Director, Business Development

About Silverchair

Silverchair is the premier independent platform partner for scholarly and professional publishers, dedicated to expanding the reach of the world’s most valuable knowledge. By connecting creators, publishers, and users, we amplify the impact of scholarship and enhance the accessibility of critical information. Our global teams develop, build, and host websites, online products, and digital libraries for prestigious publishers, including the American Medical Association, MIT Press, and Oxford University Press.

Overview

Reporting to the Chief Business Development Officer (CBDO), the Director of Business Development is responsible for generating new business across all Silverchair products, including ScholarOne. This individual plays a critical role in highlighting the value of Silverchair's solutions to scholarly and professional publishers, engaging prospects through targeted outreach, strategic consultations, and collaborative proposal development.

The Director of Business Development partners closely with colleagues across Business Development and Marketing to identify emerging opportunities, tailor solutions to client needs, and manage the full sales cycle, from initial conversation through contract negotiation and closing.

Key Responsibilities

• Act as an experienced Business Development "hunter," identifying and researching prospective clients and uncovering new sales opportunities by understanding prospect needs and decision-maker dynamics.
• In collaboration with Business Development and Marketing, engage consistently with prospects through virtual and in-person meetings to assess needs, articulate Silverchair’s value proposition, and advance relationships through the sales funnel.
• Partner with the Business Development Solutions Engineer to assemble customer-specific strategic solutions by aligning Silverchair’s offerings to qualified prospect needs.
• Collaborate with the CBDO and Solutions Engineer to develop and deliver customized demos, presentations, and proposals.
• Attend key industry conferences and events (e.g., SSP, STM, Frankfurt Book Fair), scheduling meetings with prospects and participating in sessions to enhance industry and customer insights.
• Acquire and maintain a deep knowledge of Silverchair’s products, systems, methodologies, and services.
• Stay informed of industry-wide technology initiatives and evolving standards that impact Silverchair’s offerings and competitive positioning.
• Maintain professional, cooperative communication with all levels of staff, prospects, and customers.
• Demonstrate proficiency in leveraging Artificial Intelligence tools to streamline workflow efficiency, automate tasks, and extract actionable insights.
• Document all prospect and client interactions accurately in Salesforce and utilize CRM tools to drive and manage actions throughout the sales cycle.

Required Qualifications

Experience

• Strong background in SaaS sales, ideally within the scholarly or professional publishing industry.
• Proven success in consistently achieving annual new logo sales targets.
• Experience owning and managing the full sales cycle, including lead qualification, relationship development, deal structuring, and contract negotiation.
• Experience negotiating complex, multi-stakeholder contracts.

Skills

• Instinctive sales acumen with strong rapport-building and relationship management capabilities.
• Speedy, responsive, and customer-led communication style.
• Understanding of the STM and scholarly publishing ecosystem, key technologies, and market dynamics.
• Ability to strategically manage a diverse portfolio of commercial opportunities and effectively prioritize efforts.
• Strategic sales engagement skills, from initial prospecting through closing negotiations.
• Ability to gather and organize market and prospect intelligence from diverse sources.
• Drive to independently initiate prospect conversations through research and proactive outreach (email, phone, in-person).
• Superior verbal communication, storytelling, and presentation/demo skills.
• Clear, persuasive, and professional writing ability.
• Ability to navigate complex, multi-level stakeholder organizations to reach and engage decision-makers.
• Empathy and creativity in matching solutions to expressed prospect needs.
• Strong team player with excellent interpersonal and collaborative skills.
• Ability to work effectively from a remote office environment.
• Ability and willingness to travel up to 25% of the time.

Preferred Qualifications

• Existing network of decision-maker contacts within the scholarly or professional publishing industry.

Disclosures

Silverchair is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We do not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment based on race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable laws. We are dedicated to ensuring a fair and inclusive hiring process for all candidates.

We encourage applications from individuals of all backgrounds and experiences, and are committed to providing reasonable accommodation for qualified individuals with disabilities in the application and hiring process.

At this time, we cannot sponsor a new applicant for employment authorization for this position.