Senior Business Development Manager
About the Role
Embedded Services is Sage’s newest venture, helping third-party platform embed accounting and payroll technology into their products. This is greenfield business development, defining a completely new go-to-market motion inside Sage. This is your chance to help launch a disruptive embedded accounting offering that puts accounting and payroll capabilities directly into the products small businesses use every day.
As a Business Development Manager, you will play a central role in building this new business by identifying, developing and closing strategic partnerships across the UK. You will work with organisations that serve small businesses, helping them embed payroll into their platforms in a way that creates real value for their customers.
This is a senior individual contributor role where you will own the full partnership lifecycle from identifying and educating prospects, through discovery and co-designing solutions, to commercial agreement and successful deployment. You will focus on both new partnerships and expanding opportunities within existing relationships.
You’ll be part of a growing UK business development team and supported by product and subject matter experts, but this is also a high-ownership, entrepreneurial environment. We are still early in the journey, so you’ll need creativity, determination and strong commercial instincts to build momentum and shape how we go to market.
This role is ideal for someone who understands the payroll needs of small businesses and is excited by the opportunity to build something from the ground up — turning early ideas and conversations into real, launched partnerships that deliver meaningful impact.
Success in this role will be measured by:
- Partnerships signed
- Pipeline created
- Partner-driven revenue growth
At Sage, we believe face to face collaboration drives innovation, so we operate a hybrid model. You’ll work 3 days per week in the office and two days from home.
Key Responsibilities
- Full business development lifecycle: research, segmenting, targeting, outreach, qualifying, discovery, shaping opportunities
- Customer education (getting past assumptions about Sage)
- Feeding insights into product and marketing
- Helping build internal processes and documentation
- Managing long, complex cycles
- Identify vertical SaaS partners
- Show them how embedded accounting would fit their workflow
Must-haves
- 5+ years of sales or business development experience in technology-based services
- Strong knowledge of the payroll needs of UK small businesses
- University degree or relevant profession qualification
- Comfort engaging senior stakeholders
Nice-to-haves
- Exposure to the needs of small businesses, accountants or accountancy
- Experience working in a bank, SaaS company, fintech, or consulting firm
- Cross functional experience (any mix of consulting, engineering, product, marketing, account management, sales, business development)
Your Benefits
- Comprehensive health, dental and vision coverage
- Work away scheme for up to 10 weeks a year
- On-going training and professional development
- Paid 5 days yearly to volunteer through our Sage Foundation
- Flexible work patterns and hybrid working
Function: Product Delivery
Country: United Kingdom
Office Location: Winnersh
Work Place Type: Hybrid
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Working at Sage
Working at Sage means you’re supporting millions of small and medium sized businesses globally with technology to work faster and smarter. We leverage the future of AI, meaning business owners spend less time doing routine tasks, like entering invoices and generating reports, and more time pursuing their ambitions.
Our colleagues are the best of the best. It’s why we were awarded 2024 Best Places to Work by Glassdoor. Because to achieve extraordinary outcomes, we need extraordinary teams. This means infusing Sage with people who knock down barriers, continuously innovate, and want to experience their potential.
Learn more about working at Sage:
sage.com/en-gb/company/careers/working-at-sage/
Watch a video about our culture:
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We celebrate individuality and welcome you to join us if you embrace all backgrounds, identities, beliefs, and ways of working. If you need support applying, reach out at careers@sage.com.
Learn more about DEI at Sage:
sage.com/en-gb/company/careers/diversity-equity-and-inclusion/
