INDUSTRY STATS
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Top Executives positions are at a 8% growth rate, which is as fast as average. With that said, there are currently 2,704,400 jobs in the market right now. The total number of jobs is expected to increase by 209,500 to 2,913,900 in the period of 2020-30.
What’s more, the median annual wage for the Top Executives jobs was $107,680 in May 2020. The lowest 10% earned less than $45,850, and the highest 10% more than $208,000.
Our conclusion? The Top Executives job market is wide open for candidates.
Top Development Director sections that make the best resume
- Header
- Professional summary
- Experience (with numbers and results)
- Relevant skills
- Education
- Certifications
How to write a Development Director resume experience section
Development Director Resume’s Job Experience Checklist:
- Use 4-6 bullet points per job title;
- Don’t go further than a decade behind when describing your job history, unless you’re applying for an executive position;
- Combine job responsibilities as well as achievements with numbers in results when you describe your past work;
- Start each sentence with a power verb and avoid overused buzzwords;
- Use either C-A-R or S-T-A-R methodology, when describing your experience.
The work experience samples below come from real Development Director resumes that got people hired at top companies. You can use them as an inspiration to build your own resume:
Work Experience
Development Director, Middle East
Kozey - Bogisich
2017-2021
- Responsible for the development strategy of the UK’s largest hotel brand within the Middle East region
- Flagship Dubai hotel investment project secured totaling USD $71m
- Secured hotel management agreements in GCC totaling 1,152 keys
- Assessment of hotel growth opportunities of 40 MENA cities
Work Experience
Account Development Director
Flux
2015-2019
- Personally responsible for the Business development of EMEA Central (Benelux) and EMEA North (Nordics)
- Personally developed EMEA Central (BeNeLux) from whitespace to a covered territory (Including 2 €1m deals closed in less than 12 months.
- More than £2 million closed business
Work Experience
Business Development Director
Aexie Swarm
2018-2020
- Hired in 2014 to diversify Orion's portfolio of clients in the Americas, I developed a Sales & Marketing strategy to cross sell services into wider Engineering and Construction verticals such as Utilities, Chemical, Midstream and Refining.
- Managing a team of 4 Recruitment Consultants and 3 Business Development Managers, I project managed the implementation and execution of the diversification strategy. This included multiple training sessions over a 3 month period to identify weaknesses and upskilling opportunities in the current sales and recruitment processes.
- While the teams focused on individual client and position delivery, I focused my time on prospecting at Executive and Director level to sell packaged solutions such as project exclusivity, recruitment process outsourcing and payroll partnerships.
- 2014 year end results yielded an increase in Permanent Hire fees from an average of 4% of Gross Profit (2010-2013) to 15% of Gross Profit across the region. We added a combined average of 15 new contractors per month, 60% of which going into new target verticals.
- 2015 year end results yielded an increase in Permanent Hire fees from 15% to 25% of Gross Profit. The team added a combined average of 13 new contractors per month due to global oil price impact, however over 85% of new contract hires were made in new vertical markets.
- 2016 year end results for Permanent Hire at still TBC. However, we saw a significant increase in contract hire demand due to an exclusive project award with 2 clients based on prior years delivery, resulting in total headcount growth from an average of 130 (2010-2015) to 185.
