Overview
We’re looking for a Senior Business Development Officer to join our national Business Development Team. This is an ideal next step for you if you’re an experienced bid writer looking to grow your career in business development, make social impact, and develop your leadership skills. We’d particularly like to hear from people that have experience of writing high-scoring drug and alcohol service bids.
Location: London, Brighton, Manchester or Leeds.
Salary: £43,384.62 − £47,792.23 per year. If you’re based in London, you’ll receive an additional £4,133.14 per year for Inner London Weighting.
Contract: Permanent.
Responsibilities
About the role
Change Grow Live is a health and social care charity. Across the country, we support people to make positive changes in their lives, including around drug and alcohol use, smoking, homelessness and criminal justice.
As a Senior Business Development Officer, you’ll play a lead role in the development and writing of tenders and proposals for a variety of health and social care services. This role offers a great opportunity to learn and develop while using your established skills, and you’ll be encouraged to take on more responsibility as you progress.
This role offers a great opportunity to learn and develop while using your established skills, and you’ll be encouraged to take on more responsibility as you progress, including line management opportunities.
Your day-to-day will include:
- Writing and editing complex and highly weighted bid responses, working to short timeframes
- Project managing the writing of key tenders with support from a Business Development Manager
- Supporting the development of Assistant Business Development Officers and Business Development Officers, with the potential of providing line management
- Working with staff across the organisation and our partners to develop bids that reflect best practice respond to local needs
- Producing and coordinating detailed research for upcoming opportunities, including meeting with subject matter experts, analysing data and collating evidence
- Creating presentations, diagrams and reports
- Participating in and leading reviews of our bid and proposal processes.
About you
We’re looking for candidates with proven experience of writing tenders, proposals or grant applications in health and social care.
You are:
- A highly competent communicator with a successful track record in bid writing, ideally for drug and alcohol treatment or related services
- Experienced in leading smaller bids and proposals
- Able to analyse data and interpret evidence, with good IT and research skills
- Solution-focused, creative and proactive
- Happy to give and receive constructive, challenging feedback
- Collaborative and contribute to a positive culture team
- Ready to work hard to deliver on CGL’s values and mission.
What we offer
You’ll be able to access structured training, development and mentoring as part of a supportive team. There’s a clear progression pathway within the team, from Senior Business Development Officer to Manager, Senior Manager, Deputy Director, and Director. Several of our current Business Development Managers were previously in the Senior Business Development Officer role.
We also offer:
- The option to work from home for some of the week
- Wellbeing support, including an employee assistance programme and an hour each week for wellbeing activities of your choice (find out more here).
We want our workforce to represent the diversity of the people and communities we work with. We pride ourselves on an inclusive and supportive workplace, evidenced through our Investors in People silver status.
We’re happy to consider any reasonable adjustments that you need to be successful. Please let us know in your application or at any stage of the process if you would like to discuss this.
Before you apply
In the application portal, there’s a section called ‘how you meet the criteria for the role’. This is your chance to tell us about why you’re a good fit for this job – we won’t be able to consider your application unless it’s filled in. Please explain how you meet each of the person specification criteria (listed at the end of the job description). Use clear examples of your experience (this link contains some useful guidance). As guidance, written statements should not exceed 1,000 words. You can address multiple criteria together where you think it makes sense.
Interviews will be held 16th – 23rd February 2026 via MS Teams. We’ll also ask shortlisted candidates to complete a written task online during this timeframe, at a time of your choice. We may hold a pre-qualification stage task (e.g. presentation) depending on the number of applicants.
We encourage applications from individuals who may not meet every requirement but are excited about the role. We value lived experience of substance use, homelessness, and/or multiple disadvantages.
We’re a Disability Confident Committed employer. Under our Disability Confident interview scheme, we will offer an interview to disabled candidates where they meet our selection criteria in their application. Some of our roles attract a high volume of applications and in some circumstances where it is not practicable or appropriate, we may limit the number of interviews offered to disabled and non-disabled candidates. Please confirm in the ‘how you meet the criteria for the role’ part of the application if you are applying under this scheme. We will provide reasonable adjustments as needed.
Check the job description and team explainer for more information. Contact Yasmin Gilders to discuss this role further.
