Business Development Program Manager Jobs in Raleigh, NC

About Ascendient
Ascendient is a boutique healthcare consulting firm. We serve clients across more than 30 states through three divisions: Regulatory, Strategy, and Public Health. We are a close-knit, high-performing team that values quality, expertise, and making a meaningful impact on healthcare delivery.
About the Role
Ascendient is seeking a Business Development Manager to drive lead generation and build a sustainable pipeline across the firm's three divisions: Strategy, Regulatory, and Public Health. This is a high-activity, outbound-focused role for a self-starter with a hunter mentality. We're looking for someone who finds energy in prospecting, engaging prospects, and moving opportunities forward, who treats AI as a core operating system.
This role sits at the front of Ascendient's revenue engine. The Business Development Manager owns lead generation and outbound prospecting, manages the early stages of the sales pipeline in HubSpot, and ensures that qualified opportunities are consistently surfaced for division leader follow-up. The role also provides targeted business development support-including proposal writing, pitch collateral, and conference follow-through-and takes on select marketing execution tasks (email campaigns and nurture sequences, LinkedIn, blogs, and CRM management) that directly feed pipeline activity.
The ability to say the right thing to the right audience in the right format is the throughline of this role. Strong messaging is what makes outreach land, proposals persuade, and content convert. The approximate time allocation for this role is 65% lead generation and business development and 35% marketing execution and BD enablement, though this will flex with firm priorities.
AI fluency is a requirement. Specifically, we expect hands-on experience with large language models like Claude or ChatGPT integrated into daily work. This person should treat AI as a co-worker: delegating research, accelerating drafts, stress-testing outreach, and finding faster paths to quality output. We are less concerned with whether you've used every tool on the market and more interested in whether you have the instincts and confidence to figure out a tool you haven't.
One more thing worth saying directly: Ascendient has not had a dedicated business development function before. We have strong client relationships, a clear sense of who we serve, and a team that is deeply committed to growing the firm, but we do not have a fully built business development playbook. The right candidate will understand and embrace this. You will play a key role in determining how this function is built - the tools, the process, the metrics, and the workflow between business development and the division leads. We want a partner in figuring it out and won't have all the answers on day one.
Key Responsibilities
Lead Generation & Outbound Prospecting (~35%)

• Own the top of the funnel: research, identify, and qualify target organizations and contacts across the firm's service lines and geographies using available LinkedIn, public datasets and healthcare market data, and AI-assisted research tools.
• Execute multi-channel, hyper-personalized, and hyper-targeted outbound outreach campaigns (email sequences, LinkedIn, conference follow-up) to engage prospects at health systems, hospitals, state agencies, and public health departments.
• Develop and maintain a prioritized prospect list by division, continuously updated based on market signals, trigger events, firm strategy, and partner direction.
• Qualify inbound and outbound leads and move them through the early pipeline stages-booking introductory calls, facilitating warm handoffs to division leads, and ensuring no opportunity falls through the cracks.
• Use Clay, HubSpot Sequences, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, and similar tools to systematize and scale outreach without sacrificing personalization.
• Monitor and report on lead generation metrics weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annually as defined by leadership, such as contacts added, MQLs and SQLs created, Deals created, emails sent, response rates, meetings booked, and pipeline contribution.

CRM & Pipeline Management (~15%)

• Own HubSpot as the system of record for all lead gen and early BD activity: log all outreach, update contact and deal records in real time, and maintain data hygiene across the pipeline.
• Build and maintain HubSpot reports and dashboards that give leadership real-time visibility into pipeline health, lead volume, outreach activity, and conversion rates.
• Proactively identify gaps in pipeline coverage and surface them to division leads with context and a recommended course of action.
• Serve as a HubSpot resource for the broader team, supporting consistent and accurate CRM usage across the firm.

Proposal & RFP Support (~25%)

• Develop and maintain a process for monitoring public sources for issuance of relevant Requests for Proposals (RFPs) and Requests for Qualifications (RFQs).
• Draft responses to RFPs and RFQs, tailoring language and structure to specific client needs and evaluation criteria.
• Write proposals, letters of interest, and capability statements that position Ascendient compellingly against competitors.
• Develop and maintain a proposal content library with reusable sections (firm overview, team bios, past performance, methodology) to accelerate response times.
• Coordinate proposal timelines, gather input from division leads and subject matter experts, and ensure all submissions meet deadlines and formatting requirements.
• Track win/loss outcomes and incorporate feedback to continuously improve proposal quality. Initiate and manage FOIA requests for government RFP submissions.

