How to hire a business development specialist

How to hire a business development specialist, step by step

Here's a step-by-step business development specialist hiring guide:

• Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
• Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
• Step 3: Make a budget
• Step 4: Write a business development specialist job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new business development specialist
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

What does a business development specialist do?

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   Before you post your business development specialist job, you should take the time to determine what type of worker your business needs. While certain jobs definitely require a full-time employee, it's sometimes better to find a business development specialist for hire on a part-time basis or as a contractor.

   Determine employee vs contractor status

   Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

   Yes

   No

   A business development specialist's background is also an important factor in determining whether they'll be a good fit for the position. For example, business development specialists from different industries or fields will have radically different experiences and will bring different viewpoints to the role. You also need to consider the candidate's previous level of experience to make sure they'll be comfortable with the job's level of seniority.

   This list presents business development specialist salaries for various positions.

   Type of Business Development Specialist	Description	Hourly rate
   Business Development Specialist		$18-40
   Business Advisor	Business Advisors are consultants responsible for implementing business strategies to improve financial and operational efficiency. They are involved in preparing financial budgets, recommending a change in the operational process, identifying new business opportunities, evaluating a marketing strategy, and reviewing supplier and labor contracts... Show more	$32-66
   Vice President, Business Development	A vice president of business development is a professional who leads in the execution of business plans and provides new business strategies for an organization. Vice presidents of business development closely work with a team of salespeople, management, and lower-level employees to secure contracts with new customers and manage ongoing agreements... Show more	$50-125

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • Work Ethic
   • CRM
   • Customer Service
   • Healthcare
   • Sales Process
   • Salesforce
   • PowerPoint
   • Excellent Interpersonal
   • Lead Generation
   • Project Management
   • PET
   • Customer Relationships
   • Digital Marketing
   • Customer Satisfaction

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Utilize a number of sales tools such as SalesForce to manage pipeline.
   • Develop and manage all SEO, SEM, and all social media platforms and authore all content.
   • Manage and coordinate a successful implementation of a cloud-base ERP system.
   • Manage logistics, control engineering and design, order placement, vendor relationships, customer utilization and technology.
   • Take inbound and make some outbound calls as necessary to assist customers with billing, account information and troubleshoot technical issues.
   • Experience connecting databases in SQL with the software application.

   More business development specialist duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in the business development specialist job description is a good way to get more applicants. A business development specialist salary can be affected by several factors, such as the location of the job, the level of experience, education, certifications, and the employer's prestige.

   For example, the average salary for a business development specialist in Oklahoma may be lower than in Wisconsin, and an entry-level engineer typically earns less than a senior-level business development specialist. Additionally, a business development specialist with lots of experience in the field may command a higher salary as a result.

   Average business development specialist salary

   $57,410yearly

   $27.60 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level business development specialist salary

   $38,000 yearly salary

   Updated December 16, 2025

   Average business development specialist salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	New Jersey	$71,160	$34
   2	Utah	$69,737	$34
   3	Massachusetts	$66,672	$32
   4	Pennsylvania	$66,633	$32
   5	Washington	$66,021	$32
   6	Virginia	$65,448	$31
   7	District of Columbia	$65,020	$31
   8	New York	$63,474	$31
   9	Illinois	$63,269	$30
   10	Minnesota	$62,820	$30
   11	Colorado	$62,486	$30
   12	North Carolina	$58,401	$28
   13	California	$56,216	$27
   14	Texas	$53,225	$26
   15	Georgia	$51,352	$25
   16	Arizona	$50,521	$24
   17	Nevada	$50,364	$24
   18	Florida	$46,269	$22

   Average business development specialist salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	Corsair	$104,377	$50.18
   2	SeaChange International	$101,426	$48.76
   3	Cisco	$98,530	$47.37	181
   4	SAS Institute	$97,077	$46.67	18
   5	Google	$95,697	$46.01	29
   6	Sonus	$93,166	$44.79
   7	Coastal Realty	$92,442	$44.44
   8	Arkema	$91,855	$44.16	2
   9	EPAM Systems	$90,790	$43.65	11
   10	Southern California Edison	$90,663	$43.59	25
   11	Venable	$90,587	$43.55
   12	Capital Group	$89,735	$43.14	6
   13	Payoneer	$88,747	$42.67
   14	HSBC Bank	$87,947	$42.28
   15	Renesas Electronics	$84,793	$40.77	3
   16	Better	$84,218	$40.49
   17	The Dow Chemical Company	$84,023	$40.40	40
   18	Infinite Computer Solutions	$83,896	$40.33
   19	Eaton	$82,486	$39.66	20
   20	KPIT Technologies	$82,430	$39.63

4. Writing a business development specialist job description

   A good business development specialist job description should include a few things:

   • Summary of the role
   • List of responsibilities
   • Required skills and experience

   Including a salary range and the first name of the hiring manager is also appreciated by candidates. Here's an example of a business development specialist job description:

   Business development specialist job description example

   
   

   + 6 years of experience working in business development, product management, sales engineering, consulting, program, product, or partner management in the automotive industry or similar field.

