Business Development Manager

We need a development manager, with 5-7 years experience, located in South Africa to lead our program in the country. Youll engage with a wide range of government officials, educational institution authorities, teachers and students and benefit from different points of view to enrich your personal and professional experience. You will leverage existing CSR activities but also create and drive new initiatives as well as inspire and work with key decision makers to make a difference for your country.

When you work with us youll influence education institutions, government, partners and instructors forming enduring bonds. Ones that last for 20 years or more. You are the advisor they trust to advance their educational programs to help them achieve their goals, empower their communities and multiply the impact. Inside Cisco you will work with highly effective, collaborative and multicultural teams. In scope of the role will also be securing relevance and cooperation with country team and with transformational accounts as well as development and management of local solutions aligned with Global CSR Framework.

You are a trusted advisor that inspires confidence through communication. Your focus is success and you know how to be accountable for it. You can convey effectively your ideas to different types of audiences.

What Youll Do?

• Build and Manage Partnerships with Governments and Educational Institutions: Establish, coordinate and maintain the end to end process of partner development, including selection, recruiting, joint planning, guidance and measurement of results and on-going management.
• Manage Sustainable Program Growth: Know and understand the education market and the addressable opportunities in the area/country and monitor key performance indicators of program performance and propose activities.
• Ensure Program Sustainability: Build Academy Community, support local and national events, ensure quality execution from academies and instructors, manage strategic aspects of product adoption in territory, and coordinate local implementation of workforce development programs to support student employment.
• Explore new fields/ niches and investigate the undiscovered areas to create new opportunities to develop the initiative. By bringing out of the box ideas, challenge the status quo and shake up the traditional model and approach and start to create a new perception of Cisco NetAcad.

Who You Are

• BS/BA in Business, Marketing, International Relations, Public Administration or Communications.
• 5 years work experience in Sales, Business development specifically into the public sector and/or Education.
• Languages: Fluent in English a must,
• Proficiency in other languages is a plus such as: Portuguese, French, Spanish
• Outstanding communication skills, Passionate, self-confidence and ability to convince others. Ability to get buy-in.
• Out of the box thinking, challenging the status quo and constantly seeking new opportunities, business models and workstreams.
• Showing strong goal orientation, self discipline and passion to deliver
• Ability to plan, organize and prioritize in multitasking environment.
• Flexible approach, problem solving skills, dynamic, with entrepreneurial mindset.
• High learning and change agility.

Desirable

• Working knowledge of South Africa Educational structure/functioning of public sector education.
• Business understanding, experience in preparing and presenting strong business case and deal with limited budgets.