Business Development & Partnerships Manager-Session M

Mastercard•Chicago, IL

1d•$118,000 - $197,000

About The Position

SessionM is seeking a BD & Partnerships Manager to build and scale our partner ecosystem—driving net-new revenue through partner-sourced opportunities, enabling partner-influenced deals with our sales teams, and activating co-marketing programs that elevate our brand and demand. This role will identify, onboard, and grow strategic partners (e.g., agencies, consultancies, technology vendors, SI/VAR ecosystems), create repeatable go-to-market motions, and deliver measurable revenue impact.

Requirements

3–5+ years in partnerships, alliances, channel BD, or enterprise sales roles.
Proven track record of partner-sourced and partner-influenced revenue in SaaS/MarTech/Customer Engagement.
Experience designing and running co-marketing programs (webinars, events, ABM).
Strong relationship-building and executive presence with partners and client stakeholders.
Operational rigor: CRM hygiene, pipeline modeling, attribution, and reporting.
Excellent communication, writing, and enablement skills.
Deep understanding of Enterprise Marketing SaaS Platforms and/or Loyalty Strategy Consulting

Nice To Haves

Experience with loyalty, customer data, CDP, marketing cloud, or retail/CPG/e-commerce ecosystems.
Familiarity with PRM tools, deal registration workflows, and MDF programs.
Background selling/co-selling with agencies, consultancies, or systems integrators.
Experience selling for a competitive SaaS platform or Loyalty Consulting agency
Strong commercial drive with ability to build and monetize senior client relationships based on empathy, thought leadership, subject matter expertise and business value
Can thrive in a highly matrixed sales environment where team selling is critical
Strong software or data driven solution selling background with success with 4-6+ month sales cycles; never give up attitude, excellent at building relationships through networking and outbound prospecting
Substantial previous experience in progressively complex hunting sales within Retail / Restaurants / CPG / Travel / or Digital, ideally with a rolodex of C-Level / EVP / SVP contacts
Ability to thrive and build robust pipeline with limited lead generation support
The location is flexible provided there is open to 50%+ travel within the North American region

Responsibilities

Identify and prioritize partner types (agencies, consultancies, ISVs, SIs) that align with SessionM’s ICP, verticals, and loyalty use cases.
Develop joint value propositions and solution narratives that tie SessionM capabilities to partner offerings.
Build partner prospect lists and outreach sequences; run discovery, qualification, and onboarding.
Create structured connection workflows between partners and SessionM AEs (intro templates, shared account plans, calendared syncs).
Drive co-selling: joint discovery, solution mapping, POVs, proposals, and executive alignment.
Track influence rigorously (CRM attribution, contact roles, partner source tags).
Plan and deliver 4 quarterly co-marketing events (themes, speakers, landing pages, promotion plans).
Co-create content: case studies, webinars, thought leadership, vertical playbooks, ABM campaigns.
Partner with Marketing for event ops, MQL/SAL definitions, lead routing, and post-event follow-up.
Design onboarding (training, certification paths, sales playbook, demo scripts, pricing FAQs).
Establish partner communication cadence: newsletters, office hours, pipeline reviews, Slack/Teams channels.
Create a partner portal folder structure
Own partner KPIs: sourced/influenced pipeline, stage conversion, velocity, win rate, event ROI.
Maintain accurate records in CRM/PRM (deal reg, contact roles, activities, attribution).
Collaborate cross-functionally with Sales, Marketing, Product, Legal, and Finance on agreements, MDF, and compliance.
Responsible for developing and executing the sales strategy for a key set of prospect accounts within North America to secure multimillion-dollar, multi-year deals
Build and develop a cold pipeline into an active one, ultimately progressing to signed platform deals
Ability to message the benefits of bundling SessionM with other Data & Services products (Test & Learn, MRS, Managed Services, SpendingPulse, Customer Data Enhancement, Audiences, etc.)
Ability to advocate for funding incentives the Market Development team and with Mastercard Core
Strong communication and influencing skills, should be a compelling presenter to senior client audiences and able to influence large deals
Ability to seamlessly partner across our Data & Services Sales CBL population
Excellent problem solving and analytics skills and should be able to go head to head with internal stakeholders and customers alike with fact-based thinking
Will serve as the face of Mastercard D&S to senior level client stakeholders, including c-suite

Benefits

insurance (including medical, prescription drug, dental, vision, disability, life insurance)
flexible spending account and health savings account
paid leaves (including 16 weeks of new parent leave and up to 20 days of bereavement leave)
80 hours of Paid Sick and Safe Time, 25 days of vacation time and 5 personal days, pro-rated based on date of hire
10 annual paid U.S. observed holidays
401k with a best-in-class company match
deferred compensation for eligible roles
fitness reimbursement or on-site fitness facilities
eligibility for tuition reimbursement

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