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Job outlook for heads of business development in the United States
Head of business development job growth summary. After extensive research, interviews, and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
The projected head of business development job growth rate is 10% from 2018-2028.
About 33,700 new jobs for heads of business development are projected over the next decade.
Head of business development salaries have increased 8% for heads of business development in the last 5 years.
There are over 28,475 heads of business development currently employed in the United States.
There are 158,539 active head of business development job openings in the US.
The average head of business development salary is $134,190.
Are head of business development jobs in demand?
Head of business development job and salary trends over time
Head of business development jobs over time
Head of business development job growth rate over time
| Year | # of jobs | % of population |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 28,475 | 0.01% |
| 2020 | 27,607 | 0.01% |
| 2019 | 26,941 | 0.01% |
| 2018 | 24,566 | 0.01% |
| 2017 | 22,373 | 0.01% |
Average head of business development salary over time
Head of business development salary by year
| Year | Avg. salary | Hourly rate | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | $134,190 | $64.51 | +3.9% |
| 2024 | $129,168 | $62.10 | +1.9% |
| 2023 | $126,752 | $60.94 | +1.6% |
| 2022 | $124,808 | $60.00 | +0.8% |
| 2021 | $123,817 | $59.53 | +1.9% |
Head of business development jobs by state
Most common states for heads of business development
| Rank | State | Population | # of jobs | Employment/ 1000ppl |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | District of Columbia | 693,972 | 542 | 78% |
| 2 | Minnesota | 5,576,606 | 2,125 | 38% |
| 3 | Montana | 1,050,493 | 388 | 37% |
| 4 | Alaska | 739,795 | 240 | 32% |
| 5 | Nebraska | 1,920,076 | 600 | 31% |
| 6 | South Dakota | 869,666 | 270 | 31% |
| 7 | Massachusetts | 6,859,819 | 2,038 | 30% |
| 8 | North Dakota | 755,393 | 208 | 28% |
| 9 | Kansas | 2,913,123 | 786 | 27% |
| 10 | New Mexico | 2,088,070 | 535 | 26% |
| 11 | Rhode Island | 1,059,639 | 272 | 26% |
| 12 | Iowa | 3,145,711 | 778 | 25% |
| 13 | Missouri | 6,113,532 | 1,398 | 23% |
| 14 | Wisconsin | 5,795,483 | 1,337 | 23% |
| 15 | Arkansas | 3,004,279 | 694 | 23% |
| 16 | Washington | 7,405,743 | 1,619 | 22% |
| 17 | Oregon | 4,142,776 | 893 | 22% |
| 18 | Ohio | 11,658,609 | 2,493 | 21% |
| 19 | Tennessee | 6,715,984 | 1,424 | 21% |
| 20 | Vermont | 623,657 | 133 | 21% |
Most common cities for heads of business development
| Rank | City | # of jobs | Employment/ 1000ppl | Avg. salary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Frankfort | 2 | 7% | $116,886 |
| 2 | Juneau | 2 | 6% | $137,749 |
| 3 | Annapolis | 2 | 5% | $137,467 |
| 4 | Cambridge | 3 | 3% | $158,983 |
| 5 | Hartford | 2 | 2% | $157,544 |
| 6 | Lansing | 2 | 2% | $133,095 |
| 7 | Boston | 8 | 1% | $158,996 |
| 8 | Atlanta | 3 | 1% | $105,104 |
| 9 | Baton Rouge | 2 | 1% | $104,651 |
| 10 | Des Moines | 2 | 1% | $110,863 |
| 11 | Little Rock | 2 | 1% | $112,140 |
| 12 | Montgomery | 2 | 1% | $104,760 |
| 13 | Los Angeles | 3 | 0% | $144,919 |
| 14 | New York | 3 | 0% | $145,201 |
| 15 | Denver | 2 | 0% | $108,962 |
| 16 | Indianapolis | 2 | 0% | $139,708 |
| 17 | Phoenix | 2 | 0% | $149,076 |
| 18 | Sacramento | 2 | 0% | $155,978 |
Head Of Business Development job outlook: Expert opinions
Our panel of head of business development experts
Georgia State University
Drexel University
University Of Puget Sound
Wayne State University
University of Saint Mary
The Pennsylvania State University
What general advice would you give to a Head Of Business Development?