Work Experience
Commercial & Business Development Director
Turner - Wisoky
2009-2014
- Setting up new commercial diamond processing factory in Ghana
- Supervising Gold City project in Accra, Ghana
- Establishing Jewellery shop at Holiday Inn, Accra, Ghana
Work Experience
Commercial & Business Development Director
Bravura Origin
2021-2022
- Setting up joint venture (JV) between the company and governmental institution for construction and operating first gold refinery in West Africa
- Submitting geological reports for Mineral Commission of Ghana for licences covering more than 1,000 km2 territories
- Permanent communication with 5 Ministries in Ghana and several Ministries and Governmental Institutions in Democratic Republic of Congo, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso, Cote DiVoire, Guinea
- Structuring of businesses in West African companies for foreign investors (market overviews and research, legal research, financial planning, business plans, operational planning, project management)
Work Experience
Business Development Director
Waters and Sons
2012-2014
- Driving and delivering customized minilab solutions to clients in close cooperation with product development
- Responsible for over 2M EUR sales goal
- Leading acquisitions, account management, customer care and technical support teams to ensure smooth customer journey and company revenues growth
- Formulating sales and marketing strategies to acquire and win new expansion areas (top food producers, top laboratories)
- Driving and validating innovative sales strategies based on Business Model Canvas
- Implementing lean processes and new tools to achieve operational excellence and great customer experience (Kanban, pull system)
- Executed a series of internal, tailored training and coaching sessions
- Tracking and measuring sales and customer care team performance
- Ensuring internal processes are followed
- Change leader and innovator
- Budgeting and department budget responsibility
Work Experience
Business Development Director
Altenwerth Group
2012-2014
- Identified new key accounts (lighting designers and architects) and supported them into issuing specifications for our products
- Led a team of 3 to generate Dirhams 27+ million in lighting specification in 8 months
- Invested in stronger relations with key personal within the big design studios to enhance and grow our share of generated specifications, and to get feedback on our offers faster
- Increased lighting control sales (400%) by bringing in new product providers and conducting recurring internal training for sales staff
- Identified product gaps and sourced manufacturers to cover them
- Researched and sourced third party video content providers to enhance our presentations and to complete our media offerings to larger clients creating a one-stop-shop
Work Experience
International Development Director
Smash Tech
2016-2017
- Define Global Sales strategy (EMEA, APAC). Grown Neurones IT Asia revenue by 35% growth up to SGD 4,5 million over the period
- Sales Team management (5 sales & 1 presale)
- Creation of a subsidiary in India: Incorporation in 2016 and set up of a native Public Cloud Service Center (Azure & AWS) in 2017 (staff 40+ people by 2018)
- Client executive for Louis Vuitton Malletier (CxO level) - IM & AM Managed services contract and digital transformation projects
Work Experience
Business Development Director
Vortex Solar
2016-2017
- strategy planning
- new markets review
- venture investments
- B2B partnerships
- implementation of new business techniques into the operation
Work Experience
Business Development Director
Bonefete Fun
2012-2014
- Responsible for the overall management of all strategic and operational Finance, HR, Sales and Customer Relationship activities.
- Seeking opportunities for business development by company expansion in new market segments as well as continued expansion among existing clients
- Building relationships with existing clients in an attempt to increase their current spend.
- Evaluating operational issues to determine how competitive and current it is with the latest trends in the industry.
- Monitoring external and internal environment for development of new market segments. • Driving peak performance and sales success across the organization. • Creating, negotiating and closing commercial agreements. • Providing CEO with market feedback regarding competitive offerings, prospect needs and generate product development ideas. • Formulating and administering company policies, directing and coordinating all Sales and Customer Support activities to develop and implement long-range goals and objectives to meet business and profitability growth objectives. • Reviewing analyses of activities, costs, operations and forecast data to determine company progress toward stated goals and objectives. • Develop, review, update and implement business strategic planning, including sales, financial performance. • Overseeing key projects, processes and performance reports, data and analysis. • Reviewing operations and plans to meet requirements for sales planning and to develop new markets. • Reviewing accounting analysis for budgetary planning and implementation, financial reporting. • Enforce company policies consistently and fairly.
Work Experience
Business Development Director
Monk
2016-2017
- Developing marketing plan and targeted sale points.
- Negotiating with suppliers and manage strategic planning
- Contraction and managing with vendors
- Handle daily customer enquiries and feedbacks..
- Event Planning and organizing
- Communicate and deal with the key clients regularly.
- Advising a planned schedules of Marketing team.
- Checking a weekly & monthly report of sales & marketing team.
