Head of Partnerships

Apolitical is a global learning network for government. Our mission is to make government work better for people and the planet. We equip policymakers with the knowledge, skills and community they need to solve the world’s hardest challenges. Our platform is used by more than 100,000 public servants and policymakers in 170 countries, with members ranging from mayors, ministers, and heads of civil services to millennials pioneering digital innovations. Apolitical is backed by mission-driven investors around the world and by prestigious European Union innovation funding. Apolitical’s decision-making and team culture is guided by The Apolitical Leadership Principles and The Apolitical Charter.

We are seeking a Head of Partnerships to join our Sales & Customer Success team that leads on our work with enterprise clients. Our enterprise clients include governments, foundations and corporations. Our enterprise revenue comes from two kinds of learning products - (a) Standard - This includes single course purchases, subscriptions for ‘all you can eat’ learning experiences and private classes with local or global cohorts of public servants and b) Bespoke - This includes instances where we are commissioned to create courses or deeper learning experiences. We also work with a number of enterprise sales channel partners including academic institutions and large consulting firms. A few examples of our clients are the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office, Employment and Social Development Canada, Oxford University, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Mastercard’s Centre for Government Excellence.

The Head of Partnerships role is a full-time role and based in London/UK. If you are currently based out of the UK, then you must be willing to relocate and have a right to work in the UK.

Requirements

The key aims of the role are as following:

• Ensure world-class and exceptional standards of delivery to our enterprise customers - Demonstrated by customer feedback, customer satisfaction scores, and willingness to reup with Apolitical.
• Build a driven and high performing team of account managers and engagement managers - Demonstrated by team feedback and performance
• Add valuable insights to optimise delivery costs and to the workings of other teams like Product, Growth, Data & Engineering - Demonstrated by time/cost savings due to people and process management. Also by feedback from other teams.
• Support the sales team (including resells, upsells and referrals)

Ensure world-class and exceptional standards of delivery to our enterprise customers (40% of your time)

• Build strong relationships with counterparties in customer teams
• Work with account managers to onboard enterprise customers, translate proposals into actionable milestones and plans and oversee their implementation.
• Lead and guide complex or contentious discussions with customers
• Coordinate with other teams as needed to resolve complex questions
• Oversee rigorous collection of data and metrics and provision of evaluation reports

Build a driven and high performing team of account managers and engagement managers (30% of your time)

• Structure a delivery team that optimises costs and resources for Apolitical and delivers values to our customers.
• Take responsibility for the personal and professional growth of the delivery team
• Improve delivery processes that can be viable and efficient at scale and that can address complexity, i.e. multiple customer segments across multiple product types across multiple countries

Continuously optimise delivery processes and contribute customer insights to adjacent teams like Product, Growth, Data & Engineering (10% of your time)

• Build company knowledge around delivery to varying customer segments and for varying functions within delivery
• Feed valuable customer insights and perspectives that can be used to shape decisions and direction for other teams’ workings and strategy

Support the sales team (including resells, upsells and referrals) (15% of your time)

• Provide valuable referrals, recommendations, insights and opportunities from existing partners to the sales team.
• Provide inputs into proposals and budgets, especially in resell/upsell opportunities

As the team evolves its revenue streams and breaks into new markets, there will be opportunities for you to represent Apolitical more widely.

Your Qualifications

• 6-8 years experience in account management that includes overseeing delivery on multiple and large scale projects (worth £1mn+). We are open to more experienced professionals who want the hands-on experience of building and growing with a company.
• 3-4 years’ experience of having managed a team
• Demonstrated experience of having worked on accounts related to one of our key customer segments, i.e. governments, foundations or corporate
• Native-level spoken and written English - concise, persuasive writing and delicate client handling is critical to this role
• Plus: French or Portuguese would be an advantage
• Plus: Work experience within online learning would be an advantage

Essential Skills

• Proactive, agile and adaptable. Our company moves quickly and you will constantly be doing new things. You will also need to respond to different partners’ expectations, needs and communication styles. Hence, you will need to be self-aware, agile, adaptable, and quick to respond to feedback.

• Sound judgement and high emotional intelligence. You have a good instinct for how to respond to situations and handle people - internally and externally - to achieve the best outcome.

• Effective listener and persuasive communicator, both written and verbal. You are able to listen to and understand the client’s aims, pain points and needs. You can adapt what you say based on who you are talking to, drawing on the most relevant examples and opportunities to achieve your objectives.

• Highly organised, allowing you to keep track of details. You must be able to handle multiple customers, deadlines and priorities, and not drop the small things that might matter to clients.

• Smart problem-solver. You can break down problems and projects into smaller parts to make them actionable or more understandable. With this knowledge, you can come up with pragmatic ways to achieve your objectives.

• Great at balancing quality with speed. You will be stretched in this role - that is the way startups are! You need to enjoy operating at high speed, while not compromising the quality of your work. You’ll need to apply careful judgement in where you spend your time and ask the right questions so you continuously improve.

Benefits

(In addition to working with smart, kind people on one of the most important challenges of our time…)

Stock options: Our employee options plan gives you a stake in our vision.

Flexibility: Everyone works differently. Whether it’s early mornings, late nights or a day at home, we support what gives you energy and makes you effective.

Holidays: We have unlimited holidays, trusting people to take what they need when they need. As a restorative reboot, we give everyone on the team the last Friday of every month off.

Office: In normal times we’re based in beautiful Public Hall, in the heart of Westminster and overlooking the River Thames though we have flexibility around remote working

Parental leave: We offer generous maternity, paternity and adoption leave.

Personal development: We offer twice-monthly learning days and have learning and development budgets for books, conferences and courses.

Library: We have a constantly growing library, to which every team member contributes their favourite book. There’s also a bigger library in Public Hall.

Discounts: Exclusive discounts and rewards at over 30,000 brands.

Salary: £70k-80k depending on experience

Deadline for applications: 31st May 2021

To apply, submit a CV and cover letter. Please ensure that your covering letter addresses the following questions:

• Give us 3 compelling reasons demonstrating why you are best suited for this role (200 words)
• Using the example of a large scale project, give us an example of a key strategic decision that you took that increased value for both your employer and your customer. (200 words)
• What is a personal characteristic that you have received constructive negative feedback on and what have you done about it? (200 words)

Apolitical is an equal opportunity employer. We will not discriminate and will take affirmative action measures to ensure against discrimination in employment, recruitment, advertisements for employment, compensation, termination, upgrading, promotions, and other conditions of employment against any employee or job applicant on the bases of race, colour, gender, national origin, age, religion, creed, disability, veteran’s status, sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.