Andrew Spicer: Resiliency is a particularly important skill for international business and career progression. Resiliency – the ability to recover quickly in the face of obstacles and failures – has always been a critical part of successful international assignments. The only constant of working abroad is that there will be miscommunication and mistakes. Successful international business careers depend on the ability to learn from these inevitable setbacks to improve over time. The constant change in the global business environment also leads to the demand for resiliency among international business specialists. An important role for those with a global mindset is to help companies adapt to the massive disruption to the global business environment for international trade and investment presently taking place across the world.
What will help Heads Of Business Development increase their earning potential?
Salomao De Farias: Likes: IB analysts often see a direct impact of their work on company decisions and strategy, which can be highly satisfying. IB roles offer varied problems to solve, which can make every day interesting and intellectually stimulating. Working with international markets offers exposure to different cultures and business practices, enhancing personal and professional growth. Travelling internationally, getting to know different countries, cities and cultures around the globe. Dislikes: I wouldn’t call dislikes, rather challenges. I will start pointing that the stakes are high, as incorrect analysis could lead to poor strategic decisions. This pressure can be stressful. Also, navigating various international regulations, economic conditions, and cultural nuances can be daunting and complex. Depending on the markets covered, working hours might be irregular to overlap with different time zones.
Parfait Kouassi PhD.
Associate Teaching ProfessorDrexel University
Bilingual, Multilingual, And Multicultural Education
What Head Of Business Development skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Parfait Kouassi PhD.: Maximizing your salary potential when starting your career with multilingual and multicultural skills requires a strategic approach. While some companies offer language incentives, the true value of these skills extends far beyond financial compensation. Multilingual and multicultural individuals enjoy a wealth of social fulfillment by fostering connections, building bridges, and gaining deeper insights into diverse perspectives and ways of life. If you want to maximize your financial gain and your chosen field does not directly reward language proficiency, you should be aware that numerous opportunities exist across various industries that actively seek out and compensate individuals with your unique skill set. Fields such as international business, diplomacy, education, healthcare, and tourism highly value bilingual and multicultural individuals for their ability to facilitate communication, build bridges, and drive innovation in diverse contexts.
What general advice would you give to a Head Of Business Development?
Barbara Ribbens: It is important to develop your story about your skills and competencies to sell yourself to potential employers. Not many companies list jobs as International Business openings, but almost every company is happy to consider IB grads for their openings. IB grads are particular desired in rotational leadership development programs and in logistics/customs kinds of roles, but we have IB graduates go to work in many different companies and settings. We have found that IB grads tend to promote more quickly than average because they know a second language (which often results in improved communication skills) and they have studied abroad so they tend to be more confident and flexible than many other business graduates.
What Head Of Business Development skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Barbara Ribbens: Specific IB skills that are increasing in importance are cultural intelligence, being able to deal with complexity in problem solving, and adaptability/flexibility to work in different situations and settings. As the world globalizes, more people will need the ability to work with peers and on teams that are diverse culturally in effective ways. This is a real strength of IB majors since they take language and international general education courses to broaden their thinking and then also do cross cultural courses and study abroad to develop their cultural communication and leadership skills.
What will help Heads Of Business Development increase their earning potential?
Barbara Ribbens: Developing your poise and experience through college activities is essential beyond doing well in classes. Getting involved in student organizations, doing case competition teams, getting involved in consulting projects and taking on leadership roles are all good examples of ways to develop your skills. Doing a study abroad and an internship are both important steps to being ready to negotiate a good salary for that first job. Being able to clearly communicate your goals and how your experiences have prepared you for your career is key to successfully negotiating that first job and starting your career with a job that pays well and offers development opportunities.