   
   

   Preferred qualifications:

   
   

   + MBA degree.

   
   

   + Experience in consulting, product management, software engineering, and/or the automotive or similar industry.

   
   

   + Ability to conduct in depth investigations to develop a robust, well-rounded understanding of complex products from a technical, strategic, and partner perspective.

   
   

   + Ability to take initiative to deliver results, offer help wherever needed, and work effectively across large cross-functional teams, including both business and technical stakeholders at a variety of levels.

   
   

   + Excellent communication skills with the ability to comfortably interact with partners and Google's executive management.

   
   

   + Comfortable with shifting priorities needed to bring a team closer to the finish line.

   
   

   As a Product Business Development Specialist, you will drive and track broad adoption of Android and/or Google services across the automotive industry and take an industry wide-view and identify obstacles and opportunities for adoption in pitches and agreements.

   
   

   In this role, you will be a global subject matter and industry expert for Google's automotive products. You will enable and drive adoption and success of our products across the global automotive industry. You'll partner with Product, Engineering, Marketing, and other teams to craft, execute, and evolve our go-to-market approach. You will also interface directly with partners to understand their business and technical needs and develop programs to help increase the adoption of Android and Google services in the automotive ecosystem. In addition, you will be a product expert that business stakeholders at automakers and automotive suppliers look towards and advocate for the automotive industry with respect to product requirements, ecosystem opportunities, and overall strategy.

   
   

   + Lead the creation of presentations, whitepapers, and case studies to drive more complete industry adoption faster. Deliver and evolve expert pitches to partners and evolve the story, scaling your efforts through the in-region automotive partnership teams.

   
   

   + Collaborate with cross-functional teams to structure and execute business initiatives, develop work plans, lead analysis, and develop and communicate final recommendations. Forecast and report business growth and other key metrics, track actual progress toward forecasts, drive business opportunities and ensure the prompt and proper resolution of business issues with partners.

   
   

   + Improve product feature offerings by synthesizing partner feedback to internal cross-functional teams, including Product Management and Core Engineering.

   
   

   + Lead discrete, targeted special projects (e.g., market research initiative, an analysis, or a focused external collaboration), including planning, reviewing with Google stakeholders, and execution.

   
   

   Copy this example

   

5. Post your job

   There are a few common ways to find business development specialists for your business:

   • Promoting internally or recruiting from your existing workforce.
   • Ask for referrals from friends, family members, and current employees.
   • Attend job fairs at local colleges to meet candidates with the right educational background.
   • Use social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter to recruit passive job-seekers.

   Post your job online:

   • Post your business development specialist job on Zippia to find and recruit business development specialist candidates who meet your exact specifications.
   • Use field-specific websites.
   • Post a job on free websites.

6. Interview candidates

   Your first interview with business development specialist candidates should focus on their interest in the role and background experience. As the hiring process goes on, you can learn more about how they'd fit into the company culture in later rounds of interviews.

   Remember to include a few questions that allow candidates to expand on their strengths in their own words. Asking about their unique skills might reveal things you'd miss otherwise. At this point, good candidates can move on to the technical interview.

   The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.

7. Send a job offer and onboard your new business development specialist

   Once you've found the business development specialist candidate you'd like to hire, it's time to write an offer letter. This should include an explicit job offer that includes the salary and the details of any other perks. Qualified candidates might be looking at multiple positions, so your offer must be competitive if you like the candidate. Also, be prepared for a negotiation stage, as candidates may way want to tweak the details of your initial offer. Once you've settled on these details, you can draft a contract to formalize your agreement.

   You should also follow up with applicants who don't get the job with an email letting them know that you've filled the position.

   After that, you can create an onboarding schedule for a new business development specialist. Human Resources and the hiring manager should complete Employee Action Forms. Human Resources should also ensure that onboarding paperwork is completed, including I-9s, benefits enrollment, federal and state tax forms, etc., and that new employee files are created.

8. Go through the hiring process checklist

   • Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
   • Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
   • Define job responsibilities and requirements
   • Establish budget and timeline
   • Determine hiring decision makers for the role
   • Write job description
   • Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
   • Promote the job internally
   • Process applications through applicant tracking system
   • Review resumes and cover letters
   • Shortlist candidates for screening
   • Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
   • Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
   • Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
   • Conduct background checks on top candidates
   • Check references of top candidates
   • Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
   • Extend offer to top candidate(s)
   • Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
   • Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
   • Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
   • Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)

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How much does it cost to hire a business development specialist?