Head of Partnerships

Who We Are

Government is critical to solving global challenges

Whether we like or dislike government, love it or despair of it, most of us can agree that government plays a critical role in solving our hardest challenges — from the climate and refugee crises to the strain of urbanisation, the need for better cybersecurity, and the urgency of adapting to a world where an algorithm is chasing your job.

But public servants lack access to the best skills and solutions

Around the world, the people working in government are tackling similar problems. But with public servants disconnected from each other and from the latest and best ideas and skills, many good ideas remain confined to a country, city, or sometimes even a department. This leads to duplication of effort, wasted taxpayer money, and poorer services.

Apolitical brings 21st century learning into government

Who nowadays would book a trip or buy a product without first seeing what’s available and what other’s experiences have been? Apolitical brings to government the sharing and ongoing learning we take for granted in other sectors, making it inspiring and easy to find the latest and best ideas and skills, grounded in the experience of peers.

Our mission is to help build 21st century governments that work for people and the planet

The Apolitical team are optimists about the power of government as a force for good. We don't think government is perfect. But we do think it works better than the media often suggests. And we're fans of the committed men and women who work in government — the world’s largest workforce — most of whom chose their careers because of a deep wish to serve society. We are proud to be helping them.

Our governance and business model

Apolitical was founded by mission-driven entrepreneurs and backed by impact investors in Europe, North America, Asia, Africa, and Australasia and supported by an EU Horizon 2020 grant. It is a for-profit company and a Certified B Corporation. We believe that business can be a force for good and are proud to be held to a high standard of accountability and transparency.

The Role

We're looking for 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
• 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

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)