Business Development Strategy Director

OVERVIEW

The Business Development - Strategy Director plays a critical role in driving top priority initiatives and advancing strategies across the Health Research Segment within WK Health. This role will lead and facilitate operational programs and projects with direct impact on company revenue and segment KPIs.

This role will also focus on specific strategic projects and endeavors that require additional expertise and analysis. This position works under consultative capacity with a focus towards long-range goals and objectives. This position provides leadership to senior managers and high-level professionals without appreciable direction.

This role will work with the SVP & GM, Health Research Segment to:

• Partner with the GM and leadership team to define the long-term strategy and growth agenda for Health Research, including where to compete, how to win, portfolio priorities, investment choices and new growth platforms.
• Define, establish and lead segment programs and projects that accelerate operational performance, revenue acquisition, reveal actionable client and market insights, advance key initiatives, manage select market-facing engagements, and support segment reporting.
• Identify new opportunities that drive organic growth by understanding customer needs, market trends and relative levels of internal business headroom.
• Assess external market developments relative to existing lines-of-business, including portfolio gap analysis, market structure, competitive dynamics, and generating insights that directly feed the strategic planning process.
• Assess technology developments, including emerging AI capabilities and their implications for portfolio priorities and potential build, buy or partner decisions.
• Collaborate across Wolters Kluwer, such as Product and Customer Success, and other functional areas, to define and lead select initiatives and go-to-market efforts.
• Serve as a strategic thought partner to Health Research leaders, bringing an enterprise-wide perspective to product, publishing, commercial, advertising, innovation and inorganic growth priorities while respecting functional ownership of strategy and execution.
• Move fluidly between long-range strategy and near-term business priorities, translating market, customer, financial and operating insights into clear choices, actions and executive-level narratives.

Success will require strong project management skills, a strong bias for action, analytical thinking, consulting-style communication skills, and strong stakeholder influence and collaboration. The ideal candidate also demonstrates strong business judgment and executive-level storytelling, with the ability to distill complex business performance, market developments and strategic questions into the few insights, choices and actions that matter most.

DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES

• Ensures the execution of all strategic initiatives, leading to successful achievement of business operating and revenue goals.
• Lead selected high-priority, cross-functional strategic initiatives on behalf of the GM where success requires coordination across multiple functions and no single functional leader can independently deliver the outcome.
• Partner with functional leaders to operationalize segment initiatives and ensure product strategy, messaging, and product marketing aligns with Health Research segment strategy.
• Manage ongoing dashboard of strategic initiatives and key performance indicators (KPIs).
• Work with the GM and leadership team to synthesize business performance, strategic progress, risks, opportunities and forward-looking priorities into a clear executive narrative for MoR, VSP, MDM and other senior leadership forums.
• Manage and facilitate team operating mechanisms in partnership with segment leadership, Sales Operations and Customer Success.
• Assist segment leadership, in partnership with Sales Operations, to optimize sales effectiveness, growth opportunities, and major commercial choices
• Assist segment leadership, in partnership with Product, to manage market-facing innovation engagements and early adopter programs.
• Assist segment leadership, in partnership with Content Operations , to manage content development and innovation engagements.
• Analyze financial data as well as customer purchasing data to structure key business issues related to segment planning and identification of new growth opportunities.
• Recommend and optimize appropriate level of functional treatment for various initiatives based on sales growth targets and financial / investment parameters for WK Health.
• Partner with business and strategy leaders to identify, assess and advance M&A, partnership and investment opportunities aligned with the Health Research strategy; evaluate strategic fit and value-creation potential, help prioritize opportunities, develop business cases, and help move high-potential candidates from concept through evaluation and execution with the appropriate Wolters Kluwer stakeholders.
• Manage and develop segmentation strategies for the business to enable initiatives such as segment growth, sales acceleration programs, portfolio management, new product development etc.

QUALIFICATIONS

Education: BS/BA Degree or equivalent relevant experience; MBA preferred

Experience:

• 8+ years of experience leading, supporting and advancing business strategy, business operations, and / or program management.
• 6+ years of senior level experience in consulting and strategy at a top firm or major corporation, preferably with experience in a professional services or software company.
• Relevant operating experience - in addition to strategy experience - across two or more areas such as product, commercial/sales, publishing, business development, partnerships, M&A strongly preferred.
• Experience in scientific/medical publishing, life sciences, information services, research or healthcare technology, SaaS or adjacent knowledge businesses strongly preferred.
• Strong oral and written communication skills with an ability to deliver a compelling case for strategic cross-organization and Go to Market programs
• Proven complex financial analysis background and experience with data analysis, financial modeling and new product business case development.
• In addition to strong consulting capability, bring a strategic and operator mindset - able to extract insights from complex or limited information, form an independent point of view, make recommendations and help drive execution.
• Demonstrated experience understanding internal customer and executive stakeholder needs, and business trends, and successfully translating into business and program plans
• Demonstrated ability to move between long-term strategic questions and near-term executive decision support - from shaping a 3-5 year growth agenda to synthesizing the few insights, decisions and actions that matter.
• Strong analytical mindset, relationship development, and collaboration across business functions including segment, sales, finance, product, marketing, customer success and legal, among other operating teams that support commercial execution and success.
• Comfort with ambiguity and pivoting priorities.

Other Knowledge, Skills, Abilities or Certifications:

• Personal and consultative approach
• Very strong interpersonal and organizational skills
• Expertise in Microsoft product suite and Salesforce preferred

TRAVEL: Ability to travel up to 25% -- travel requirements are variable based on supporting team needs and events

#LI-Hybrid

Our Interview Practices

To maintain a fair and genuine hiring process, we kindly ask that all candidates participate in interviews without the assistance of AI tools or external prompts. Our interview process is designed to assess your individual skills, experiences, and communication style. We value authenticity and want to ensure we’re getting to know you—not a digital assistant. To help maintain this integrity, we ask to remove virtual backgrounds and include in-person interviews in our hiring process. Please note that use of AI-generated responses or third-party support during interviews will be grounds for disqualification from the recruitment process.

Applicants may be required to appear onsite at a Wolters Kluwer office as part of the recruitment process.

Compensation:

Compensation range listed is based on primary location of the position. Actual base salary offer is influenced by a wide array of factors including but not limited to skills, experience and actual hiring location. Your recruiter can share more information about the specific offer for the job location during the hiring process.

Additional Information:

Wolters Kluwer offers a wide variety of competitive benefits and programs to help meet your needs and balance your work and personal life, including but not limited to: Medical, Dental, & Vision Plans, 401(k), FSA/HSA, Commuter Benefits, Tuition Assistance Plan, Vacation and Sick Time, and Paid Parental Leave. Full details of our benefits are available upon request.