About The Role

You will be a senior leader within CDP accountable for identifying, shaping, and driving commercial success in high-potential emerging markets. Using your strategic insight, and cross-functional influence, you will define and execute market-entry and market-growth strategies aligned to CDP’s long-term strategy.  It’s also a ‘hands on’ role where you will be actively engaged in the sales journey including lead generation and nurture.

As a leader, you will collaborate across sectors, service offers, and business development teams to build and convert a pipeline of new opportunities, establishing CDP’s presence, credibility, and commercial traction in markets poised for growth.

This is a highly commercial role requiring a balance of strategic foresight, opportunity creation, and operational rigour. You will champion emerging markets across CDP and act as a senior representative externally — building partnerships, identifying anchor clients, and securing meaningful new business.

Job Duties and Responsibilities:

Market Strategy & Growth

  • Define and execute CDP’s strategy for emerging markets, aligned with corporate strategy and long-term growth priorities.
  • Maintain up-to-date market intelligence to identify high-potential regions, sub-sectors, and client ecosystems.
  • Build commercially robust business cases for expansion or investment.
  • Own emerging-market sales forecasts, budgets, and KPIs, reporting to the CISO.

Commercial Leadership

  • Be accountable for profitable revenue growth across selected emerging markets.
  • Develop and deliver strategic market-entry plans and longer-term commercial strategies.
  • Build the pipeline through your own lead generation and nurture activities
  • Manage a pipeline of new opportunities, using CRM to provide accurate forecasting and performance reporting.
  • Strategically select and win new business, collaborating closely with BDLs, client managers, and Sector Leaders.

External Engagement & Partnership Development

  • Represent CDP externally as a senior leader, attending and speaking at conferences, industry events, and partner forums in key territories.
  • Develop relationships with potential anchor clients, funding bodies and influential stakeholders.
  • Identify and establish strategic partnerships that unlock market access or accelerate capability building.

Cross-Organisational Collaboration

  • Work closely with Sector Leaders to align emerging-market opportunities with sector propositions and delivery strengths.
  • Collaborate with Service Offer Leaders to ensure CDP’s technical capabilities, processes, and resources align with market needs.
  • Support talent development to build relevant market expertise.

Project Oversight & Delivery Insight

  • Monitor the performance of projects originating from emerging-market opportunities, ensuring quality, customer satisfaction, and profitability.
  • Provide escalation, remediation, and guidance for systematic issues arising in new-to-firm client engagements or geographically new deliveries.

Continuous Improvement & Leadership

  • Identify areas for improvement in CDP’s approach to emerging markets and collaborate with business support teams to implement change.
  • Promote teamwork, collaboration, and transparency within the emerging markets remit and across the business.
  • Mentor and support CDP colleagues to build organisational Service offers in new markets.

About You

Experience and Education:
  • Degree educated or equivalent. 
  • Significant experience developing strategy or commercial propositions in new markets. 
  • Strong relationships with senior stakeholders in relevant sectors or geographies. 
  • Demonstrable track record of successfully developing growth opportunities > £1M pa. 
  • Experience working in matrix teams within a consulting or innovation environment. 
Skills and Attributes:

Essential 

  • Extensive experience in market development, international expansion, or commercial strategy. 
  • Strong track record in identifying, developing, and winning new business in complex or emerging markets. 
  • Excellent sales, communication, and stakeholder-management skills. 
  • Strong analytical ability aligned with strategic narrative-building. 
  • Expertise in CRM tools and forecasting methodologies. 
  • Collaborative, adaptable, and confident in rapidly changing environments. 
  • Demonstrable experience leading or influencing cross-functional teams. 

 Desirable 

  •  Experience working in consultancy or innovation-led organisations. 
  •  Multilingual or multinational experience relevant to target markets. 
  •  Established network within innovation, design, or technology ecosystems. 

About Us

Cambridge Design Partnership (CDP) is an end-to-end innovation partner, propelling global brands and ambitious start-ups to success. We build breakthrough products and services – from insight to ideas, prototypes to production – bringing innovation to life. Our teams are multi-disciplinary, uniting scientific rigor, design ingenuity, and engineering excellence for consumer and healthcare clients. People-centred, deeply collaborative, and – above all – expert, we’re uniquely positioned to shape the future for consumers, patients, and industry. Even our ownership model is innovative: We’re 100% owned by our employees, ensuring an open culture and a total commitment to our projects’ success. As part of our benefits package, we offer:

  • flexible working
  • a discretionary bonus
  • excellent learning and development opportunities
  • a 12% non-contributory pension
  • private healthcare
  • electric vehicle lease salary sacrifice scheme
  • share incentive plan
  • 33 days holiday inclusive of bank holidays