Business Growth and Inward Investment Officer Ref: 31-25

Salary: Grade 6 £43,882 - £50,761 per annum (subject to job evaluation)
Hours: Full time, 37 hours per week
Basis: Fixed term - 3 years
Location: Dereham (with regular travel across the district)

Are you passionate about driving sustainable economic growth and building strong business partnerships?

Join Breckland Council as a Business Growth & Inward Investment Officer and help shape a prosperous future for our district.

About the Role

We're looking for a proactive and strategic individual to lead on attracting inward investment, supporting local businesses, and delivering key economic growth initiatives. As part of our Economy & Growth service, you'll play a vital role in realising the council's economic ambitions.

You will:

• Champion Breckland as a great place to invest, grow, and do business
• Build and maintain strong relationships with local businesses, investors, and partners
• Provide hands-on support to new and expanding ventures
• Help deliver the council's economic development strategy
• Align local projects with regional and national priorities
• Represent the council at events, forums, and stakeholder meetings
• Manage projects with clear planning, communication, and delivery

About You

You'll bring experience in business development, economic growth, or a related field - along with a collaborative approach and the ability to build trust with a wide range of stakeholders.

You are:

• Confident in promoting investment opportunities
• An excellent communicator, comfortable engaging with both local businesses and senior decision-makers
• Politically aware and understand how public services intersect with economic development
• Proactive, organised, and solutions-focused
• Skilled in producing clear reports and briefings, and confident using IT tools
• A strong team player who can also work independently and take initiative

You'll ideally hold a degree or equivalent professional experience.

Why Join Us?

At Breckland Council, you'll be part of a supportive, forward-thinking team in a varied role where you can make a real impact on the district's economic future. If you're ready to help businesses thrive and attract new investment into the area, we'd love to hear from you.

Closing date: 09:00 Friday 29 August 2025

Job summary

Key Responsibilities

• Build strong relationships with business owners, investors, and partners to understand and identify opportunities to address local economic needs.
• Proactively promote the district as an attractive location for investment.
• Engage with potential investors and businesses considering expansion or relocation.
• Provide tailored support to ensure the successful establishment of new ventures.
• Contribute to the development and delivery of the council's economic and growth strategies.
• Work closely with regional and national partners to align efforts with broader economic priorities.
• Represent the council at meetings, forums, and events to promote the district's economic ambitions.
• Foster collaborative relationships with regional economic groups, public sector bodies, and private sector organizations.
• Champion the district's needs and opportunities in wider economic discussions.
• To work collaboratively across the Economy & Growth service to ensure a fully joined-up and colleague approach to supporting growth priorities
• Ensure compliance to all policies, procedures, standard operating practices, with recommendations for action and continuous improvement.
• Ensure that all necessary procurement is conducted in the appropriate way in accordance with the Council's constitution and legislation.
• To ensure a communication plan is developed and implemented for each project working with the Council's Communication Team.

Primary Leadership Objectives of the Role

• To lead and support senior officers and members around business support and inward investment
• To provide visible confident leadership to external partners
• Provide advice and input to Senior Leadership across the Council on the issues and opportunities affecting businesses and landowners, and the policy options for their support.
• To provide visible confident leadership internally and externally
   

This job description is not exhaustive.

The job description outlines the current position and will be subject to review in the light of development within the service, in consultation with the post holder as detailed in your Contract of Employment.

Experience, Knowledge and Skills

Essential

• Demonstrable experience in business development, economic growth, or a related field.
• Strong communication and relationship management skills, with the ability to engage diverse stakeholders.
• Knowledge of economic challenges and opportunities in rural areas.
• Knowledge of investment promotion or inward investment processes.
• Ability to form effective and collaborative relationships with a diverse range of partners, and work collegiately to develop solutions and viable projects
• Excellent oral communication and interpersonal skills and ability to communicate effectively with different audiences (internally and externally)
• Excellent written communication skills, and experience of creating effective project documentation, briefings and reports
• Substantial experience of working with Elected Members and operating in a political environment.
• Proactive, positive, and "can do" attitude with track record of delivering
• Excellent written communication skills, and experience of creating effective project documentation, briefings and reports
• Substantial experience of working with Elected Members and operating in a political environment.
• Proactive, positive, and "can do" attitude with track record of delivering
• Ability to write clear policies and committee reports.
• Excellent, clear and concise written oral and written communication skills.
• Proactive with a 'can do' attitude and track record of delivering successful outcomes.
• Ability to use initiative and identify innovative solutions.
• Ability to plan, organise and co-ordinate effectively.
• Comprehensive IT skills
• Commitment to own development and to supporting training and development initiatives.
• A professional approach when dealing with officers at all levels of the council, external partners, elected members and residents.

Desirable

• An understanding of relevant local economic growth context. 
• Experience of securing grant funding.
• Experience of commissioning and undertaking economic research and devising economic policy.
• An understanding of the relevant Regulatory environment.
• Commercial acumen.
• Experience of working in a management, supervisory or mentoring capacity. 
• Highly developed ICT skills.
• Negotiating and relationship management skills.
• Political awareness.
• Ability to motivate others and lead small teams effectively.