What our people say
Holly, Senior Business Development Officer said:
“What are your favourite parts of the job? The amount we learn from bid to bid. No two services are the same and I’m constantly coming across amazing individuals, teams and interventions. Being part of a team that helps share and celebrate great work, and support other services to implement new and exciting initiatives is really rewarding.
How would you describe the team? Helpful, real and full of knowledge. Everyone comes from different backgrounds and is happy to share their skills, knowledge and learning. I’ve never felt like I’ve asked a silly question, and I don’t feel like I must put a on ‘work mask’ every day.
What were your highlights from last year? Becoming a Senior and working across 7 different bids or direct awards last year. It was busy but I learnt so much, made some great connections with people across the organisation and feel excited for 2026.”
Fran, who progressed from this role to Business Development Manager last year:
“How did the role help you progress? The Senior Business Development Officer role sets you up to well to progress into a Business Development Manager role, as you begin to get involved in managing writing teams, reviewing written responses, engaging with Service Managers and Directors in model development and hold line management responsibilities. I was in the Senior Business Development Officer role for just over a year and a half before successfully applying to the Manager role.
How would you describe the team? The Business Development team are incredibly supportive and will give you the opportunity to develop in areas that you’re interested in. My manager supported to me build skills and experience that pushed me out of my comfort zone but enabled me to progress into the Business Development Manager role.
What would you say to someone thinking of applying? Alongside developing your writing skills, this role is a great place to shape your leadership and management skills. If you don’t have line management experience, don’t let this put you off.”
Salary Range (pro rata if part time)
CGL points 39 to 43 (£43,384.61 - £47,792.23)
Interview Date
16/2/2026
Closing Date
8/2/2026
Registered Charity
501 - 1000
Our mission is to help people change the direction of their lives, grow as individuals, and live life to its full potential.
Thank you!
Learning and Development Officer (Aligned to Wales Synod Cymru and West Midlands)
Welsh speaking
Salary: £43,287.00 per annum
Location: Home based but within commutable distance to Wales Synod Cymru District and West Midlands District.
Hours: 35 hours per week
This role is part of the Connexional Team Learning Network, supporting, encouraging, and equipping the Church to live out ‘Our Calling’ through worship, mission, evangelism and discipleship. The Learning Network primarily works with lay and ordained leaders, helping them equip others.
This post contributes to Connexional-wide learning and development initiatives, and is specifically aligned with the Wales Synod Cymru District as the Welsh speaking Learning and Development Officer (LDO) and the new West Midlands District following the merger of the current Birmingham District and the Wolverhampton and Shrewsbury District on 1st September 2025. Wales Synod Cymru is a bilingual District of 16 circuits, including the Welsh language Cymru Circuit which covers the whole of Wales, and the West Midlands District has 20 circuits across Birmingham, Wolverhampton and the Black Country, Worcestershire, Warwickshire, Herefordshire, Shropshire and Staffordshire. Both districts are diverse in terms of population groupings and serve communities in rural, market towns, suburbs and city centre settings.
The Ideal Candidate for This Role
The person best suited for this Learning & Development Officer role will be:
A Passionate and Committed Christian:
- Deeply engaged in their faith and motivated to help churches grow in discipleship, worship, mission and evangelism.
- A member of a church in good standing with Churches Together in Britain and Ireland (or an equivalent organisation).
- Committed to the values of inclusivity, justice, evangelism, and church growth.
A Skilled Educator and Facilitator
- Experienced in learning and development, with transferable skills to a church setting.
- Confident in designing, delivering and evaluating training, both and online and onsite.
- Able to engage adult learners effectively, making theological concepts accessible, and equipping people for vocations within the life of the church.
- A strong theological thinker, able to guide and develop conversations to enable A Methodist Way of Life.
A Strong Communicator and Relationship-Builder
- Able to connect with and inspire people across the church to enable them to serve in their varied communities.
- Skilled in facilitating discussions on vision, mission and growth planning.
- Comfortable using digital tools and online platforms for training and communication.
- Adept at working across cultural and theological contexts, bringing sensitivity and adaptability.
- Proactive in identifying learning and development needs and responding with creative, tailored solutions.
- A fluent Welsh speaker with strong oral and written communication skills in both Welsh and English
A Collaborative Leader
- Capable of working with diverse teams, including ordained and lay church leaders.
