Business Development Senior Director (CX Partnerships)

Senior Business Development Director

Function: Business Development – Customer Experience
Location: UK (London‑centric, hybrid)
Reporting to: Head of Business Development / CX Leadership
Role Type: Senior Hunter | Growth Leader | Strategic Deal‑Maker

Skale 80: Skale is Kantar’s internal job‑level system that shows the scope, impact and seniority of a role.

Why this role exists

Customer Experience is a strategic growth priority — and winning large, high‑impact CX programmes is critical to Kantar’s competitive position.

This Skale 80 Customer Experience Hunter role exists to create, shape, and win big CX opportunities — stealing work from competitors, opening entirely new buying points, leveraging parterships with Qualtrics and Medallia and expanding Kantar’s footprint with senior CX decision‑makers.

This is a front‑line, market‑facing growth leadership role for someone who lives in client conversations, thrives on competition, and knows how to turn ambition into commercially meaningful wins.

Clear commercial impact from going to market with Qualtrics and Medallia — including joint opportunities, shared wins and increased influence within key CX buying groups.

Your mission

• Create net‑new CX pipeline at scale through new logos, competitive displacement, and CX‑led cross‑sell.
• Own the CX STEAL agenda — identifying competitor‑held accounts, nurturing new and existing relationships (using MEDDPICC, your existing black book of contacts), crafting winning strategies, and leading Kantar to victory.
• Be a trusted CX advisor to senior client stakeholders, shaping their experience agenda and positioning Kantar as the partner of choice.

What you’ll do

1. Lead CX hunting at a strategic level

• Act as the senior CX hunter for the UK, accountable for opening doors and winning large, complex CX programmes.
• Proactively target competitor‑held accounts, building tailored STEAL strategies to displace incumbents.
• Use deep market and competitive intelligence to identify whitespace and emerging CX buying points.
• Drive new logo wins while also unlocking significant CX cross‑sell into existing client relationships.

2. Live with clients — face‑to‑face and online

• Spend a significant proportion of time in client offices, building trust, intimacy and influence.
• Lead senior‑level CX conversations with C‑suite and CX, Digital, Marketing and Operations leaders.
• Be highly visible in the market, building your own brand FAME at conferences and events — present, confident, trusted, credible, and unmistakably commercial.

3. Shape and win high‑value CX deals

• Own the end‑to‑end commercial strategy for priority CX opportunities.
• Lead complex discovery, framing CX challenges in terms of business impact (growth, retention, efficiency, loyalty).
• Partner with CX domain experts, analytics, consulting and programme design teams to build compelling, outcome‑led propositions.
• Whilst you won’t be writing proposals, you will stay close to clients through the critical proposal, pitch and negotiation stages — this role does not “hand off and disappear.”
• Work in close partnership with Qualtrics and Medallia to develop and execute joint go‑to‑market strategies, campaigns and priority account plans.
• Shape joint CX propositions and offers that combine Kantar’s insight, consulting and analytics strengths with leading CX platforms.
• Lead senior client conversations where Kantar + platform partnerships create differentiated value versus competitors.
• Act as a confident, credible commercial partner to alliance teams—able to navigate joint pursuits, commercial models, and complex stakeholder environments

4. Own the CX STEAL initiative

• Take clear ownership of CX STEAL targets and execution.
• Build competitor battle plans: positioning, proof points, pricing strategy, and risk mitigation.
• Coach and influence internal teams to think competitively and act decisively in CX pitches.

5. Be a connector and amplifier inside Kantar

• Work closely with Marketing to convert CX thought leadership, campaigns and events into qualified opportunities.
• Partner with Thought Leadership to bring distinctive CX points of view into live client conversations.
• Collaborate with Business Development leadership and domain teams to unlock connected, multi‑solution opportunities.

6. Run a disciplined, high‑quality pipeline

• Own pipeline creation, progression and forecasting for CX hunting activity.
• Be relentlessly CRM compliant — clean data, accurate staging, confident forecasting.
• Balance ambition with realism: strong judgement on where to invest time and energy.

What success looks like

• Material growth in CX pipeline and wins, especially large, strategic programmes.
• Use MEDDPICC/other tools for stakeholder mapping and uplocking opportunities successfully.              
• Leveragine partnerships with key stakeholders from Medallia and Qualtrics.
• Clear evidence of STEAL wins from competitors.
• Strong new logo penetration driven by CX conversations.
• Senior client stakeholders viewing you as a trusted CX advisor, not just a consultative salesperson.
• A visible uplift in Kantar’s CX market presence and credibility.

What you’ll bring

Experience & capability

• Proven track record of winning large, complex CX or consulting‑led deals, including competitive STEAL wins.
• Deep understanding of the CX ecosystem, including platforms, measurement, insight, design and transformation.
• Direct experience working for, with, or against CX platforms such as Qualtrics and/or Medallia, with a strong understanding of how to commercialise joint client opportunities.
• Experience co‑creating go‑to‑market propositions and joint offers with technology or ecosystem partners.
• A black book of senior CX, Digital and Marketing contacts and the confidence to open doors at pace.

Personal attributes

• Client‑obsessed: you prioritise time with clients above all else.
• Bold, proactive and not shy about approaching senior stakeholders.
• Highly credible communicator who can challenge, influence and inspire.
• Commercially sharp, strategically curious, and resilient under pressure.
• A natural relationship builder with long‑term perspective.

Why this role is different

• It is Skale 80 by impact, not just title.
• It combines strategic CX leadership with frontline hunting.
• You will shape how Kantar wins CX work, not just deliver against a target.
• Success here directly influences Kantar’s growth trajectory in CX.
• This Skale 80 Customer Experience Hunter role focus is to create, shape, and win big CX opportunities — stealing work from competitors, opening entirely new buying points, going to market in partnership with CX technology leaders such as Qualtrics and Medallia, and expanding Kantar’s footprint with senior CX decision‑makers.