Commercial Partnerships Manager

About the role

At DS Smith we are currently looking for an experienced Commercial Partnerships Manager to join growing Group Innovation Team.

DS Smith is a FTSE 100 leader in sustainable packaging solutions. Our business covers a complex and multinational value chain: designing and developing innovative sustainable packaging solutions, paper products and recycling services. Sustainability sits at the heart of our business model and we are a Strategic Partner of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, already delivering on our mission: removing >313M pieces of problem plastic from the global supply chain over just 2 years. 

The Group Innovation team is crucial in powering new innovations in business models, digital solutions, products and services to achieve our mission to redefine packaging for a changing world. DS Smith has already committed £100M to our ambitious innovation and R&D programme.

As the successful candidate, you will lead a portfolio of partnerships that will develop and scale innovation, in a sector crucial to powering a sustainable future. Our ambitious innovation agenda cannot be delivered in isolation, and we aim to bring in the best of the outside to partner with us. Partnerships is a new team within Group Innovation dedicated to building and scaling the right relationships with the external world to help us succeed.

As a key role within our new Partnerships team, the majority of the Commercial Partnerships Manager time will be dedicated to managing and growing a portfolio of partnerships within our largest division, Packaging. These partnerships could cover (for example) robotics and machinery manufacturers, technology firms, materials manufacturers and more, spanning startups to large strategic partners. This role will also involve exposure to partnerships within the Innovation and R&D division as required.

We combine the vision and entrepreneurial approach of innovation, with the rigorous analysis of commercial strategy. This role offers both the entrepreneurialism to support the development of a new Partnerships capability, and the impact and scale of a multinational FTSE 100 market leader employing >30,000 people over 34 countries.

Experience in packaging is not required as we welcome perspectives from other industries.

What you will do:

• Support Group Innovation with creating partnership strategies to deliver their innovation portfolio

• Support Group Innovation to shape the value proposition of new partnerships, critical success factors, and KPIs

• Lead scouting for new potential partners; vet new and potential partners, and benchmark against competitors

• Assess and quantify potential risk and reward of partnership opportunities

• Work with functions to define the scope and structure of agreements, including Risk, IT, Legal, Tax, proactively identifying upcoming challenges and bringing in expertise from the right teams

• Support the management of a portfolio of existing partnerships, including joining or leading meetings with external partners as relevant

• Create presentations for internal and external audiences to ensure that your recommendations are communicated clearly

• Lead partnership portfolio review meetings with key stakeholders to gain approval for key partnership decisions

• Build trusted relationships with key teams including Legal, IP, Risk, IT, R&D, Marketing, Sales, Design, Operations and other across the organisation to facilitate information sharing

• Develop best practices on partnership and procurement process to embed into future projects, always with the ambition to perfect and improve our ways of working

About you 

• Experience across many / most elements of the partnership life cycle, such as:

  • Defining the need for a partnership

  • Scouting potential partners

  • Structuring and negotiating terms

  • Defining and launching pilots

  • Managing partnerships at scale to improve outcomes

  • Renegotiating and / or exiting

• Exposure to a variety of partnership structures, such as joint development agreements, collaboration agreements, joint ventures, license agreements

• Very strong commercial skills, demonstrated through your experience or education

• Demonstrated ability to collaborate with and influence others

• Experience presenting to senior leaders

• Native-equivalent English proficiency

• Experience or interest in packaging, logistics, or FMCG is preferred

Other information

• Hybrid work schedule: 1 anchor day per week expected in our new offices in London Paddington. Occasional travel required, typically 2 days per month

• Reports to: Director, Partnerships and Service Growth, Group Innovation

What we offer  

• Competitive salary 

• Company bonus

• Pension scheme 

• Life assurance

• Income protection

• 25 days holiday plus bank holidays 

• Electric Car / Cycle to Work scheme