Marketing Execution & BD Enablement (~15%)

• Execute HubSpot email marketing campaigns targeting prospect and lead segments-including list building, template creation, and performance tracking-with the goal of generating qualified conversations, not just opens.
• Build strategy for and execute email nurture sequences for defined HubSpot segments, with branded visual alignment, and performance reporting tied to audience engagement.
• Expand Ascendient's brand awareness with content geared toward increasing visibility in organic search. Use SEO and AEO/GEO results improvement strategies to create at least two blog posts per month for each defined audience segment, with target keywords.
• Draft and schedule LinkedIn content for the firm and key leaders' profiles; engage proactively with target accounts and prospects through comments and DMs.
• Maintain and update sales collateral (firm overview decks, service line summaries, team bios) so materials are always current and ready to deploy.
• Coordinate with the thought leadership writer to ensure content is published on schedule and actively syndicated across channels for lead generation purposes.

Conference & Industry Presence (~5%)

• Research and maintain a conference calendar, identifying events where Ascendient's presence would generate qualified pipeline (not just visibility).
• Coordinate logistics for conference participation: registration, booth setup, collateral, and attendee scheduling.
• Evaluate speaking, sponsorship, and partnership opportunities through a lead generation lens-would this generate qualified leads or direct client conversations?
• Support post-conference follow-up: enter contacts into HubSpot, execute follow-up outreach sequences, and coordinate next steps with division leads

General (~5%)

• Stay current on healthcare and public health market trends, procurement activity, and competitor positioning to sharpen targeting and messaging.
• Leverage AI tools across all responsibilities-prospecting research, outreach personalization, proposal drafting, data enrichment-to maximize output per hour.
• Support other business development and operations initiatives as needed.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in a business development, sales, or lead generation role in professional services, consulting, or B2B healthcare, selling to health systems, hospitals, state health agencies, or public health departments.

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Marketing, Communications, or a related field.
• Demonstrated track record of owning a pipeline and generating qualified leads through outbound activity, not just responding to inbound requests.
• Exceptional written communication skills with a demonstrated ability to craft compelling, audience-specific messaging - outreach emails, BD collateral, LinkedIn content, and nurture sequences - that moves people toward a conversation.
• Hands-on HubSpot or other CRM experience: contact management, deal tracking, sequences, dashboards, and reporting.
• Hands-on experience with large language models (e.g., Claude, ChatGPT) integrated into real work. Treats AI as a co-worker. Comfortable figuring out new tools independently; does not need a fully built stack to get started.
• Strong organizational skills and the ability to manage a high volume of simultaneous outreach threads without losing track of follow-ups.
• Self-directed and comfortable operating independently in a small, fast-moving team environment.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite (Word, PowerPoint, Excel).
• Working knowledge of SEO and AEO principles and basic digital marketing concepts.
• Familiarity with RFP/proposal writing in a B2B or government procurement context.
• Familiarity with prospecting and enrichment platforms (e.g., LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Clay, ZoomInfo) is preferred. Comfort learning new tools quickly matters more than prior experience with any specific one.

Key Competencies
Hunter Mentality: Pursues leads proactively and persistently. Doesn't wait for the phone to ring. Comfortable with outbound rejection and views it as a numbers game instead of a personal setback.
Builder Mentality: Comfortable operating without a fully defined playbook. Understands that in a first-of-its-kind role, building the system is part of the job - and finds that energizing rather than unsettling. Brings structure to ambiguity rather than waiting for it to be provided.
Pipeline Discipline: Keeps CRM records accurate and up to date without being asked. Understands that a clean pipeline is a competitive advantage.
Messaging & Persuasion: Understands that the quality of communication is what separates a firm that gets meetings from one that doesn't. Can shift register fluently - from a crisp prospecting email to a structured RFP response to a punchy LinkedIn post - while keeping the core message sharp and audience-specific. Writes to move people to action, not just to inform them. This is the throughline of both the sales and marketing functions in this role.
Relationship Intelligence: Understands the nuance of a long B2B sales cycle in a relationship-driven industry. Knows when to push and when to nurture.
Resourcefulness: Figures things out. Uses available tools-including AI-creatively and efficiently to punch above their weight.
Curiosity About the Space: Genuinely interested in healthcare, public health, and policy. Can hold an intelligent conversation with a hospital CEO or a state health officer about why Ascendient's work matters.
Hiring Process Note
Given the writing-intensive nature of this role, candidates will be asked to submit writing samples and may be asked to complete a brief exercise that combines prospecting research with outreach drafting. Samples should demonstrate range: at least one example of persuasive or proposal writing, and at least one example of outbound or sales-oriented communication. If you've used AI tools in your work, we'd love to see that reflected. We're looking for strong instincts and a growth mindset.
Compensation & Benefits
$70,000 - $75,000 base salary, plus quarterly incentives tied to performance targets, with total on-target earnings of $93,000 - $100,000 per year.
Benefits and Perks:

• Remote - work from anywhere in the U.S. but must be available to work during the firm's core working hours of 8:30 - 5:30pm EST

• 3 weeks of paid time off
• 10 paid holidays
• 401(k) with dollar-for-dollar matching up to 4% of base salary
• Medical and dental insurance
• Life and disability insurance