Director of Business Development

Adecco Portugal; Pasadena (CA); Hybrid; USD 140,000 - 250,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Commission opportunity

Job summary

Adecco Portugal is assisting in recruiting for a senior Head of Software Partnerships in Pasadena, CA. This hybrid role requires US citizenship and the ability to commute 1-2 days weekly. The position focuses on strategic technology partnerships and channel collaborations to drive revenue growth.

Reporting to senior leadership, you will lead negotiations, partner governance, and cross-functional alignment. You will build executive relationships, define partnership economics, and develop scalable

Qualifications

• 8+ years in strategic partnerships, alliances, or related roles.
• Experience building and closing partnerships that drive revenue.
• Proven ability to negotiate complex commercial agreements.
• Strong executive presence with senior-level stakeholders.
• Experience with partner management platforms and CRM tools.
• Bachelor's degree required.

Responsibilities

• Develop and execute a strategic partnership strategy aligned with growth objectives.
• Identify and pursue high-value technology, platform, channel, and ecosystem partners.
• Lead negotiations and onboarding from initial contact through launch.
• Manage affiliate relationships and partner incentives.
• Collaborate with Sales, Marketing, Product, Legal, and Finance.

Skills

Strategic partnerships

Executive relationships

Negotiation

Sales strategy

CRM Salesforce

Partner platforms

Opportunity identification

Education

Bachelor's degree

Tools

Salesforce

AWIN

Impact

Job description

Head of Software Partnerships - Hybrid Role - NO SPONSORSHIP - MUST BE A US CITIZEN

Must be able to commute to Pasadena 1-2 days a week.

This is a HUNTER role, not an account manager. MUST have experience selling to organizations that produce software, specifically accounting and tax software.

Pasadena, CA | Direct Hire | $140,000–$170,000 Base + Commission | 1st year $200,000–$250,000 OTE

The Adecco Permanent Recruitment Team is recruiting on behalf of a rapidly growing professional services and technology company for a Head of Software Partnerships to lead the development and expansion of strategic technology, channel, affiliate, and platform partnerships.

This is a senior-level opportunity for a relationship-driven partnerships professional who can identify high-value opportunities, build executive relationships, negotiate complex commercial agreements, and develop a scalable partnership strategy that directly contributes to revenue growth.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Partnerships

• Develop and execute a strategic partnership strategy aligned with company growth objectives.
• Identify, evaluate, prioritize, and pursue high-value technology, platform, channel, and ecosystem partners.
• Build relationships with senior executives and decision-makers at prospective partner organizations.
• Lead outreach, discovery, qualification, business cases, negotiations, and partnership development from initial contact through launch.
• Represent the company in executive-level partnership discussions and industry relationships.
• Negotiate and structure a variety of partnership agreements, including referral, affiliate, revenue-share, co-selling, marketplace, embedded, and white-label arrangements.
• Develop partnership economics, partner tiers, incentives, governance models, and performance expectations.
• Build repeatable processes and infrastructure for a scalable partnership program.
• Identify opportunities to expand existing relationships and develop new sources of revenue and market reach.
• Develop onboarding materials, presentations, pitch assets, FAQs, pricing information, demo flows, lead-handoff processes, and partner playbooks.
• Work with Marketing and Sales to develop joint go-to-market initiatives such as webinars, events, content, marketplace listings, landing pages, and other partner campaigns.
• Lead regular partner business reviews and maintain strong ongoing relationships.
• Oversee affiliate relationships, including onboarding, incentives, performance management, and partner communications.

Cross-Functional Leadership

• Serve as a strategic bridge between executive leadership, Sales, Marketing, Product, Legal, and Finance.
• Bring partner and customer feedback into product and market discussions.
• Collaborate with Product Management on product positioning, packaging, roadmap priorities, and launch readiness.
• Help ensure partnership opportunities are aligned with broader company and product strategy.

Performance & Analytics

• Establish and monitor partnership KPIs, including partner pipeline, closed revenue, activation, conversion, velocity, and overall channel contribution.
• Maintain accurate CRM records and partnership reporting.
• Develop dashboards, scorecards, and attribution processes to measure partnership performance and ROI.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in strategic partnerships, alliances, business development, strategic sales, or corporate development.
• Demonstrated success building and closing strategic partnerships that generated measurable revenue, pipeline, market expansion, or product adoption.
• Experience negotiating complex commercial agreements such as referral, affiliate, revenue-share, channel, co-selling, marketplace, embedded, or white-label partnerships.
• Strong executive presence and experience developing relationships with senior-level decision-makers.
• Proven ability to identify and pursue new strategic partnership opportunities.
• Experience developing partnership strategy, processes, partner tiers, economics, and performance metrics.
• Strong commercial and financial acumen with the ability to evaluate partnership opportunities and business cases.
• Experience managing partnerships through the full lifecycle, from prospecting and negotiation through launch and ongoing optimization.
• Ability to collaborate effectively across Sales, Marketing, Product, Legal, Finance, and executive leadership.
• Strong CRM, reporting, and analytical capabilities; experience with Salesforce and/or partner management platforms preferred.
• Experience with affiliate or partner platforms such as AWIN, Impact, or similar tools is a plus.
• Bachelor's degree required.

What You'll Bring

We're looking for someone who is both strategic and hands-on—a person who can develop the overall partnership vision while also making the introductions, leading executive conversations, negotiating agreements, and building the processes needed to turn partnerships into measurable business results.

The ideal candidate has a proven track record of creating partnerships rather than simply managing existing accounts and is comfortable operating in a fast-moving, entrepreneurial environment.

• $200,000–$250,000 target total compensation
• Commission opportunity
• Senior leadership-level role with significant influence over company growth and partnership strategy