• In collaboration with key stakeholders to define, articulate and value the rights and then bring to market having developed a matrix of sector specific target partnerships.
• To develop and manage a portfolio of centralised RAF Sport assets and rights.
• To manage the sponsorship assets portfolio effectively and efficiently on behalf of RAF Sport to achieve best value.
• To prospect, negotiate and convert new sponsorship and partnership opportunities both within and beyond the defence sector.
• To proactively manage relationships with 3rd party agents to ensure best value for RAF Sport.
• To achieve agreed annual income targets through a combination of proactive generation of new business, and renegotiation of existing contracts and relationships.
• To work closely with the Marketing team to support the growth of the RAF Sport and Central Fund brands within target audiences.

Charitable Income Generation

• To work collegiately and collaboratively with colleagues to develop and implement a plan for diversifying charitable income for the benefit of RAF Sport.
• To work with stakeholders to identify, develop and exploit opportunities to generate income from a range of sources including but not limited to membership subscription models, fundraising and appropriate charitable grants and/or partnerships.

Procurement

• To review existing procurement practice across RAF Sport, identifying opportunities to improve both the value for money and commercial benefit.
• To support the development of efficiencies and economies of scale that bring enhanced value and benefit to RAF Sport.
• To work collegiately and collaboratively with colleagues to develop a plan for a procurement model that increases the efficiency and effectiveness of purchasing throughout RAF Sport.
• To manage contracts effectively and efficiently across all areas of procurement, from tendering to account management to exit as required, to ensure such contracts provide best value for RAF Sport.
• To ensure that RAF Sport procurement is transparent, ethical, and sustainable, and that this can be measured and demonstrated in an auditable manner.

General

• To be an ambassador for RAF Sport, through the demonstration of behaviours aligned to the values of the service.
• To undertake any other reasonable tasks at the request of your line manager.

What You'll Bring:

• Experience of working within a commercial development role
• Demonstrable experience of contract negotiation review and management
• Demonstrable experience of successfully managing an end to end and business to business sales process
• Demonstrable experience of managing a formal procurement process
• An understanding of the sports business landscape
• Ability to manage multiple projects
• Experience in establishing and developing relationships

How to Apply

Please submit your CV and a supporting statement, your supporting statement should evidence how you have the skills and experience required for the role. 

You will be contacted within 10 working days of your application if you have been shortlisted for interview.

Due to the volume of applications, we regret to advise that we will not be able to contact applicants who have not been shortlisted.

We actively welcome applications that will help increase the diversity of our workforce.

Please be aware this advert will remain open until the vacancy has been filled.

Interviews will take place throughout this period, therefore we encourage you to apply early to avoid disappointment.