VP of Partnerships

Pax Recruiting; Austin (TX); Hybrid; USD 150,000 - 230,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

401(k) match

Health and dental plans

Vacation time

Office closures during holidays

Annual wellness reimbursement

Job summary

Pax Recruiting is assisting with a national nonprofit seeking a VP of Partnerships to lead the partnerships function, own major institutional deals, and scale donor programs. The role reports to the President and supervises partnerships, marketing activation, and related teams.

You will build strategy, recruit and develop talent, and drive high-value partner engagements across education networks, employers, and associations.

Qualifications

• 12+ years in partnerships, business development, or enterprise sales.
• Experience closing major institutional relationships with multiple stakeholders.
• Proven ability to lead a team and manage forecasts.

Responsibilities

• Lead largest and most complex institutional pursuits from prospecting to close.
• Coach the partnerships team on pipeline development and deal strategy.
• Set segment-level thesis and prioritize partners by reach and fit.
• Oversee onboarding, activation, and launch plans with executives.

Skills

Partnerships

Enterprise sales

Team leadership

Strategic planning

Executive presence

Tools

CRM systems

Job description

Austin, TX Preferred | Full-Time | Reports to the President

The Opportunity

Our client is a national nonprofit organization working to dramatically expand access to K–12 scholarships for students and families across the country.

The organization is building a national platform designed to mobilize millions of Americans to give and create a significant new source of scholarship funding. Partnerships will be one of the primary ways it reaches donors and families at scale, through relationships with national employers, corporations, school systems and networks, membership associations, financial and benefits platforms, and other trusted institutions.

We’re looking for a VP of Partnerships to lead the partnerships function and win the institutional relationships that will help carry this opportunity to scale. You will set the strategy, lead the team, and personally own the largest and most complex pursuits.

This is an early-stage build. As the organization’s most senior partnerships leader, you will report directly to the President and oversee both partnership development and partner marketing and activation. The Head of Partner Marketing and Activation and Director of Partnerships will report to you.

What You Will Own

You will be accountable for the performance of the partnerships function, from a prioritized pipeline and signed commitments to productive partner launches. You will personally lead the highest-value institutional deals, set goals for the team, and ensure recruitment and activation work together to generate donors and scholarship dollars.

You set who the organization pursues and why. You will turn a broad market into a focused, prioritized target list and a clear strategy for each segment.

• Build the target landscape across employers and corporations, membership and professional associations, financial and benefits platforms, education and school networks, affinity groups, and community, civic, and faith-based institutions
• Prioritize the partners with the greatest reach, strongest mission fit, and clearest path to a signed commitment
• Develop the segment-level thesis for why each type of partner should say yes, including the value they gain, the audience they serve, and the role they can play in the mission
• Maintain a living view of the market and identify where the organization should focus first

Recruitment & Deal-Making

This is the heart of the role. You open doors, make the pitch, and move partners from a first conversation to a signed commitment.

• Personally lead the largest and most complex institutional pursuits from prospecting through executive engagement, negotiation, and close
• Coach the broader partnerships team on pipeline development and deal strategy
• Tailor the pitch to each partner’s priorities, handle objections, and build the trust that turns interest into commitment
• Lead complex negotiations and structure partnership terms alongside leadership and counsel
• Run the pipeline with discipline, managing opportunities through a clear stage-by-stage process and forecasting honestly
• Partner with marketing leadership on recruitment materials and launch requirements
• Engage the President where executive sponsorship can help close a relationship

Onboarding & Early Success

A signature is only the beginning. You will be accountable for partner performance and ensuring signed agreements turn into productive relationships.

• Set expectations and ensure each signed partner has a clear launch plan, executive sponsor, responsibilities, and measures of success
• Oversee the handoff from partnership development to partner marketing and activation
• Coordinate closely with product and operations
• Maintain executive ownership of strategic relationships and resolve escalated issues
• Help make early partners successful enough to become proof points and referral sources
• Feed what you learn back into the pitch, targeting strategy, and pipeline

Building the Function

You will build and lead a team that can consistently recruit strong partners and turn their reach into measurable results.

