Director, Strategic Partnerships

Water Environment Federation•Alexandria, VA

1d•$130,000 - $145,000•Hybrid

About The Position

WEF is a global leader in water, with over 30,000 members and 75 affiliated Member Associations. Our mission is bold: a world free of water challenges. Through our Strategic Plan, we’re driving transformation across three pillars – Workforce Development, Community Engagement, and the Circular Water Economy –with cross-cutting priorities in Global Engagement and Artificial Intelligence. The Director, Strategic Partnerships, manages our strategic partnership program, including our strategic relationship with mission-aligned associations and water-sector thought-leaders, and expanding into additional initiatives where we’re developing new partnership-based multi-year business models. The primary focus will be establishing mission-aligned relationships and alliances to support growth and sustainability of our strategic programs. This role requires a blend of proactive relationship building, nurturing connections, developing proposals and initiatives, meeting with potential and current partners, and being hands on in developing and delivering value to partners, to WEF members and volunteers, and the water sector. The Director, Strategic Partnerships must thrive on Initiative, Problem Solving, be agile, inclusive and a team player. The ideal candidate will have experience working across our mission, marketing, business development and other business functions to create new opportunities to work with our current partners and new ones. The candidate must be a self-starter with motivation to work in a highly collaborative team to make a significant difference in the water sector.

Requirements

BS or BA degree with 10+ years’ experience working in a strategic partnership/ business development role
Demonstrated ability to collaborate across a dynamic organization to bring ideas and resources together for successful partner engagement
Ability to influence and build long-term relationships inside and outside an organization
Strong acumen for the water business sector and the intersection points into other industries
Represent WEF at conferences, partner meetings, and networking events.
Proven ability to develop partnership proposals and present them confidentially
Capable of managing multiple partnership projects and opportunities
Experience with corporate philanthropy, foundations, and non-traditional revenue models
Track record of successfully negotiating and securing long-term partnership agreements
Exceptional communication, presentation and interpersonal skills with the ability to engage confidently with C-suite executives and diverse stakeholders
Passionate about the water industry and its significance on society
Experience with budget and project management.
Ability to travel approximately 20 - 25% of the year to attend WEF events and industry conferences

Responsibilities

Proactively identify and cultivate relationships with mission-aligned organizations that have the potential to become long-term, multi-year strategic partners.
Meet with potential partners across technology, not-for-profit, higher education, foundations, water utilities, for-profit, and non-traditional organizations, to understand their values, goals and assess how we can partner to create a life free of Water Challenges together
Confidently communicate WEF’s Mission and Vision priorities and opportunities for partners
Develop compelling and specific partnership proposals, presentations and agreements with the goal of signing new partners. The role leads all proposal development including writing, budgeting and coordinating across all stakeholders
Develop non-endemic relationships for WEF and grow customer relationships outside of the water sector.
Collaborate across WEF, and bring in colleagues to partner meetings as part of partnership development
Oversee and manage partnerships, serving as the primary point of contact and ensuring high levels of partner satisfaction
Be a connector for our partners to the rest of WEF stakeholders and within the partner community, finding new opportunities and bringing value
Represent the voice of the partner inside WEF and with stakeholders. Be able to confidently communicate about the partnership program, its priorities, partners who are working with WEF, and their goals.
Offer insight and recommendations on WEF’s goals from the partner perspective
Develop and manage the pipeline of new opportunities
Set goals for the partnership program and report on progress across the organization and when asked, to the Board of Trustees