Director, Strategic Partnerships

Clutch; Toronto; On-site; CAD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Comprehensive benefits

Equity opportunities

Autonomy to shape new function

Job summary

Clutch is seeking a Director of Strategic Partnerships to build a new commercial growth function in Canada. You will identify opportunities across vehicle supply and customer distribution, negotiate terms, and lead launches with internal teams to scale partnerships that deliver measurable value.

You will report to senior executives and shape a function from the ground up, with opportunities to recruit and grow a dedicated team as the program expands.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in business development or partnerships.
• Proven track record of originating, negotiating, launching and growing partnerships.
• Strong commercial judgement and ability to develop financial cases.

Responsibilities

• Set the strategy for high-potential partnership categories and prioritize opportunities.
• Originate programs with OEMs, lenders, and fleet operators to drive trade-ins and disposition.
• Build new customer distribution channels with banks, insurers and loyalty programs.
• Support brand partnerships and contribute commercial structure and development expertise.
• Own the deal end to end from outreach to contracting and launch cross-functional teams.
• Grow launches into repeatable programs with measurable impact and clear KPIs.
• Recruit and scale a partnerships function as opportunities grow.

Skills

Business development

Strategic partnerships

Negotiation

Executive presence

Team building

Job description

About Clutch

We’re on a mission to reinvent the way Canadians buy and sell cars. Clutch combines an intuitive online experience with in-house vehicle reconditioning, logistics and financial services to make buying or selling a car simpler, more transparent and more convenient, all backed by our 10-Day Money-Back Guarantee.

About Clutch

We’re on a mission to reinvent the way Canadians buy and sell cars. Clutch combines an intuitive online experience with in-house vehicle reconditioning, logistics and financial services to make buying or selling a car simpler, more transparent and more convenient, all backed by our 10-Day Money-Back Guarantee.

Founded in 2017 and headquartered in Toronto, Clutch serves customers across Ontario, British Columbia, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. We generate over $1 billion in annual revenue and have been named to The Globe and Mail’s list of Canada’s Top Growing Companies for six consecutive years, along with Deloitte’s Technology Fast 50™ and Fast 500™. We’re backed by world‑class investors including D1 Capital, Altos Ventures, BMO Capital Partners, Canaan and Real Ventures.

We’ve reached meaningful scale, and we’re still early in our ambition to become a household name in Canadian automotive retail. That’s where you come in: we’re looking for curious, hard‑working, driven people who want to build it with us. Learn more at clutch.ca.

The Opportunity

We’re hiring a Director of Strategic Partnerships to build a new commercial growth function from the ground up. Your mission: unlock scalable, profitable ways for Canadians to buy from and sell to Clutch through relationships and programs that neither company could build as effectively alone.

You’ll identify opportunities across vehicle supply, customer distribution and reciprocal customer benefits, and work with our Brand team on select high‑impact brand partnerships. We’ve already had success here — brand partnerships with the Toronto Raptors and the NBA, supply partnerships with OEMs like Tesla — and we’re investing heavily behind the strategy. Think a leasing company making it easier for its customers to sell their current vehicle, a financial institution or fleet operator creating a better path to vehicle disposition, a national service network introducing Clutch to relevant buyers and sellers, or an insurance partner simplifying the car‑purchase journey. These are illustrative examples, not existing partnerships.

This is a builder’s role, not a sponsorship or account‑management position. You’ll find the opportunity, build the business case, win the partner, negotiate the economics, lead the launch and keep improving the relationship. Reporting directly to our CFO & Head of Marketing, you’ll have the autonomy and executive access to make meaningful deals happen — and the opportunity to build a team as the function scales.