Andreas Udbye Ph.D.
Associate ProfessorUniversity Of Puget Sound
School of Business and Leadership
What skills stand out on Head Of Business Development resumes?
Andreas Udbye Ph.D.: In my main fields of expertise, supply chain management, and international business, it never hurts to point to accomplishments, successes, projects completed and targets achieved. My general experience, however, is that resumes must contain information on your hard and technical skills just to make it through the first cut and get the interview, and then your softer skills and personality can be brought to life during the actual interview. Most hiring managers tend to hire or recommend people based on whether they like their attitudes and see a good fit. In interview situations, it is often productive to bring up hobbies and activities that you are passionate about if you get a chance.
What soft skills should all Heads Of Business Development possess?
Andreas Udbye Ph.D.: Collaboration and teamwork skills are crucial, as well as the ability to focus and meet deadlines. Although it is nice to mention that you are a good multi-tasker, most people are these days, and employers seem to like people who can stay the course and complete tasks on time and with high quality. Tenacity and accuracy are other attractive attributes.
What skills will help Heads Of Business Development earn the most?
Andreas Udbye Ph.D.: If you are only after the money, computer programming skills will most likely provide you with the most immediate payback, but not all of us like to be glued to the computer and keyboard all day, so being paid a little less for a job with more variety and interaction is probably worth it for most who aim for management or leadership positions in the longer run.
Attila Yaprak Ph.D.
Professor of Marketing and International Business, Director, Doctoral ProgramsWayne State University
Mike Ilitch School of Business
What skills will help Heads Of Business Development earn the most?
Attila Yaprak Ph.D.: Portfolio of the above three with different weights depending on context.
Dr. Mark Harvey Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Director of Graduate and Undergraduate Programs, Coordinator of All-University Honors ProgramUniversity of Saint Mary
Division of Business and Information Technologies (DBiT)
What hard/technical skills are most important for Heads Of Business Development?
Dr. Mark Harvey Ph.D.: Familiarity with software-basic windows packages, particularly MS Word and Excel. Candidates should not be afraid of quantitative data analysis. Analytics are necessary to figuring out what your business is doing and how it can grow. Also, familiarity with whatever social media platforms are used in that industry can be very important.
What skills will help Heads Of Business Development earn the most?
Dr. Mark Harvey Ph.D.: One consideration is, does the position pay commission? If so, the soft skills listed above are extremely important because the more you apply those skills, the more likely you are to grow your business.
When a manager is not on commission, there's little correlation between skills and pay while doing the job. The employer will hire you at a given salary level, and it is your job to negotiate to the best position. Once they have chosen you-that's the moment when you have the most leverage. You will never get a raise that is as substantial as what you might be able to ask for upon hire. After that, most raises are not going to be tied mechanically to performance and skills. Your next chance at a raise will be when you move or are promoted to a new position. Thus, those soft skills can affect your ability to negotiate.
I will repeat a previous theme: education and experience are probably more important than skills in terms of making more money. An employer can't really tell what your skills are from your resume. Just because you say you have a skill doesn't mean that you really do. They can reasonably guess that somebody with a degree is responsible enough to have accomplished something big. Somebody who makes it through a graduate program is probably very good at what they know. And somebody who has been in the industry and/or in a similar job is more likely to be able to walk in with little orientation and know what they are doing. Employers take risks on employees and hope that they can deliver. Thus, with more education and more experience, you are able to apply for higher-level jobs, which usually come with higher salaries.
What skills stand out on Head Of Business Development resumes?
