Business Development Manager

What to know

Help us land our dream clients — and yours. We are seeking a Business Development Manager to join our Partnerships team to provide support to our business development team and help us grow our business. The ideal candidate is an excellent project manager and writer and has demonstrated success supporting sales or account management at an agency, consulting, or communications firm.

You will support the Partnerships team in the pursuit of new business opportunities and help develop and manage a sales pipeline. You will work across the agency and with cross-discipline teams to develop proposals, pitches, presentations, and new scopes of work. You will help draft and project manage these deliverables and support agency thought leadership internally and externally.

This is a rare opportunity to work with a client base that spans nonprofit, advocacy, corporate, and political campaign sectors. If you want to be a part of driving real change in the progressive space, then this might be the position for you.

The company

Blue State is a purpose-driven agency. We partner with leading causes, brands, and campaigns and create real change. From AARP and Doctors Without Borders to Amnesty International and Oxfam, we transform how brands and causes raise money, influence policy, build platforms, and grow communities of supporters. Led by the most creative and analytical minds from the political, nonprofit, and brand worlds, Blue State is an independent agency in the US and London.

A day in the life

Manage the sales process for proposal development, pitches, and outbound efforts: 

• Help the Partnerships team sell Blue State’s offerings and services to brands, nonprofits, advocacy organizations, and progressive political candidates and organizations 


• Project manage and help draft memos, proposals, pitch decks, and related collateral in collaboration with creative, strategy, and technical teams, delivering first-rate materials that target an audience of industry leaders and C-Suite executives


• Provide logistical support and process management throughout the sales lifecycle — from the proposal and pitch process through contracting 


• Lead qualifying calls and discussions with prospective clients in partnership with VPs and SVPs on the Partnerships team


• Effectively communicate and strategize with internal teams to help meet prospective clients’ goals and their organizational objectives throughout the sales process

Help build, manage, and continually develop a sales pipeline to achieve new business targets:

• Work with senior Partnerships leaders to bring in new leads across targeted verticals through traditional and creative approaches to outbound sales


• Conduct research on Blue State leads, prospects, and clients, and clearly communicate findings to senior leadership


• Leverage SalesForce to help manage, track and operationalize the sales pipeline; pull reports and contribute to ongoing business analysis as needed

The team 

The Partnerships team drives Blue State’s growth and agency brand. We are the face of Blue State to prospective clients. We build new and deepen existing client relationships. We help prospects see opportunities more clearly, and we help Blue State understand the challenges our prospects face. We find solutions to complex business challenges. And we work with our colleagues to persuasively articulate creative, strategic, and technical solutions to executives and practitioners alike.

What we offer

• Unlimited time-off (inclusive of sick, personal, and vacation days)


• $1,250 annually in professional development funds


• Competitive health, dental, and vision insurance


• Flexible and health savings accounts


• 401K & employer match


• Generous paid holiday schedule


• 12-week fully-paid parental leave for all parents-to-be


• Short-term and long-term disability insurance


• Pre-tax commuter benefits


• Remote work flexibility

We approach in-office working with a hybrid model. On-site presence is welcome for US staff who are within commuting distance of the NY or DC office. Managers retain discretion to require in-person attendance for folks on their discipline or client teams as necessary, including for those whose roles require them to be in person.

The salary range for this position is $74,750 - $80,000; compensation will be commensurate with experience.

Some things we're looking for

• Minimum of 3-5 years of professional experience, ideally in business development or account/project management within an agency, consulting, or communications firm, or directly comparable experience working within a corporation or institution. Experience working within the nonprofit, advocacy, or brand sectors, or as a vendor or service provider a plus


• Entrepreneurial, self-motivated mentality and ability to mult-task


• Excellent project management, communication, collaboration, problem-solving, and relationship-building skills


• Clear, concise, and engaging business writing skills


• Comfortable working collaboratively in a fast-paced, team-driven environment alongside colleagues with complementary skills and experience


• Comfortable juggling multiple projects with competing deadlines and varying levels of complexity and project requirements  


• Comfortable with a high volume of agency team and client interaction, both in-person and through phone, email, and Zoom 


• Experience with Google Workspace, SalesForce, and other CRMs are a plus


• Impeccable ethical standards and professionalism

At Blue State, diversity is a necessity, not a nice-to-have. We encourage those from underrepresented communities — women, people of color, LGBTQIA+, immigrants, those with disabilities and people at all the intersections in between — to apply. Even if you don’t think your current skill set checks every box, but this role seems to align with your strengths, we want to hear from you.

Blue State is committed to creating an inclusive and accessible application and interview process. If you would like to request a reasonable accommodation for a disability, including the use of AI tools throughout the hiring process, please contact us at [email protected] with the subject line: Accommodation Request to get started.