As our Business Development & Sales Executive, you will:

• Lead opportunity identification and qualification, analysing customer needs, gathering market intelligence, and shaping opportunities across UK Defence.
• Build trusted relationships across the Ministry of Defence, Defence primes, and wider defence ecosystem, ensuring Cervus remains visible, credible, and responsive.
• Support and lead campaign, proposal and bid development, working with internal teams to produce compelling, customer aligned proposals.
• Represent Cervus at industry events, exhibitions, and demonstrations, showcasing our capabilities and generating new leads.
• Drive collaboration across internal teams, ensuring alignment between sales demand, delivery, engineering, and leadership.
• Campaign for product improvement, acting as the voice of current and future customers to guide the evolution of our platforms and services.
• Deliver structured reporting, ensuring accurate CRM usage, pipeline forecasting, and performance tracking.

We’re seeking an experienced, proactive, and commercially minded Business Development & Sales Executive who can drive growth across the UK and international defence markets. You’ll bring proven experience in business development or sales within UK Defence or related sectors, strong relationship‑building skills, and the ability to identify, qualify, and shape new opportunities. You should be comfortable collaborating across technical, delivery, and leadership teams, confident representing the company at industry events, and adept at turning customer challenges into practical, compelling solutions. Strong pipeline management, excellent IT proficiency, and the ability to obtain UK Security Clearance (SC) are essential, while experience in project management, international markets, or data‑driven technologies would be a bonus.

• Experience working with or alongside Defence acquisition, training, experimentation, or innovation communities.
• Proven experience in business development or sales within UK Defence or related government/technology sectors, including both competitive tendering activities and relationship‑led sales engagement.
• Experience managing, forecasting, reporting and delivering a pipeline of sales opportunities.
• Excellent IT proficiency and an appetite for new technologies.
• Ability to analyse and interpret customer challenges and present clear, practical solutions using Cervus’ available products and services.
• Ability to obtain UK level Security Clearance (SC).
• A sense of humour and a positive, collaborative mindset.

• Experience working internationally or with export opportunities.
• Project or programme management experience or accreditation.
• Experience working with analytics, data platforms, simulation, or software enabled systems.
• A full UK driving licence.

• *24 days annual leave, 3 Cervus Closure days plus bank holidays (increasing with service), generous pension, discretionary annual bonus, family private health care, life insurance, flexible working, generous learning and development opportunities and awesome colleagues.

Why join Cervus?

• Cervus is a performance analytics and technology company supporting defence and security organisations to make better decisions, faster. Based in the southwest UK with offices in Bristol and Westbury, we embrace hybrid working, collaboration, curiosity, and continuous improvement.
• Joining our team means contributing to critical projects, working with talented colleagues, and helping shape the future of data-driven capability development.
• The role is typically office based 1–2 days a week and will involve travel in the UK and overseas.

We are committed to creating an inclusive environment where everyone feels valued and supported to thrive. We actively encourage applications from candidates with disabilities and will provide reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process and in the workplace.

CV shortlisting will begin We will review applications on an ongoing basis and will keep the role open until we find the right candidate. If you’re interested, we encourage you to apply as soon as you’re ready..

For further information about the role, or to request reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process, please contact info@cervus.ai

Appropriate security clearance (or the ability to obtain it) is required.