Business Development Specialist

Job Description

Job Description

Help More Children and Families Access the Care They Need

We are seeking an accomplished, relationship-driven Business Development Specialist to expand our healthcare referral network and generate sustainable patient referrals throughout an assigned territory.

This is not a traditional community-marketing position. The primary focus is developing and nurturing professional referral relationships with pediatricians, healthcare providers, hospitals, health systems, multi-location practices, diagnostic professionals, and other organizations serving children and families.

The ideal candidate has at least five years of healthcare business development experience—and a demonstrated history of turning trusted professional relationships into qualified patient referrals. Experience within pediatric, children’s health, behavioral health, developmental health, or a closely related field is strongly preferred.

What You’ll DoProfessional Referral Development

• Build, manage, and grow a strategic network of professional referral sources throughout your territory.

• Develop relationships with pediatricians, hospitals, health systems, multi-location practices, diagnostic providers, therapists, schools, and other professionals serving children and families.

• Identify new referral opportunities and create territory-specific plans for developing them.

• Conduct purposeful in-person and virtual meetings with prospective and existing referral partners.

• Educate referral sources about our services, eligibility requirements, intake process, locations, and appropriate referral pathways.

• Maintain consistent follow-up with referral partners to strengthen relationships and encourage continued referral activity.

• Reengage inactive referral sources and identify opportunities to expand high-performing relationships across departments or locations.

• Build relationships with decision-makers, clinical leaders, referral coordinators, and other professionals who influence patient access.

Referral Generation and Management

• Generate qualified patient referrals that align with the organization’s services and capacity.

• Accurately document every referral, referral source, interaction, and follow-up activity in the organization’s designated systems.

• Monitor referred patients throughout the intake and authorization process.

• Partner closely with the internal Intake and Authorizations teams to identify barriers, support communication, and help prevent referred families from falling through the cracks.

• Keep referral partners appropriately informed while protecting patient privacy and following all HIPAA and organizational requirements.

• Analyze referral activity and conversion patterns to understand which relationships and outreach strategies produce meaningful results.

• Maintain an accurate and actionable pipeline of referral opportunities.

Community Outreach and Brand Awareness

Community engagement is an important—but secondary—part of this position.

• Coordinate or participate in approximately one targeted community or brand-awareness event each month .

• Plan or support one larger, higher-impact event each quarter .

• Select events based on their potential to reach families, strengthen professional relationships, or expand awareness within priority communities.

• Follow up with contacts and referral opportunities generated through each event.

• Evaluate event effectiveness based on relationship development, qualified leads, referrals, and other measurable outcomes—not attendance alone.

What Success Looks Like

Success in this role will be measured through outcomes such as:

• Growth in qualified patient referrals

• New professional referral relationships established

• Increased referrals from existing partners

• Referral-source engagement and retention

• Referral-to-intake and intake-to-service conversion trends

• Timely, accurate documentation and follow-up

• Effective management of referred patients throughout intake

• Quality and impact of monthly and quarterly outreach events

• Consistent execution of an organized territory-development plan

Required Qualifications

• At least five years of healthcare business development, physician relations, provider outreach, referral development, or healthcare networking experience

• Documented success generating patient referrals , not solely general brand awareness, product sales, fundraising, or event attendance

• Experience developing professional relationships with healthcare providers, hospitals, health systems, multi-location practices, or other established referral networks

• A strong professional résumé demonstrating measurable business-development and referral-generation results

• Professional references who can speak to the candidate’s relationship-building ability, performance, reliability, and results

• Experience managing a territory, referral pipeline, outreach schedule, or book of professional relationships

• Strong written, verbal, presentation, and interpersonal communication skills

• Excellent organization, documentation, and follow-through

• Ability to work independently while remaining highly accountable to goals and reporting expectations

• Comfort using CRM, referral-tracking, or similar business-development systems

• Ability and willingness to travel regularly throughout the assigned territory

• Valid driver’s license and reliable transportation, where required for the territory

Preferred Qualifications

• Business development or referral-generation experience in pediatric or children’s healthcare

• Experience in behavioral health, developmental services, autism services, therapy, diagnostics, or another family-centered healthcare field

• Existing professional relationships within the assigned territory

• Experience working with pediatricians, hospital systems, diagnostic providers, specialists, therapists, schools, or multi-location healthcare practices

• Knowledge of healthcare intake, insurance authorization, and patient-access processes

• Experience using data to prioritize referral sources and improve conversion results

Who Will Thrive in This Role

You may be an excellent fit if you:

• Understand that strong healthcare business development is built on trust, credibility, consistency, and follow-through

• Can point to specific examples of professional relationships that produced patient referrals

• Know how to move beyond introductions and develop long-term referral partnerships

• Take ownership of a referral after it is generated and remain engaged through the intake journey

• Are comfortable being measured on meaningful referral growth and patient-access outcomes

• Can represent the organization professionally with both senior healthcare leaders and families

• Balance strategic relationship development with disciplined documentation and pipeline management

• Are motivated by helping children and families connect with needed care

Application Requirements

Applicants should submit:

• A current résumé detailing at least five years of relevant healthcare business development experience

• Examples of measurable patient-referral or territory-growth results

• A brief description of the provider types, healthcare networks, or referral channels they have developed

• Professional references, requested during the interview process