- Skilled in planning, organising, and evaluating learning and development initiatives.
- Proactive in identifying training needs and responding with creative, tailored solutions.
- Open to collaborating across Methodist districts and the wider church network.
A Flexible and Self-Motivated Professional
- Comfortable with travel and occasional evening/weekend work.
- Based in the either Wales or the West Midlands, with the ability to travel across both districts as required.
- Organised and self-driven, able to manage multiple projects and responsibilities.
- Creative and adaptable in responding to the changing needs of churches and communities
Our Culture, Values and Benefits
Thank you for considering joining our inclusive and welcoming team that strives for excellence and values employee wellbeing.
We value and support all those who join our team through a positive work-life balance augmented by generous annual leave (plus an extra 3 days over Christmas/New Year), annualised hours and a Wellbeing Adviser service. We offer a generous occupational pension scheme, where the Methodist Church will pay double the employee contribution up to a maximum of 16% employer contribution.
The Methodist Church is an inclusive and supportive employer. We are actively committed to encouraging applications from people of all backgrounds. We welcome applications from people of Black, Asian and other Minority Ethnic groups. We also welcome applications from people living with disabilities. Please note that this is a post which includes Welsh language work for which the ability to speak and write in Welsh to a high standard is essential.
The successful applicant will be required to live either within or close to either District and will be expected to travel extensively across both Districts and beyond for work purposes.
Please note previous applicants need not apply.
Closing date: 2 February 2026 @ 9am
Interviews to take place on:
Tuesday 10th February 2026: First stage telephone interviews, conducted in Welsh, between 1 and 4pm.
Thursday 19th February 2026: Second stage interviews conducted in English and Welsh in Shrewsbury.
The rest of the recruitment process will be conducted in English.
N.B. We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.
Registered Charity
101 - 500
The calling of the Methodist Church is to respond to the gospel of God's love in Christ and to live out its discipleship in worship and mission.
Thank you!
ABOUT US
Women at the Well is a support service for women based in the King’s Cross area of central London. We provide practical support and advocacy to women facing a wide range of disadvantages, and we have a specialism in working with women whose lives have been affected by prostitution and/or sexual exploitation. We are trauma informed, holistic and woman-centred. We deliver our mission through three interconnected services:
1. A women only drop-in service
2. An advocacy service
3. An outreach service
We take referrals from many external partners and while we have a hub-centre in Kings Cross we are a pan-London service. Read more about our work in our impact report.
Women at the Well has supported thousands of women over more than twenty years work in London. We see the complex ways in which women’s inequality, racism, disability and poor health, educational disadvantage, trauma in childhood, migration and the hostile immigration environment can all lead to significant social and economic disadvantages and harm. In our work we meet women who have experienced repeated and extensive abuse, and who are often homeless, living with addictions and/or mental health issues, and in poverty. We see how these women are at high risk of a range of sexually exploitative behaviours including prostitution. As well as providing tailored support, we aim to speak up for the rights of women to live lives free from abuse.
JOB PURPOSE:
The Head of Fundraising & Partnerships will lead the development and delivery of Women at The Well’s fundraising strategy, ensuring we build the sustainable and diverse income base needed to continue supporting women facing extraordinary disadvantage, exploitation and harm. As a senior, hands-on fundraiser, the postholder will take responsibility for income generation across trusts and foundations, individual philanthropy, corporate partnerships and community fundraising, while building the systems, relationships and communications that underpin long-term growth.
Working closely with the CEO—an experienced trusts fundraiser—the postholder will identify opportunities, cultivate relationships, steward supporters, craft compelling cases for support, and drive forward multi-stream fundraising with clarity and purpose. They will coordinate the CEO’s involvement in major fundraising opportunities and act as a strategic partner, ensuring the organisation’s leadership has what they need to secure transformational funding.
This role sits at the heart of a small, values-driven team committed to trauma-informed, women-centred work. The postholder must bring emotional resilience, sound judgement and a deep respect for the dignity and lived experiences of the women who use our service. Regular presence in our King’s Cross centre is important for relationship-building and grounding fundraising work in the mission, though we offer flexibility in working patterns for the right candidate.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.