- Negotiate with clients for their desire importing products
Work Experience
Business Development Director
Bonefete Fun
2017-2020
- Complete switch to a product and high-added-value services company
- Developed new business models and penetrated new markets
- Developed a new business development team including sales, marketing and employer branding
- Introduced a new model for scaling, based purely on profit
- Managed to grow the company with 20% in 6 months during a crisis of software cost cutting
Work Experience
Business Development Director
Zeal Wheels
2017-2018
- x
- y
- z
Work Experience
Business Development Director
Littel Group
2015-2019
- Developed a target account program
- Coached and mentored sales
- Over achieved on personal sales targets
- Developed sales campaigns and go to markets
- Formed part of Exco team
- Client relationship management
- Solutions crafting with go to markets
Work Experience
Business Development Director
Bravura Inc
2019-2021
- Head of Cloud Products and Business Strategies
- Increased revenue over 1000% since I came aboard
- Readiness to transform needs-driven insights into new business opportunities
- Vendors and CSP Partner Programs Management with Microsoft, Vmware, Veeam, Fortinet, AWS, Zimbra, Barracuda and Kaspersky
- Contract and Business Management with Tech Suppliers, Telecom and Distributors such as Westcon, Arrow, IngramMicro, SoftwareOne, Automate, EsyWorld, Hostfiber and Mundivox
- Relationship with ISVs, Service Providers, Channels and Strategic Partners to offer integrated Cloud solutions as a service
Work Experience
Business Development Director
Thiel - Larson
2017-2021
- Pitched for and won partnerships with C level decision makers at Dell, Sky, Nike, Diageo, Virgin, Sony, L'Oréal, Unilever, Swiss Re, UBS, Marriott, London Stock Exchange Group, Astra Zeneca and Pernod Ricard delivering circa £1M per annum or 42% of total annual revenue
- Developed, executed and coached in a new sales cycle (which included project managing new CRM, marketing automation and data analytics) that resulted in the growth of customer conversion from 30% to 48% while reducing the deal length by 30%
- Repositioned the client communication strategy and leveraged a higher value service offering leading directly to a growth in average deal value of 185%
- Aligned the sales & marketing function of the business that was a key driver in creating growth in NPS from 40 - 80 while enabling my department heads to create more emotive and rapid turnaround campaigns to drive new business wins
- Developed relationships up to Chief Executive Officer level across all sectors including financial services, retail, technology, software, FMCG, fintech, entertainment, leisure, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals
Work Experience
Business Development Director
Lambent
2015-2019
- Pitched for and won partnerships with C level decision makers at Dell, Sky, Nike, Diageo, Virgin, Sony, L'Oréal, Rimmel, Unilever, JD Sports, Kettle Chips, Marriott, Net-A-Porter, Astra Zeneca and Pernod Ricard delivering circa £1.6M per annum or 42% of total annual revenue
- Developed, executed and coached in a new sales cycle (which included deploying a new CRM, sales operation and data analytics) that resulted in the growth of customer conversion from 30% to 48% while reducing the deal length by 30%
- Repositioned the creative client communication strategy and leveraged a higher value service offering leading directly to a growth in average deal value of 185% and new business development lead generation by 35%
- Aligned the sales & marketing function of the business that was a key driver in working more collaboratively creating growth in NPS from 40 - 80 while enabling my department heads to create more collaborative and rapid turnaround proposals to drive new business development
Work Experience
EMEA - Business Development Director
Bonefete Fun
2009-2014
- Driving Hunting Sales across EMEA for Digital Services including Mobility Services, eCommerce, AI Analytics, Cloud Solutions & SAAS
- Client Partner for DMI's two Strategic European accounts
- Manage Inside Sales for Targetted Lead Generation Campaigns (Create & Curate content)
- New Logos & Leads across diverse Industry verticals in India & Europe.
