Senior Partnerships Manager

• Salary: £60,000 to £75,000 depending on experience
• Start date: Immediately
• Contract: Permanent and Full Time
• Working hours: Flexible
• Location: Hybrid working in London, UK. You must have the right to work in the UK
• Office: Most of our team opt to come into our swish, wheelchair-accessible office in Elephant & Castle 1-3 times per week
• Closing date: Sunday 20 August 2023

We care deeply about having a diverse and inclusive workforce, and welcome candidates from all backgrounds. Should you require any accommodations during the hiring process, please don't hesitate to let us know. We will do our best to ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment.

What We Do

Apolitical is a social learning platform for government. Our mission is to help build 21st century governments that work 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 200,000 public servants and policymakers in 170 countries, with community members ranging from mayors, ministers, and heads of civil services to policy pioneers and digital disruptors. 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 our leadership principles. Before applying, read Apolitical’s Leadership Principles and make sure you're excited by the autonomy and changeability that a Series A stage startup demands.

The Role

We are looking for a Senior Partnerships Manager to join our Partnerships team and play a leading role in our flagship programmes such as the Government Climate Campus (GCC), a collaborative initiative to address the green skills gap in government. Launched in November 2022, the GCC aims to equip 50,000 public servants in the most important topics, roles and countries to halve emissions this decade. The Government Climate Campus has several stakeholders including governments, philanthropic bodies, academic institutions, leading experts and network bodies. Your role will be to manage and deliver this complex project to worldclass and exceptional standards.

The Team

The Partnerships Team leads on sales and delivery to our enterprise clients. Our clients include governments, innovative foundations and other organisations who partner with us to create inspiring and engaging learning offerings - both online and in-person. Our partners include the Public School of Administration in Brazil, the Western Cape Government in South Africa, the UK Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, Oxford and Cambridge Universities and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Tasks and Responsibilities

Key Aims

• Ensure world-class and exceptional standards of delivery on our flagship programme, the Government Climate Campus
• Support the personal and professional development of your team (starting with one person reporting in to you)
• Add valuable insights to the partnerships and wider Apolitical team

Ensure world-class and exceptional standards of delivery on our flagship programme - 60%

• Strategically plan, manage, and execute projects with our enterprise clients - You will determine how best to sequence and deliver projects with multiple components . You will coordinate with various teams to deliver project components for enterprise clients. You will act as a liaison between internal teams and external partners to ensure effective communication and coordination.

• Lead the end-to-end project management lifecycle of the Government Climate Campus - You will collaborate with internal teams to define project scopes, objectives and deliverables and develop comprehensive project plans to reflect these. You will monitor project progress and performance, providing regular updates to stakeholders and leadership.

• Recruit potential users/learners for our learning experiences - You will liaise with team members to identify ideal user/learner profile and related targets in terms of background, geography, gender, seniority and others. You will support the recruitment strategy, including contributing to the creation of effective marketing assets.
• Drive the gathering and collating of qualitative and quantitative data from internal and external stakeholders - You will inform the development of robust evaluation reports that meets specific partner requirements.
• Manage relationships with enterprise clients to achieve high satisfaction scores - You will need to communicate the impact we are achieving for our clients, secure their agreement on how to carry out the work and drive our agendas forward, often with their involvement.
• Roll up your sleeves and get involved in delivering - We might be doing something novel for a client. In this case, it is likely that you, with the support of colleagues, will have to design the intervention and do it yourself.

Support the personal and professional development of your team (starting with one person reporting in to you) - 25%

• Line management - You will embed ownership and accountability in your report’s role, setting clear expectations about their responsibilities on the team and giving them the autonomy to deliver on them.
• Wellbeing - You will create a safe space for your report to share how they're doing, ensuring they feel recognised and valued for their work on an ongoing basis.
• Learning & Development - You will build trust with your report, identifying their strengths and areas for development and delivering high-quality feedback around them on a continuous basis.
• Coaching - You will be a committed coach, asking thoughtful questions to unlock your report’s potential to maximise their own performance.
• Development as a manager - You will focus on your development as a manager with as much enthusiasm as your development as a contributor.

Add valuable insights to the partnerships and wider Apolitical team - 15%

• Contributing to critical success factors for the Partnerships team - As a client-facing team, you will contribute to company knowledge around delivery to enterprise customer.
• Supporting the sales team in re-ups and referral conversation - You will support the sales team to build recurring revenue from flagship programmes. You will also strive to find pragmatic, high-return and win-win opportunities for the clients and our company.
• Cross-collaborate to identify problems and provide solutions - You will problem-solve with internal teams. You will feed valuable customer insights and perspectives that can be used to shape decisions and direction for other teams’ workings and strategy

Please note that, due to the nature of the work we do with global governments and partners, all employees are required to pass BPSS verification.

Requirements

Experience

• You have a proven track record of at least 3-5 years in project/programme management and account management that includes overseeing delivery on large scale projects (worth £1mn+)
• You have worked on accounts related to one of our key customer segments, i.e. governments, foundations or corporates
• Native-level spoken and written English - concise, persuasive writing and delicate client handling is critical to this role

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 judgment 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 judgment in where you spend your time and ask the right questions so you continuously improve.

Let us know if you have

• Prince2 or a similar project management qualification
• Demonstrated experience or knowledge of government and/or foundations.

Don’t meet every single requirement? Studies have shown that women and people of colour are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single qualification. Apolitical is dedicated to building a diverse and inclusive workplace, so if you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyways. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.

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: Unlimited holidays, trusting people to take what they need when they need it (and encouraging time off where people aren’t taking enough). As a restorative reboot, we give everyone on the team the last Friday of every month off.
• Office: We’re a hybrid working company, but when we’re at the office, we’re based 3 minutes from Elephant & Castle station, easily accessible from all areas of London. Our office is wheelchair accessible and has gender-neutral loos, and we also have flexibility around remote work in the UK.
• Parental leave: Four months' maternity, paternity and adoption leave.
• Childcare benefit: Access to salary exchange through YellowNest, designed to help parents of kids aged 0-5 save 30-47% on childcare costs in the UK.
• Development: Learning and development budgets for books, conferences and courses. We also offer have an extensive library to which every team member contributes their favourite book.
• Socials: Monthly virtual and in-person socials. We aim to make activities, food and beverage at socials as inclusive as possible and are always open to suggestions from the team.
• Financial wellbeing: Pension contribution on a banded scheme, salary exchange, and access to Maji, a financial planning tool to help you achieve your goals.
• WFH setup: A work Macbook and working-from-home budget for equipment that supports your physical wellbeing.
• Knowledge-sharing: On Fridays we have talks on Zoom from team members to public service members sharing their work.
• Mental Wellbeing: Membership to Health Assured, supporting employee mental health through 24/7 access to therapists.
• Cycle-to-Work: We are registered on the UK’s Cycle-to-Work scheme, so you can buy a bike and cycling accessories tax-free.

Non-discrimination and equal opportunity policy

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.

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