Key Responsibilities:
- Partnership Strategy & Commercial Growth:
- Design and implement a forward-looking, comprehensive partnership roadmap aligned with business objectives.
- Drive commercial success through revenue growth, renewal excellence, and improved partner commercials.
- Lead ROI-focused initiatives that enhance partner performance and strategic alignment.
- Proactively identify and deliver joint growth initiatives, co-innovation opportunities, and new revenue streams that deepen strategic value and unlock shared success.
- Deliver rigorous market and performance analysis to inform both short- and long-term strategic decisions.
- Strategic Negotiation:
- Lead complex, high-value partnership negotiations and renewal processes from end to end.
- Navigate commercial, legal, and operational complexities to land agreements that maximize mutual value for both CarTrawler and their partners.
- Executive Relationship Management:
- Build and maintain strong senior-level relationships with key partners, including C-Level contacts, understanding their business objectives and key success factors.
- Act as a trusted strategic advisor — internally and externally — aligning shared goals and unlocking new opportunities.
- Confidently manage multi-layer partner environments with multiple stakeholders involving Commercial, Product, Technology, and Operations teams.
- Strategic Leadership & Influence:
- Provide strategic direction and thought leadership within the Partnerships leadership team.
- Champion a 'partners-first' mindset while ensuring alignment with the company’s broader commercial strategy.
- Represent the voice of the partner in internal commercial, product and technical discussions, balancing external needs with internal capabilities.
- Drive a high-performance culture: mentor, coach, and support career development within the Partnerships team.
- Act as a key voice at the leadership table, communicating proactively with senior stakeholders to ensure alignment, secure buy-in, and build strong partnerships across the organisation.
- Cross Functional Collaboration:
- Act as the single point of accountability for our strategic partner relationship.
- Collaborate closely with Trading, Revenue, Product, and Technology teams to align priorities and deliver against shared milestones.
- Partner closely with revenue teams to translate insights into action by identifying opportunities and converting them into measurable business outcomes.
- Transform and scale partnership processes to empower teams to move faster, reduce friction, and focus their energy on the work that truly drives impact, innovation, and personal growth.
Critical Interfaces:
- Leadership Collective & Extended Leadership Team: Collaborate to deliver on company strategy.
- Trading: Provide strategic input and ensure effective communication of trading performance to partners.
- Go-Live Team and Commercial: Ensure smooth onboarding and mitigate risks during handover.
- Supply and Insurance: Align supply and demand, coordinating partner-specific requests.
- Product and Technology: Understand offerings and ensure smooth partner integrations.
Knowledge and Experience:
- Minimum of 7+ years' experience in a senior commercial partnership leadership role with a strong record of driving and growing revenue-based partnerships at scale.
- Experience of managing partners through the partnership life cycle, including closing high-value deals and negotiating renewals.
- Demonstrated expertise in negotiating, structuring, and closing complex, high-value partnership agreements. Proven ability to drive mutually beneficial outcomes through strategic negotiation and a deep understanding of commercial dynamics.
- Strategic and collaborative thinker with a proven ability to co-develop compelling partner value propositions. Focused on driving shared revenue growth through joint initiatives, rather than solely managing relationships.
- Proven ability to lead with emotional intelligence and executive presence, navigating ambiguity with confidence and clarity.
- Skilled at inspiring teams, empowering individuals, and influencing cross-functional and senior stakeholders—both internally and externally—to align around strategic and commercial priorities.
- Highly experienced in engaging and influencing senior stakeholders through clear, persuasive communication. Skilled at navigating complex commercial environments, managing competing priorities, and driving alignment across internal and external partners with speed, precision and professionalism.
- Entrepreneurial mindset—self-motivated, creative thinker with a willingness to take calculated risks in pursuit of innovative solutions.
- Experience in fast-paced, high-growth environments (e.g., tech, digital platforms, marketplaces, SaaS, fintech).