Manager, Growth Partnerships

About the Role:

The Manager, Growth Partnerships is responsible for identifying, establishing, and maintaining mutually beneficial relationships with organizations that can share information about Merit America with their clients, audiences, or workers. Merit America looks to partner with organizations that will scalably and reliably yield high-potential learner leads (including nonprofits, state government agencies, networks, for-profit organizations, etc.). This strategic role requires a blend of strong networking capabilities, a deep understanding of Merit America's offerings, and the ability to forge powerful relationships to amplify our reach to potential learners.

Partnerships are one of the most critical elements to Merit America’s growth plan for the next several years. Building the strategy and growing the program is a top priority for the organization. The Manager, Growth Partnerships can shape, build, and grow a new function and team that will ensure Merit America can reach learners across the country, changing lives for the better. The Manager, Growth Partnerships is an exempt position and will report to the Director of Growth.

What You’ll be Doing:

The responsibilities of the Manager, Growth Partnerships will include, but are not limited to, the following:

1. Strategy (25%): Identification and Program Creation:
• Develop the overall strategy for learner acquisition partnerships at Merit America, identifying target sectors, prioritization, and approach.
• Dynamically adjust partnership strategy to match our organizational growth and placement goals.
• Identify, evaluate, and prioritize potential partner organizations based on Merit America's strategic growth objectives.
• Develop and maintain a robust pipeline of partnership opportunities.
• Work closely with the Communications Manager to develop materials and messaging for partners.
• Collaborate with cross-functional partners in operations and product to bring 'first of their kind' partnerships to life. 
• Regularly communicate partnership priorities and plans to relevant stakeholders.
• Work with the CMO and Director of Growth to envision, contribute to, and build an overall marketing strategy, as needed.
2. Execution (50%): Prospect, Build and Launch Partnerships:
• Lead and negotiate key terms of partnerships–from small local pilots to large national engagements–ensuring that any agreements align with Merit America's objectives.
• Work closely with legal counsel and other internal teams to finalize partnership agreements.
• Collaborate with the Communications Manager and our Communications firm to promote our partnerships through earned media, speaking engagements, and collaborations.
• Host and attend events, workshops, and webinars to engage and educate partners and their constituents.
• Lead weekly channel partner standups, reviewing the pipeline, identifying blockers, and developing creative strategies to hit our goals. 
3. Management (25%): On-Going Partnership Program Management:
• Serve as the primary point of contact for new and existing partners, fostering strong, long-term relationships.
• Coordinate with internal teams to ensure smooth partnership onboarding and integration.
• Regularly update partners on Merit America's initiatives, offerings, and impact.
• Track, analyze, and report on the performance of each partnership, ensuring goals and metrics are being met.

What Makes a Successful Candidate: 

We know that women, people of color, and individuals with disabilities are often less likely to apply to a position if they don’t match 100% of the job qualifications.  Don’t let that be the reason you miss out on this opportunity!  We encourage you to apply if you can demonstrate many of these skills and competencies. Below are the skills that are relevant for thriving in this role:

Must Haves: 

• Have reliably closed impactful, mission-aligned partnerships
• Have made strategic decisions, internalizing topline organizational goals and translating them to discrete, measurable partnership goals across multiple partnership types.
• Have account management or community partnerships experience, having managed the full lifecycle of partnerships, with a strong track record of growing closed accounts year on year
• Have run experiments to learn and innovate, especially by using data to distill insights, identify patterns, make conclusions, and take action.
• Are a nimble, scrappy builder excited about novel approaches to optimize our partnerships, from deepening existing partnerships and testing new ones
• Be energized by our organizational mission - to provide a pathway to family-sustaining careers for Americans stuck in low-wage work
• Proven history of living within our values
• Sense of deep personal responsibility for our collective success
• Commitment to DEIJ

Nice to Have:

• Experience working with Salesforce (tracking pipeline)
• Education or Non-Profit experience

Other Logistics 

• This position is full-time: 4-day work week (Fridays are an operating day if there is a holiday closure during the week)
• Location:  Remote
• Salary : $111,700

Our goal is to have competitive and equitable compensation.  We have a market-based compensation approach, which means we benchmark each role from reputable data sources. We compare our benchmarks against similarly sized non-profit organizations with comparable annual budgets and geographical areas. We pay the same rate for the same roles and adjust to comply with statutory mandates.