Commercial Strategy & Business Development Lead

Salary: £58,225 to £61,759 per annum

Newcastle University is a great place to work, with excellent benefits. We have a generous holiday package; plus the opportunity to buy more, great pension schemes and a number of health and wellbeing initiatives to support you.

Closing Date: 26 July 2026

The NIHR Innovation Observatory (IO) is a world-leading health and care innovation horizon scanning research centre based at Newcastle University. Our work supports government agencies, industry, regulators, charities, and researchers by delivering timely, actionable insights that inform strategic decision-making, policy development, investment guidance, funding programs and improve alignment across agencies. We work across the health, life sciences and wider care ecosystem to identify innovation, gaps and unmet needs, follow trends and signal potentially game changing innovations. Our work fosters national and international collaboration supporting the growth of the UK health and life sciences sector, and is a beacon for cross-sector, interdisciplinary training and capacity building in horizon scanning and foresight. We are at the forefront of developing approaches and people to identify and analyse emerging health and care innovations, ensuring the UK is prepared to leverage scientific breakthroughs that improve patient outcomes and support system readiness.

Role Overview

The Commercial Strategy & Business Development Lead is responsible for designing, developing and shaping a sustainable commercial offer for the NIHR Innovation Observatory (IO), operating at the interface between publicly funded research infrastructure, industry and innovation partners.

The role will lead commercial strategy development, market analysis and opportunity identification; building a robust pipeline of commercially viable activity aligned with IO’s mission, capabilities and NIHR/DHSC requirements. Working closely with the Director, the Head of Delivery, the IO Senior Leadership Team (SLT) and University professional services, as well as NIHR colleagues, the post holder will ensure that commercial activity is credible, compliant and value‑adding.

The role is focused on strategic commercial development rather than operational delivery, with approval, assurance and organisational risk management retained by the Director. The post‑holder will develop and recommend the IO’s commercial strategy for approval and, once agreed, support its implementation to maximise impact, public value and long‑term sustainability. In doing so, the role will identify, negotiate and develop new streams of commercial income and contracts, working collaboratively with the Head of Delivery, Operations Manager, University professional services and NIHR to ensure that all activity is appropriately governed and aligned with IO’s mission, values and funding requirements.

This role is a full time, fixed term role available for the duration two years.

Key Accountabilities

Commercial Strategy & Offer Development

• Design and develop IO’s commercial strategy and offer across technical infrastructure, analytical services and capacity‑building activity


• Define viable, scalable commercial models aligned with IO capabilities, market demand and NIHR funding boundaries


• Develop and recommend pricing, costing and delivery models consistent with University financial governance

Market Analysis & Positioning

• Conduct market analysis to identify demand, competitors, opportunities and gaps


• Assess potential routes to market, customer segments and partnership models


• Provide market intelligence to inform organisational planning and investment decisions

Business Development & Partnerships

• Identify, qualify and develop commercial opportunities and partnerships


• Lead commercial negotiations and structuring of proposals, working with Legal, R&E and NIHR IP teams


• Build and maintain a balanced, transparent commercial pipeline

Governance, Risk & Assurance

• Ensure commercial proposals are developed in line with University and NIHR frameworks on IP, contracting, transparency and conflicts of interest


• Identify commercial risks, dependencies and sensitivities and escalate them to the Director and SLT for decision‑making


• Prepare materials to support internal governance and approval processes

Industry Engagement & Representation

• Represent IO in industry‑facing forums and commercial innovation networks


• Work with NIHR Industry Team and relevant NIHR infrastructure to identify opportunities for coordinated, system‑level engagement and shared approaches to industry partnership, consistent with the OneNIHR direction of travel

The Person

Knowledge, Skills and Experience 

• Demonstrable experience in a senior commercial, business development or partnership role, working at the interface between academia, public‑sector organisations and industry, or in a comparable regulated or research‑led environment


• Proven experience designing and developing commercial strategies, products or service offers, including assessing market demand, viability and routes to sustainability


• Strong understanding of market analysis, opportunity identification and pipeline development, with experience translating complex technical or analytical capability into credible commercial propositions


• Experience leading commercial negotiations and developing proposals, pricing models and deal structures, working collaboratively with legal, finance and governance colleagues


• Working knowledge of intellectual property, contracting and governance considerations in a public‑funded or higher‑education context, with the ability to operate within defined institutional and funder frameworks


• Experience managing relationships with commercial, industry or innovation partners, and representing an organisation in industry‑facing forums or networks


• Ability to identify commercial risks, dependencies and trade‑offs, and to present clear options and recommendations to senior decision‑makers


• Strong analytical skills, with the ability to synthesise market intelligence, financial considerations and organisational constraints into clear advice


• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with experience preparing high‑quality materials for senior academic, professional and external audiences


• Experience working with NIHR, UKRI or other major public research funders, or within health, life sciences or data‑enabled innovation settings (Desirable)


• Experience contributing to commercial activity involving data, digital platforms, analytics or technical research infrastructure. (Desirable)

Attributes and Behaviour

• Commercially astute, with a strong understanding of market dynamics, customer needs and partnership development within regulated or public‑sector contexts


• Confident and credible working with industry partners, innovators and commercial organisations, able to build trust and negotiate effectively


• Ability to work with technical and analytical teams to develop clear, viable commercial offers that are understandable and attractive to external partners


• Proactive and self‑directed, able to identify opportunities, develop options and progress commercial initiatives within agreed governance frameworks


• Strong influencing and communication skills, able to articulate commercial opportunities, risks and trade‑offs clearly to senior academic and professional audiences


• Collaborative and collegiate, working effectively with researchers, technical teams, operations and professional services to shape deliverable commercial activity


• Demonstrates sound judgement, integrity and professionalism, with a clear understanding of public‑funding boundaries, conflicts of interest and reputational risk


• Resilient and adaptable, comfortable working in evolving and uncertain environments while maintaining focus on long‑term sustainability and impact

Qualifications

• Educated to degree level or equivalent professional experience, with evidence of ongoing professional development relevant to commercial strategy and business development

Newcastle University is a global University where everyone is treated with dignity and respect.  As a University of Sanctuary, we aim to provide a welcoming place of safety for all, offering opportunities to people fleeing violence and persecution.

We are committed to being a fully inclusive university which actively recruits, supports and retains colleagues from all sectors of society.  We value diversity as well as celebrate, support and thrive on the contributions of all of our employees and the communities they represent.  We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer and encourage applications from individuals who can complement our existing teams, we believe that success is built on having teams whose backgrounds and experiences reflect the diversity of our university and student population.

At Newcastle University we hold a Gold Athena Swan award in recognition of our good employment practices for the advancement of gender equality.  We also hold a Race Equality Charter Bronze award in recognition of our work towards tackling race inequality in higher education REC.  We are a Disability Confident employer and will offer an interview to disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role as part of the offer and interview scheme.

In addition, we are a member of the Euraxess initiative supporting researchers in Europe. 

Requisition ID: 29495