Business Development Specialist

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 Do

Professional 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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