What You’ll Do

• Set the strategy. Map the highest‑potential partnership categories, size the commercial upside and prioritize the opportunities with the best incremental economics and clearest path to execution.
• Unlock new vehicle supply. Originate programs with OEMs, direct‑to‑consumer automotive brands, lenders, leasing and fleet companies, and others that control or influence trade‑ins and disposition — working with internal teams to route each channel to the right retail or wholesale outcome.
• Build new customer distribution channels. Partner with banks, insurers, membership and loyalty programs, automotive‑service networks and other consumer businesses to reach high‑intent buyers and sellers at the right moment, through referral programs, embedded customer journeys, co‑marketing and partner‑funded benefits.
• Support brand partnerships. Work alongside Brand Marketing, who owns our sports, cultural and consumer‑brand relationships, contributing commercial structure and partner‑development expertise where there’s distribution or customer‑value upside.
• Own the deal end to end. Run a disciplined pipeline from outbound outreach through executive conversations, deal modelling, commercial terms and contracting. Lead cross‑functional launches with Marketing, Brand, Product, Vehicle Acquisition, Operations, Finance, Legal and Customer Experience.
• Grow what you launch. Act as the commercial owner for key relationships: track activation, resolve issues, lead business reviews and expand or renew the partnerships that perform. The work doesn’t stop at signature.
• Build a repeatable function. Measure real impact — incremental vehicles acquired, qualified leads, transactions, cost to acquire, contribution profit and clear reach and engagement goals for brand‑led work — and codify what works into evaluation criteria, scorecards and launch playbooks. Recruit and develop a team as the opportunity scales.

What Success Looks Like

Within your first year, you’ve built a credible pipeline of strategically valuable relationships and launched multiple operating partnerships delivering measurable, incremental vehicles, customers or brand value. You’ve earned trusted senior relationships, proven which partnership models scale profitably, and created a repeatable system for finding, closing, launching and growing partnerships, without compromising our brand, customer experience or vehicle quality.

What You Bring

• 8+ years in business development, strategic partnerships or related commercial roles, with a track record of independently leading complex opportunities. Exceptional candidates with different career paths are welcome.
• Proof you’ve done this before. You’ve personally originated, negotiated, launched and grown partnerships that delivered measurable commercial results — and you’re comfortable prospecting, building a qualified pipeline and closing.
• Strong commercial judgement. You can build a financial case, evaluate unit economics, test incrementality and recognize when a deal looks better on paper than in practice.
• Executive presence. Excellent relationship‑building and negotiation skills, and the ability to influence leaders inside and outside the company.
• Exceptional follow‑through. You can coordinate a multi‑team launch, handle setbacks and stay accountable for performance after the deal is signed.
• Builder’s independence. The curiosity and resourcefulness to stand up a function without a pre‑existing team or step‑by‑step direction.

Nice to Have

• Experience in consumer marketplaces, embedded finance or insurance, digital commerce, loyalty and membership ecosystems, or platform partnerships.
• Exposure to automotive retail, remarketing, leasing, fleet, lending or insurance.
• Experience building a partnerships team or launching a new business line.

Why Clutch

• Real scale, real momentum. Join a $1B+ business that’s still growing fast and reimagining one of Canada’s largest consumer categories.
• Build something that’s yours. Establish a new commercial function, shape its strategy, personally close flagship deals and build the team as it grows.
• A direct seat at the table. Work closely with the CFO & Head of Marketing and other senior executives, with the autonomy to move quickly and make a visible, company‑wide impact.
• Meaningful ownership. Share in the value you help create through equity opportunities.
• Comprehensive benefits from day one. Health, dental, vision, prescription, life insurance and dependent coverage for eligible permanent full‑time employees.

Employment Type

New Vacancy, Permanent Full-Time

Compensation & Benefits

• Benefits: Comprehensive healthcare, dental, vision, prescriptions, life insurance, and dependent coverage; starting from day 1.
• Pay decisions reflect skills, performance, market benchmarking, responsibilities, and working conditions.

Clutch is committed to fostering an inclusive workplace where all individuals have an opportunity to succeed. If you require accommodation at any stage of the interview process, please email [e-mail]. We use AI‑assisted tools to help screen and assess applications. Final hiring decisions are made by our team.