Work Experience
Business Development Director
Lambent
2012-2018
- Responsible for collaborating with the global and local Medical teams to ensure alignment and adherence to project timelines, budget, milestones, requirements, risks, and deliverables
- Running recruiting function, maintaining first class HR operations and building the best workplace environment, while staying true to the values of the company
- Participating in the Medical Affairs strategic planning and support the execution of International Markets Medical Affairs initiatives and strategy in alignment with the regional commercial strategy and the ALIMP corporate strategy
- Ensuring all project requirements are identified, integrated, tracked and managed successfully while meeting the project timeline and deliverables with the allocated budget and the utmost quality level
- Appling the highest ethical standards, and work in a transparent and collaborative fashion with respect to the cultural differences while having a deep understanding of the unique challenges of International Market
- Continuing developing the required infrastructure, workflows and the roadmap to become a learning organization, striving for continuous improvement
Work Experience
Business Development Director
Nixue Root
2016-2020
- Exceeded Human Resources and Management consulting annual sales quota, generating 13.5 million dollars
- Executed the sale of one of the largest worker compensation studies producing over $1.2 million in incremental consulting revenue within eighteen months.
- Captured $800K New York City Transit Authority - Test Development and Proctor Examination Service Agreement.
PRO TIP
The person reading your Development Director resume will be busy, make sure you never waste their time with fluff.
Action Verbs for your Development Director Resume
At Enhancv, we went through countless Development Director resumes and uncovered which are the unique words people use to spice up their resumes. Forget about buzzwords - use these power words instead to make your experience section shine.
Recommended reads:
Development Director Resume Skills’ Tips & Tricks to Impress Recruiters
Resume Skills Section Checklist:
- Ensure your hard skills section (including technologies) are exactly matching the job description.
- Don’t simply list your soft skills. Apply the “show, don’t tell” principle - let your job achievements speak for themselves.
- Find a way to showcase your skills beyond the skills section.
- Your resume’s skill section is important to ATS systems - so don’t skip it.
Top Skills for your Development Director resume
HARD SKILLS
- Public Speaking
- Digital Solutions
- Technical Skills
- Spreadsheets
- Point of Sales Systems
- Data Analysis
- Marketing Solutions
- Writing
SOFT SKILLS
- Transparency
- Communication
- Delegation
- Decisiveness
- Empowering
- Consistency and Reliability
- Empathy and sensitivity
- Mentoring and coaching
PRO TIP
Add a Talent Section to your resume, where you can pick your top 3 soft skills and describe how you used them to complete a project or balance departmental communication.
Recommended reads:
Development Director Resume Header: Tips, Red Flags, and Best Practices
CHECKLIST For Your Development Director Resume Header
- Your name and surname in a legible and larger resume font
- The job title you’re applying for or your current job title as a subheading to your name
- Link to your portfolio or online profile, such as LinkedIn
- Address (City and State for the US; just your city for rest of the world)
- Email address
- Headshot (required or welcomed in the EU; not required and sometimes frowned upon in the US)
Stick to popular email providers such as Gmail or Outlook. And use these professional formats to create your username:
- first.last@gmail.com
- last.first@gmail.com
- firstlast@gmail.com
- f.last@gmail.com
- first.l@gmail.com
Recommended reads:
PRO TIP
Include a link to your portfolio in your Development Director resume header. Most companies will require that you include one in your resume, and even if they don’t, it’s an excellent opportunity to directly show them your proudest projects.
Development Director Resume Summary Best Practices
Checklist: What to include in your Development Director resume summary:
- Years of experience;
- Highlight top 3 skills and proficiencies;
- One big professional accomplishment you’re most proud of, that you can tie with the aforementioned skills;
- Use short, direct sentences - but no more than three - to keep the HRs interested.
Resume Summary Formula:
Resume Summary Formula:
[Adjective] [job title] with [number] years of experience in [industry], a proven ability to [relevant, measurable skills], and a strong background in [relevant context of your work experience] seeks a position as [the job title you’re applying for].
PRO TIP
Your summary should act as an elevator speech, briefly promoting how you will benefit the employer if hired. Pitch your strengths in the summary and expand on them in your Development Director experience section. Give examples like how your work benefited each employer.
