AVP of Alliances & Partnerships

Nelnet Servicing•Lincoln, NE

8d•Hybrid

About The Position

The AVP of Alliances & Partnerships owns CampusGuard’s partner ecosystem end-to-end: strategy, prioritization, onboarding, enablement, relationship management, performance management, and expansion. This role identifies business needs and capability gaps, sources and evaluates potential partners, coordinates legal and commercial onboarding, develops sales playbooks and rollout plans, maintains active partner relationships, and ensures partnerships produce measurable pipeline, revenue, margin, delivery capacity, and market visibility outcomes.

Requirements

10+ years leading alliances/partnerships/channel initiatives, with a track record of building and scaling partner programs that produce measurable outcomes.
Demonstrated results driving partner-sourced and partner-influenced pipeline/revenue through repeatable co-sell and co-marketing motions.
Experience working with consulting firms/SIs/GSIs and executing co-sell and/or co-delivery motions across complex stakeholder groups.
Background in negotiating and structuring partnership commercials (e.g., rev share, referral fees, marketplace/resell economics, subcontract delivery models).
Ability to set partner strategy, prioritize a partner portfolio, and establish clear governance and operating cadence.
Ability to build scalable partner enablement and internal processes (playbooks, rules of engagement, handoffs, escalation paths).
Strong analytical skills to define KPIs, build performance reporting, and manage pipeline attribution and forecasting.
Strong cross-functional leadership and influence across Sales, Marketing, Product/Engineering, Delivery/Operations, and Finance/Legal.
Excellent verbal and written communication skills, including executive presence with partners and internal leadership.
Strong judgment in ambiguity: prioritizes effectively, drives decisions, and executes through others.
Candidates must already be authorized to work in the United States without the need for current or future sponsorship.

Nice To Haves

Cybersecurity and/or IT services experience
Familiarity selling into higher education and/or public sector.

Responsibilities

Partner strategy & portfolio ownership: Define the partner strategy and operating model (which partners, which motions, where to focus) aligned to CampusGuard’s growth and profitability objectives. Build and manage a prioritized partner portfolio across consulting, tech vendors, channel/resellers, marketplaces, and associations; recruit, tier, develop, and exit partners as needed.
Build a scalable partner program: Design and implement partner program mechanics: segmentation/tiering, onboarding, enablement, partner-facing assets, internal playbooks, and an execution cadence (e.g., pipeline reviews, joint plans, QBRs, etc.). Establish clear rules of engagement for attribution, deal governance, and handoffs (partner-sourced vs partner-influenced vs resell/marketplace), and drive internal adherence.
Operationalize with Sales, Marketing, and Delivery: Partner with Sales to identify partner-generated, partner-influenced, and partner-enabled opportunities; ensure qualified opportunities are routed to the appropriate sales owners for follow-up. Support Sales through partner account mapping, joint pipeline creation, opportunity qualification, sales playbooks, talk tracks, pricing/packaging guidance, and deal support. Partner with Marketing to plan and execute partner-related campaigns, webinars, events, thought leadership, sponsorships, marketplace promotions, and lead-generation activities. Activate co-sell and sell-with motions with partner sales teams, including joint account planning, pipeline reviews, opportunity mapping, and field enablement. Manage partner-sourced and partner-influenced motions, including lead intake, routing, attribution, follow-up expectations, reporting, and continuous improvement. Manage marketplace distribution and resell motions, including listings, packaging, pricing guardrails, partner economics, enablement, renewals, and expansion. Establish services co-delivery and subcontractor standards, including delivery handoffs, quality assurance, scope control, margin management, escalation paths, and customer experience expectations.
Commercials, contracting, and governance: Lead partnership business planning and negotiation (rev share, referral fees, reseller terms, delivery subcontract terms) in collaboration with Finance/Legal, including compliance/security requirements where applicable. Influence internal commercial policies and processes to support successful indirect motions (e.g., discounting/approvals, packaging, attribution, delivery handoff). Manage the partnerships budget (e.g., sponsorships, marketplace fees, MDF, enablement investments, etc.) and track ROI.
Partner relationship management: Serve as the primary business owner for strategic partner relationships and maintain regular communication with partner stakeholders. Develop and manage joint business plans with priority partners, including shared goals, target accounts, planned campaigns, enablement needs, pipeline expectations, and success metrics. Coordinate executive alignment with key partners, including leadership touchpoints, QBRs, issue resolution, renewal/expansion discussions, and strategic roadmap conversations. Monitor partner health and engagement, including responsiveness, activity levels, pipeline contribution, delivery performance, customer feedback, and continued strategic fit.
Measurement & executive visibility: Build a partner performance system and executive reporting: partner-sourced pipeline, partner-influenced bookings, conversion rates, velocity, marketplace revenue, margin impact, and time-to-first-value by partner/motion. Represent CampusGuard externally with partners and at industry events to elevate ecosystem visibility and accelerate strategic relationships.