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portmandentex

Category manager - Dental Plan

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Job Purpose / The Role

Portman Dentex is hiring a Senior Commercial Manager to lead its Dental Plan category. Reporting to the Chief Growth Officer, this role sits at the heart of one of PortmanDentex’s most important commercial priorities and represents a significant portion of annual revenue and is important for its continued strategic growth. . You will be responsible for driving the strategic growth of the category, covering growth initiatives, supplier partnerships, commercial performance, clinical engagement and marketing initiatives. The role combines category strategy with hands-on delivery to ensure scalable, ethical and commercially sound implementation across the business. Historically we have focused more on the administration of the plan and not delivering a growth agenda. So this represents an exciting opportunity to drive significant growth in this sector.

You will be comfortable operating at all levels of the organisation - from the support team working directly and cross functionally across teams such as Marketing, Commercial and Technology etc through to working with our dental practice teams (Practice Managers, nurses through to Directors, clinicians) to implement best practices, optimise profitability, and enhance patient experience and clinical outcomes across our practices.

This role is well suited to an individual with strong category and customer experience. Ideally you will have worked in a subscription business with deep commercial and customer management experience. You will have experience of driving commercial and customer growth through change with project management experience as well, ideally gained within a structured or blue-chip commercial environment, who is looking to apply their skills within a growing healthcare organisation. Travel across the UK and Ireland will be required.

Key Accountabilities

Category Strategy & Growth

  • Own the category strategy, growth roadmap and performance for the Dental Plans category across the PortmanDentex network.
  • Identify and prioritise opportunities to grow the category through acquisition and retention – ie more patient signing up and less leaving.
  • Act as the internal category expert, providing insight and guidance to senior stakeholders across the business.

Customer activation and management

  • Develop a set of initiatives and plans that will drive performance. These are likely to be across key themes of:
    • Acquisition and activation – develop marketing and growth plans and work with practices to drive growth of sign ups to drive acquisition.
    • In life management – ensure good adoption of dental plans and high usage
    • Customer retention – understand and develop strategies that will drive retention ensuring more customers stay than previously
  • Translate strategic priorities into clear commercial initiatives and implementation plans which will be delivered by the relevant central teams (Marketing, Digital, Technology, Procurement, Operations) and across practices.
  • Develop a clear Customer Management focus to ensure ongoing management of Dental Plan Customers
  • Work closely with Clinicial leads, practice teams and other SMEs to support implementation of category initiatives and to drive practice performance.
  • Develop ongoing tracking and reporting of plans and activities to understand current performance and drive growth
  • Design and execute targeted patient acquisition and re-engagement campaigns, including lapsed patient outreach, referral schemes, seasonal campaigns, and segmented lifecycle communications via CRM.
  • Develop strategic thinking and the longer-term roadmap for a PortmanDentex-branded (white label) plan

Supplier & Strategic Partner Management

  • Develop and manage strategic supplier partnerships that support category innovation, capability development and commercial growth.
  • Work with procurement to maximise value, training support and practice adoption from supplier relationships.

Performance & Insight

  • Develop clear insight as to the drivers of growth and performance and build out reporting and
  • Monitor category performance across the network, identifying trends, performance gaps and opportunities for growth.
  • Use data and insight to inform commercial decision-making and prioritise improvement initiatives.
  • Track delivery metrics and benefits realisation to ensure category initiatives deliver measurable impact.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

  • Work collaboratively with Operations, Marketing, BI, Procurement and Clinical teams to deliver initiatives that support category performance.
  • Support marketing campaigns, training initiatives and reporting frameworks that drive patient engagement and category growth.

Skills & Experience

Essential

  • Bachelor’s degree in a relevant discipline (Business, Commerce, Marketing, Economics, Finance, Life Sciences / Health Sciences).
  • Deep Commercial and Customer experience in Product and category management. You will have owned products before and had experience in driving growth
  • Specific experience in Customer Management and retention plans would be a benefit but not essential
  • Experience in category management, programme management or commercial project delivery, ideally within a structured or blue-chip organisation.
  • Demonstrated ability to deliver cross-functional initiatives and drive implementation across multiple stakeholders.
  • Strong stakeholder management and influencing skills, with the ability to engage effectively with clinicians, operational teams and senior leaders.
  • Strong commercial awareness and analytical capability, with the ability to interpret data and drive performance improvement.
  • Excellent communication, organisation and delivery skills.

Desired

  • Exposure to the healthcare, dental or medical device sector.
  • Experience supporting the development of service lines, treatment pathways or healthcare categories.
  • Familiarity with data analysis and reporting tools (e.g. Power BI).
  • Experience working within multi-site service or healthcare environments.
  • Experience working with premium, clinically led services or high-value treatment pathways.
  • Experience in working in regulated business as well.

What Success Looks Like in the First 12 Months

  • A clear category growth strategy and delivery roadmap established and agreed with senior stakeholders.
  • Strong engagement with clinicians, Regional Clinical Leads and practice teams across the network.
  • Tangible improvements in category performance
  • Effective supplier partnerships delivering innovation, training and commercial value.
  • Scalable plan sign-up, onboarding and retention processes embedded across the practice network,
  • Clear performance reporting and insight frameworks in place to support ongoing category development.

Benefits

In addition to a competitive basic salary, our benefits also include:

  • Wellbeing Support: 24/7 Employee Assistance Programme and GP service plus an in-house Mental Health First Aider programme
  • Additional Reward: bonus scheme based on business performance, with additional bonus available linked to category growth
  • Extra Leave: Birthday off and option to buy 3 more days
  • Family Support: Enhanced maternity/paternity leave
  • Financial Security: Life assurance and pension scheme

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We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity, equity and inclusion in our workplace. We are committed to creating an environment of mutual respect and are dedicated to providing equal employment opportunities regardless of race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, pregnancy or maternity, marital or civil partner status, disability, age, or nationality.