• Set the function’s goals, staffing priorities, operating cadence, and resource needs in partnership with the President
• Establish pipeline reporting, forecasts, and partner performance reviews that connect signed commitments with activation, donor conversion, and scholarship dollars
• Codify qualification, deal-making, and handoff standards so the team can execute consistently
• Directly manage and coach the Head of Partner Marketing and Activation and Director of Partnerships
• Recruit and develop additional team members as the function grows

What Success Looks Like

In your first six months, you will have set the partnerships strategy and team priorities, built a qualified institutional pipeline, refined the pitch, and advanced the strongest opportunities toward signed commitments. You will also have established clear ownership and handoffs between partnership development and activation. By launch, success means having a repeatable process and early partners capable of reaching donors and families at meaningful scale, with clear plans to measure and improve their performance.

Who You Are

You are an experienced commercial leader who can build a function, lead people, and personally win complex institutional partnerships. You combine executive judgment with a willingness to do the work of prospecting, pitching, and closing.

• Proven institutional closer. You have sourced and won significant partnerships or enterprise sales involving multiple stakeholders, senior decision-makers, and complex negotiations.
• Experienced team leader. You have built or led a partnerships, business development, or sales team and can set direction, coach strong performers, and hold the function accountable.
• Persuasive in the room. You can walk into a conversation with a skeptical decision-maker, understand what they care about, and move the relationship forward. You are comfortable with corporate executives, education leaders, and community leaders.
• Entrepreneurial grit. You thrive in fast-moving, ambiguous, high-urgency environments. You are resourceful, self-directed, and willing to wear multiple hats to get the deal done.
• Strategic and operational. You can zoom out to prioritize the right partners and zoom in to run a disciplined pipeline. You think in systems and execute in the details.
• Mission-aligned. You care about expanding educational opportunity for American families. Policy expertise is not required.

What You Bring

• 12+ years in partnerships, business development, enterprise sales, or a related commercial role, with substantial experience sourcing and closing major institutional relationships
• Demonstrated success selling into or developing partnerships with large corporations, employers, school systems, or school networks strongly preferred
• Experience turning a broad market into a prioritized target list and converting that list into meetings, commitments, and measurable outcomes
• Experience leading a team, setting targets, managing forecasts, and owning the performance of a partnerships or sales function
• Strong executive presence and a track record of earning trust with C-suite leaders, senior corporate stakeholders, or school and network leadership
• Demonstrated success building something from an early stage, whether a new market, territory, channel, or function
• Experience navigating long sales cycles, multiple decision-makers, and complex commercial or institutional agreements
• Experience with benefits or payroll platforms, associations, education networks, or other large distribution channels is especially valuable

Nice to Have

• Experience standing up a partnerships or business development function inside an early-stage or high-growth organization
• Familiarity with CRM-driven pipeline management
• A network across employers, associations, education, or community institutions that you can activate on day one
• A history of partnering closely with marketing to convert relationships into measurable results

Why This Opportunity

This is an opportunity to lead and build a partnerships function around a new national platform with significant potential impact for students and families.

You will report directly to the President and serve as the organization’s most senior partnerships leader, with responsibility for both partnership development and partner activation. You’ll work across marketing, product, and operations while personally leading relationships with major institutions.

The team is small but growing, the ambition is national, and this role has the opportunity to shape the strategy, team, and partnerships model from the ground up. VP of Partnerships

The Details

Compensation:

Competitive salary commensurate with experience

Benefits:

• 401(k) with a 5% match
• comprehensive health and dental plans
• vacation time
• office closures for the weeks of Christmas and the Fourth of July
• annual wellness reimbursement

Location:

Austin, TX preferred; exceptional remote candidates elsewhere in the United States may be considered

Travel:

Periodic travel for partner meetings, team gatherings, and major events