Business Development Officer at Synapse Services

The Role

• Beyond "selling therapy", the role is about opening doors for organizations to access quality mental healthcare for their staff, students, or members.
• You'll be the link between our clinical expertise and the institutions that need it: HR departments building wellness programs, HMOs looking for panel providers, schools needing counselling partnerships, and NGOs running community health initiatives.
• If you're someone who can walk into a boardroom and make a compelling case for why mental health infrastructure is a smart institutional investment this is your role.

Key Responsibilities

Institutional Partnerships & Business Development

• Identify and secure partnerships with corporates, HMOs, schools, NGOs, and government agencies
• Pitch Japonica Synapse Japonica as a panel provider for HMOs and corporate health insurance plans
• Develop EAP-style retainer packages for companies looking to support staff mental health
• Build relationships with school counsellors and administrators for referral partnerships
• Engage government health programs and development agencies for community mental health contracts

Positioning & Market Education

• Reframe mental health services as institutional risk management, reduced absenteeism, higher productivity, lower liability
• Educate HR and procurement decision-makers on the ROI of investing in staff mental wellness
• Represent the clinic at health expos, HR forums, and corporate wellness events
• Develop case studies and outcome data (anonymized) to demonstrate clinical credibility to prospective partners

Revenue Growth

• Build and manage a pipeline of institutional clients and referral partners
• Negotiate service-level agreements, retainer contracts, and panel provider rates
• Meet quarterly targets for new partnerships and contract value
• Identify opportunities to package services (assessment, therapy, psychiatric review, follow-up) into tiered institutional offerings

Relationship Management

• Maintain strong relationships with existing institutional partners to drive renewals and referrals
• Liaise with clinical team to ensure service delivery matches what's been sold
• Gather partner feedback to refine offerings

Requirements

Experience & Education

• Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Marketing, Public Health, or related field
• Minimum 2-3 years in business development, institutional sales, or healthcare/insurance partnerships
• Experience selling into HR, insurance, or public health sectors is a strong advantage
• Understanding of (or willingness to learn) the Nigerian health insurance/HMO landscape

Skills & Competencies

• Ability to translate clinical value into business language, you can talk ROI as easily as you can talk empathy
• Excellent presentation and negotiation skills, especially with senior decision-makers
• Comfortable navigating sensitive subject matter with professionalism and discretion
• Strong network-building instincts, this role lives and dies on relationships
• Confidentiality and integrity are non-negotiable given the nature of our work