Senior Manager - Commercial Development

Overview

In this role, you will build and manage a high‑quality commercial development pipeline for Football Development, partnering with the Head of Sales and club colleagues to drive sustainable revenue growth in the UK and internationally. You will assess opportunities, develop robust proposals, and provide insight and tools to support strategic commercial decisions. The role combines market intelligence, pricing and financial modelling, and cross‑functional collaboration to scale the club’s commercial impact. You will help shape a consistent, scalable commercial approach in a dynamic environment.

Responsibilities

• Build, maintain and manage the commercial pipeline with clear recording, assessment, prioritisation, and forecasting
• Apply a consistent qualification process to opportunities across channels to focus on high‑potential leads
• Lead commercial due diligence on prospective partners against set criteria (commercial, operational, legal, regulatory, safeguarding)
• Produce market intelligence for priority markets (size, competition, pricing, operator landscape, regulatory routes to entry)
• Develop pricing and financial models for licences, direct operations and B2B opportunities, test assumptions with Finance
• Maintain a register of Football Development’s commercial assets and communicate inventory across teams
• Prepare high‑quality proposals, business cases, partner materials, and supporting documentation for approvals and discussions
• Provide regular reporting on pipeline value, quality, conversion, sales cycle, and market coverage
• Develop and improve templates, processes, controls and guidance for a consistent, scalable approach
• Build relationships across Football Development and broader Club (Commercial, Finance, Legal, Strategy, Brand, Safeguarding)
• Undertake additional responsibilities to support evolving priorities of Chelsea FC

Key requirements

• Experience of building and managing a commercial, sales or business development pipeline with qualification and forecast accuracy
• Strong research and analytical skills to assess unfamiliar markets and turn evidence into recommendations
• Commercial and financial capability including pricing models, business cases or deal scenarios, with clear explanations of assumptions
• Sound judgement and a disciplined approach to assessing opportunity, value and risk
• Excellent written and verbal communication for senior stakeholders and external partners
• Strong organisation and attention to detail with ability to manage multiple priorities and maintain records
• Collaborative approach and ability to build cross‑team relationships
• Comfortable working in a developing environment and creating practical processes/tools where absent

• collaborative mindset
• clear communication
• attention to detail
• pipeline management and forecasting
• commercial due diligence
• market research and intelligence

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