Position: Business Development Manager
Salary: £35,000 per annum + commission (OTE £39,500 to £42,500)
Location: East India Docks, London Contract: Full-time, Permanent
About the role
ARU London is seeking an experienced and commercially focused Business Development Manager to join our team.
This is an important role within our student marketing and recruitment operation, with responsibility for managing, supporting and developing our network of student recruitment agents. You will act as a key relationship manager for our recruitment partners, helping to drive strong recruitment performance while ensuring that partners operate ethically and in accordance with our institutional policies and regulatory requirements.
The successful candidate will build strong relationships with existing recruitment partners, monitor performance against agreed targets and identify opportunities to strengthen recruitment through both existing partners and new markets. You will also play a central role in agent compliance, conducting regular audits and reviews and supporting due diligence and quality assurance processes.
This would be an excellent opportunity for someone with experience in higher education recruitment, partnerships or agent management who combines strong relationship-management skills with a commercial mindset and a clear understanding of the importance of quality and compliance.
What you'll be doing
- Managing and developing relationships with student recruitment agents, acting as a primary point of contact and providing ongoing guidance and support.
- Monitoring recruitment performance, including applications, offers, enrolments and conversion rates, and working with partners to improve results.
- Developing recruitment plans and identifying opportunities to grow student recruitment through existing partners, new markets and new recruitment channels.
- Delivering agent briefings, training sessions, webinars and intake updates.
- Conducting regular compliance audits and reviews of agent activity, marketing materials, websites and advertising.
- Ensuring recruitment partners operate in accordance with institutional policies, contractual requirements, ethical recruitment standards and relevant regulatory requirements.
- Supporting annual agent reviews, due diligence and the investigation and escalation of potential compliance concerns.
- Identifying and evaluating prospective recruitment partners and coordinating the onboarding and training of new agents.
- Working closely with Marketing, Recruitment and Admissions colleagues to support recruitment campaigns and ensure partners receive accurate and compliant information.
- Supporting recruitment events, agent conferences, open days, school visits and education fairs.
- Gathering market intelligence and partner feedback to help inform recruitment and marketing strategy.
These responsibilities reflect the relationship management, recruitment growth, compliance, onboarding and marketing responsibilities set out in the job description.
What we're looking for
You will ideally have previous experience within higher education recruitment, admissions, partnerships or agent management, with experience managing external stakeholders and working towards recruitment or performance targets.
Experience working with domestic and/or international student recruitment agents would be particularly valuable, alongside a good understanding of UK higher education admissions and student recruitment practices.
You should be confident analysing recruitment data and performance, using CRM or student recruitment systems and managing multiple priorities. Experience of compliance audits, quality assurance or partner reviews would also be highly desirable.
You will be an excellent communicator and relationship builder, with a professional and approachable manner, strong organisational skills and attention to detail. You should be proactive, commercially minded and committed to maintaining high standards of ethical recruitment and regulatory compliance.
A degree-level qualification or equivalent professional experience is required.
Apply
If you are an experienced higher education recruitment or partnerships professional looking for an opportunity to develop recruitment relationships, drive growth and contribute to the continued development of ARU London, we would be pleased to hear from you.
To apply: Please submit your CV and cover letter to matthew.mullard@london.aru.ac.uk.
Closing date: 11th September 2026
Job Description