Dr. Mark Harvey Ph.D.: Resumes are hard. It is very difficult to predict what any employer is looking for on any resume. The "skills" section of a resume is probably not the first thing most employers are looking at. The first consideration is probably education. Those with a bachelor's degree will be sorted first in fields-such as those who have business degrees, or particularly sales and marketing majors. Those with MBAs will be placed on the top. Those who have MBAs and marketing concentrations will likely be valued the most. The second consideration would probably be experience. Someone with several years of experience in business development or sales and marketing will be moved to the top. Someone with a bachelor's degree who has a lot of experience might beat out a fresh MBA. However, MBA plus experience beats almost everything. Someone with an MBA going for an entry-level position with little experience needed will likely beat out all bachelor challengers. For new graduates, getting some kind of internship in sales and marketing can differentiate them from those who do not.
Most hiring managers will probably assume that somebody who has sales and marketing education and/or experience probably has the skills necessary to do the job. An interviewer may probe on specific skills. I'll comment more specifically on other kinds of skills below, but it's also fair to say that a candidate's soft skills should shine in the interview. Simply saying that you have certain skills on a resume doesn't mean that you actually have them.
I think that the best thing a candidate can do is to research the company they hope to work for and tailor their resume to that employer. What does the business do? What kinds of things do you think that development manager is going to do in that particular industry? How do your skills as a candidate match what you guess they're looking for? The more you customize your resume, the better chances you have of resonating with the company. Employers are impressed when you already know something about the job and the industry.
What soft skills should all Heads Of Business Development possess?
Dr. Mark Harvey Ph.D.: First, critical and creative thinking. Employers value problem solvers. A Business Development Managers' problem usually is finding growth opportunities. Candidates need to learn to take the initiative to figure out how to solve problems like those.
Second, writing. The best employees know how to communicate in writing. More and more communication occurs through email and other forms of social media and apps, and as such, this skill is absolutely critical. You don't need to be a creative writing genius, but you do need to know how to write in a professional tone, present your ideas in an organized way, get to the point, and avoid errors. There is a direct line between a student's ability to write an academic essay with a clear thesis and an employee's ability to write a good email or proposal. If you can't do those things, then you risk embarrassment and possibly limited options for promotion.
Third, speaking. The American business world discriminates against introverts-sometimes at their own peril. Everyone needs to know how to give a quality speech, but more importantly, you need to sound confident and assertive in a board room during meetings. You need to be confident in front of clients. Fake it if you have to. The way you present yourself is absolutely critical.
Fourth, social skills. You need to be friendly. Get to know co-workers and clients. Find out what they like and show an interest. Find common ground. Your undergraduate degree hopefully exposed you to a wide diversity of topics you may have thought were irrelevant at some point. Now is the time to remember that stuff and use it to connect with people. Nearly everything you learned will have some application someday. It will help you connect with others. In addition, put away your cell phone when you are at work or on social occasions. To some people, a preoccupation with a cell phone communicates a lack of interest in the person you are with. It can alienate bosses, co-workers, and clients.
James Wilkerson Ph.D.
Business Program Coordinator, Project and Supply Chain Management Program CoordinatorThe Pennsylvania State University
Business Department
What skills stand out on Head Of Business Development resumes?
James Wilkerson Ph.D.: Skills, experience, knowledge, and abilities that matter especially strongly include target market analysis (including market research skills and knowledge), product/service positioning within competitive field, project work or coordination with sales staff, major client relationship management, and enough general business and industry knowledge to be able to relate business development to operational/production realities.
What soft skills should all Heads Of Business Development possess?
James Wilkerson Ph.D.: Verbal skills (both speaking and writing), negotiation skills, unfailing honesty, ability to empathize with clients' wants, and teamwork skills suitable for working collaboratively with sales and operations staff.
What hard/technical skills are most important for Heads Of Business Development?
James Wilkerson Ph.D.: Spreadsheet (Excel) skills (including graph production from data), basic statistical knowledge, and online information search skills.
What skills will help Heads Of Business Development earn the most?
James Wilkerson Ph.D.: Skill at rapidly learning market trends, relating business development to product development, and persuading major prospective clients when brought in to help with closing sales. Bottom line: the business development manager must be on the cutting edge of new market conditions and new business opportunities to help the firm organically grow its sales, especially in new markets or product/service lines.