Business Development Manager (Remote, UK/Europe)

Business Development Manager

Job title: Business Development Manager

Location: Remote (UK or Europe-based)

Salary: £45,000–£90,000 base salary

Contract: Full time

Travel: Extensive international travel required

Eligibility: Applicants must already have the right to work in the UK or an EU/EEA country

About Forge Genetics

Forge Genetics is a growing biotechnology company developing microbial genome engineering technologies and providing R&D services to academic and commercial partners. We currently offer bacterial strain development services, laboratory-scale fermentation, and analytics services.

We help customers by providing a flexible way to outsource R&D, scaling support up or down as needed and delivering practical experimental progress without the overhead of building the full capability in-house. We also have a technical edge in efficiently engineering bacterial strains that are difficult to manipulate, including cases where standard approaches are ineffective or yield low success rates. In addition, our genome editing approach does not require a CRISPR licence, as we use our own proprietary method.

Alongside our services work, we partner with external organisations to apply our proprietary gene editing technology across a broader range of biological systems beyond bacteria. Our laboratories are based at the Biodiscovery Institute, Nottingham, UK.

The role

We are looking for a Business Development Manager to grow Forge’s commercial activity and build long-term relationships with customers and partners. This role is for someone who can identify opportunities, research prospective organisations and contacts, and engage them through highly personalised outreach.

A core part of the role is understanding what success looks like for each customer and ensuring Forge is well placed to deliver real value. You will be expected to learn how potential customers work, what they are trying to achieve, and where their technical and operational constraints sit, then work closely with Forge’s scientific team to shape credible, well-scoped projects that meet those needs.

You will build a strong pipeline through a combination of online outreach and in-person engagement. This includes attending events where you have arranged partnering meetings in advance, exhibiting at conferences, and potentially speaking at events where appropriate.

Key responsibilities

• Becoming technically fluent in Forge’s service offerings and gene editing platform

• Identifying and researching prospective customers and partners and mapping relevant decision-makers

• Initiating contact through personalised outreach and targeted networking to secure qualified meetings

• Learning each prospective customer’s goals, workflows, constraints, and decision process to identify where Forge can deliver value

• Developing and managing a pipeline of opportunities and maintaining accurate records of activity

• Working with scientists to define project scope, timelines, and pricing for proposals

• Supporting commercial discussions and relationship management through to signed work and repeat business

• Representing Forge at conferences and events, including exhibiting and pre-arranged partnering meetings

• Providing market feedback to inform positioning, service development, and partnership strategy

  
  

What we are looking for

Essential:

• A bachelor’s degree (or higher) in a relevant life sciences discipline

• A strong understanding of bacterial genetics

• Experience in business development, sales, account management, or a closely related client-facing role within life sciences

• Clear evidence of proactive prospecting and winning new opportunities through targeted outreach

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills

• Willingness to travel internationally extensively

• Right to work in the UK or an EU/EEA country

Desirable:

• Experience selling or scoping contract research or scientific services

• Experience exhibiting at conferences or managing conference-based lead generation

• Familiarity with CRM systems and structured pipeline management

How to apply

Please send a CV to hr@forgegenetics.com with the subject line Forge Genetics BDM Application.