Associate Director, Partnership (Education)

KOS International Talent Group; Hong Kong; On-site; HKD 1,000,000 - 1,600,000; Full time

Job summary

KOS International Talent Group is recruiting an Associate Director to lead the Hong Kong Schools business. The role focuses on retaining and expanding a well‑established school subscription portfolio and forging new institutional partnerships.

You will build trusted senior‑level relationships with principals and curriculum leaders, drive strategic initiatives, and coordinate cross‑functional teams to deliver coordinated campaigns and school‑focused programs.

Qualifications

• 8–10 years in business development, sales leadership, institutional partnerships or account management.
• Experience in education, EdTech, publishing, media, or related sectors advantageous.
• Strong network among Hong Kong primary and secondary schools, Principals and senior leadership preferred.
• Proven success in achieving commercial targets and managing multi‑stakeholder initiatives.
• Experience scaling strategic programmes, platforms or customer ecosystems.

Responsibilities

• Lead the Hong Kong Schools team to retain, renew and grow subscription partnerships across primary and secondary education.
• Identify and convert new business opportunities to expand market penetration in the HK school sector.
• Build and maintain senior relationships with school principals, curriculum leaders and other decision-makers.
• Align learning priorities and curriculum needs with content, publications, programmes and events.

Skills

EdTech expertise

Sales leadership

Partnership development

Stakeholder management

Team leadership

Bilingual English/Cantonese

Job description

Our client is a leading Hong Kong education organisation with a long-established presence. Through award-winning youth publications, digital learning resources and journalism-inspired programmes, the organisation supports young learners in building practical language skills and critical-thinking abilities.

We are seeking a commercially driven and strategic Associate Director to lead the Hong Kong Schools business. This role will be responsible for retaining and growing a well-established school subscription portfolio, developing new institutional partnerships.

Responsibilities

• Lead the Hong Kong Schools team to retain, renew and grow existing school subscription partnerships across primary and secondary education.
• Identify, develop and convert new business opportunities to expand market penetration within the Hong Kong school sector.
• Build trusted, senior-level relationships with school principals, English panel chairs, curriculum leaders and other key decision-makers.
• Develop a deep understanding of schools' English-language learning priorities, curriculum requirements and student-engagement needs.
• Create and implement strategies that position the organisation's learning content, publications, programmes and events as an integral part of schools' daily learning environment.
• Drive the transition from transactional subscription relationships toward long-term institutional partnerships and a sustainable education ecosystem.
• Work closely with internal teams across Events, Marketing, Editorial, Product, Operations and other relevant functions to deliver coordinated campaigns and school-focused initiatives.
• Provide market insight and customer feedback to help shape product development, content priorities and future school offerings.
• Balance short-term commercial delivery with longer-term strategic objectives, including customer retention, product adoption and partnership expansion.
• Manage, coach and motivate a high-performing business development and relationship-management team.
• Establish clear KPIs, monitor performance and foster a collaborative, accountable and high-performance team culture.

Requirements

• At least 8-10 years of experience in business development, sales leadership, institutional partnerships or account management.
• Experience within education, EdTech, publishing, media, learning solutions or a related sector will be highly advantageous.
• A strong and established network among Hong Kong primary and secondary schools, particularly with principals, English panel chairs, curriculum leaders or senior school management, is strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated success in achieving commercial targets while managing complex, multi-stakeholder partnership initiatives.
• Experience developing and scaling strategic programmes, platforms, subscription models or customer ecosystems rather than only delivering one-off sales.
Strong stakeholder-management skills, with the ability to engage credibly with school leaders as well as internal commercial, editorial, product and operational teams.
• Proven people-management experience, including coaching, performance management and KPI-setting.
• Highly strategic, commercially astute and hands-on, with the ability to translate customer needs into practical business plans.
• Native or near-native fluency in English and Cantonese, with strong written and verbal communication skills in both languages.