Recommended reads:
Listing Your Education, Certifications and Courses
Resume Education Section Checklist:
- Ensure your hard skills section (including technologies) are exactly matching the job description.
- Don’t simply list your soft skills. Apply the “show, don’t tell” principle - let your job achievements speak for themselves.
- Find a way to showcase your skills beyond the skills section.
- Your resume’s skill section is important to ATS systems - so don’t skip it.
Top Certifications for your Development Director resume
Policy Development for Directors
This fast paced course covers the basic areas where a board must consider establishing strong policies.
Policy Development for Directors
This course is packed with the information directors need to effectively set polices at their organizations
VPs and Directors of Product Management: Finding Excellence
Succeeding in an intense, stressful, invigorating job
High-Impact IT Leader - Succeed as CIO/CTO/IT Director 2021!
Complete playbook for IT executives on leading strategy, technology, people and operations
The Complete 2022 Web Development Course - Build 15 Projects
The only course you need to become a full-stack web developer. Covers HTML5, CSS3, JS, ES6, Node, APIs, Mobile & more!
Recommended reads:
PRO TIP
If you hold a certain major and a minor, your majors should be mentioned first.
Development Director Resume: Additional Writing & Formatting Tips
There are three basic resume formats you can choose from:
- Reverse-chronological resume format;
- Functional resume format;
- Hybrid (or Combination) resume format;
The most optimal format for your particular case will depend on your years of experience, as well as whether you’re switching industries or not.
Reverse chronological resumes are best suited for experienced individuals who are sticking to their industry. The experience section takes a central place, and its bullets contain your responsibilities and achievements, coupled with numbers and results.
Functional resumes are used by less experienced jobseekers or career changers. Note that it’s not a format that recruiters prefer, as most are used to the classic chronological alignment. Instead of a list of job titles, functional resumes focus on your skills, and through what experiences you gained them.
Hybrid resumes are great for both experienced and entry-level candidates, as well as career changers. They combine the best of both worlds - most often in a double column format, where one side of the content is focused on your experience, whereas the other - on your skills, strengths, and proudest moments.
Development Director Resume Summary best practices
Here are more resume tips regarding your layout and style:
- Clear and legible 12p resume font size;
- Use 10’’ resume margins - that’s default for a great resume design;
- Use a one-page template resume length if you’ve got less than 10 years of experience; otherwise, opt for a two-page resume;
- Save your resume as PDF before sending it to the recruiter.
To take it a step further, check out how your resume can stand out without leaning too much on the creative side.
Recommended reads:
PRO TIP
Test your draft Development Director resume by sending it out to peers and mentors in your circles. Ask them to review it as if they are hiring you for a project and implement the feedback afterwards.
Other sections to include in your resume
Depending on the type of company (corporation or start-up; innovative or traditional), job seniority level and your location, you may want to include more sections to your Development Director resume:
Development Director Resume: How to Make Yours More Creative & Stand Out
When you send your resume to a potential employer, chances are it's the fiftieth one they've seen that day. That's why you need to make your Development Director resume stand out for the right reasons. That means showing your personality, not just your professional experience. Employers are far more likely to remember a candidate who seems like a genuine person and not a robot. Do this by including your passions (which is also a great place to demonstrate skills on a resume), share your favorite books, or even what your usual day looks like.
What Makes a Great Development Director Resume: Key Takeaways
- Choose a resume layout that sends the right message across and fits your current career situation;
- Create a resume header that shows your desired job title, and easy to find contact numbers;
- Be specific about your experience, accomplishments and future goals in your summary;
- Feature detailed metrics and specific examples that show the impact you made in your previous roles when describing your experience;
- List soft skills backed by examples;
- Add all of your technical skills and certifications that you have and match the job description;
- Show off a dash of personality in your resume that will demonstrate your culture fit and the right mix of hard and soft skills.
Volen Vulkov
8 minute read
Updated on 2022-03-25
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