Qualifications

Essential

• Educated to degree level in a related field or evidence of equivalent learning through experience.
• A full driving licence and access to own transport.

Desirable

• A postgraduate qualification relevant to Economic Development / Growth / Housing/Project Management/Strategy.

Essential Behaviours

Collaborative:

• I encourage individuals and teams to work, learn and deliver together
• I look for opportunities to coach, support and mentor people both inside and outside of my own team (s) or discipline.
• I listen supportively to the ideas of others, building on their ideas, while sharing my views and knowledge
• I look for ways to work in partnership with colleagues across services, Members and external partners #oneteam

Ambitious:

• I act as a role model, leading by example: motivating, influencing and inspiring others
• I actively encourage innovation. If things go wrong, I see that as an opportunity to learn and develop
• I take ownership of change and help others to understand, adapt to, implement and embed change
• I always ask myself 'How could we do this better?

Results Driven:

• I keep to my promises and challenge myself and others to deliver high-quality services
• I look for opportunities to develop people, nurturing future talent
• I understand our council priorities and how I make a difference.
• I make sure I am clear on what I need to achieve, keeping a focus on results

Empowering:

• I look for and act on opportunities where we can generate an income or drive down costs
• I take responsibility if things don't go well and learn from it for my own and for the organisation's development
• I show energy and drive to explore new opportunities and challenge the status quo

Supportive:

• I give time to colleagues who need help or support, even when the pressure is on
• I understand and take care of my own well-being and of that of those around me
• I treat everyone with kindness, dignity and respect, valuing their thoughts, background and experience

What's it like to work for us?

We are passionate about our people and pride ourselves on being a great place to work, we genuinely care and know that a happy workforce is a productive and motivated one! If you're still not sure, here are some stats from our 2024 staff survey to convince you..

• 94% said they feel trusted and empowered
• 90% of staff recommend Breckland as a great place to work
• 89% said they have had opportunities to learn and grow in the last 12 months
• 94% think Breckland provide positive action on health and wellbeing
• 91% said they felt supported by their manager

If you STILL need convincing, here's what some of our staff say...

• "Breckland is a fantastic employer, lots of opportunities and support"
• "Having only just started, it is a great place to work, everyone says hello, is smiley and chatty. I like the groups that are on, like carers shed and neurodiversity"
• "We are encouraged to take regular breaks and there are mental health first aiders and a wide range of good promotional aspects of healthy living and wellbeing."
• "In times of need the council offers excellent support."
• "BDC really does seem to care about the wellbeing and happiness of their staff."

At Breckland Council we have embraced the Government's agenda to modernise local government. Our approach is to lead change rather than follow it, and to add the best value we can to our communities. We achieve this by developing our employees to their full potential, providing them with the relevant knowledge, equipment, and authority to carry out their duties.

We are a dynamic and innovative organisation that is always testing and learning as we seek to continually improve. We have never stood still in response to the emergence of new opportunities, changing customer demands, and ongoing funding challenges. We have exciting plans for how to deliver the best possible services to our residents and businesses.

Breckland as a district is a special place nestled in the heart of rural Norfolk, spanning over 500 square miles of beautiful countryside and forest, with five Market Towns and over 140,000 residents. We care, we listen, and we support people and businesses within our district. We have big ideas and we are innovative in our approach, coming up with ways to meet the needs of the local communities that we serve. Through our actions, we want to make things better.

But we know that we can't do it alone. We are a collaborative organisation and we work together with others to make a greater impact. We are also an organisation where our employees can grow and develop and are empowered to achieve and succeed. We are proud of our area, and by driving investment and enabling opportunities, we can maximise its full potential. We want to inspire aspiration to live, work, visit, or do business here: we want our district to be one of choice.

We will support and enable growth and change in our thriving, welcoming places where people and businesses choose to be, knowing their ambitions can be not just fulfilled but exceeded. By listening to people, by understanding what they need and by working together, we can shape what we have to offer. By doing so, we can benefit those who are already here and those who choose to come to live, work, visit, or do business.

We offer excellent conditions of service, including:

• A local government pension scheme (14 per cent employer contribution).
• Attractive holiday package (25 days increasing after three years' continuous Local Authority service by one day per year up to the maximum of 28 days, plus bank holidays)
• Free car parking.
• Remote-enabled working arrangements.
• A newly refurbished office. See what it is like working here by watching this short film: 
  

Our commitment to talent development, on the job learning and upskilling, training and professional memberships, will keep your knowledge and skills up to date.

Closing date - 09:00 Friday 29 August 2025
Interview dates - likely w/c 8 September

APPLY ONLINE
 

Equal Opportunities - We are committed to being an Equal Opportunities employer, recognising the benefits of sustaining a workforce that reflects the diversity of the community we serve. We welcome applications from anyone who feels they meet the requirements of our vacancies. These are listed as essential requirements on the person specification.