Head of Partnerships

Starbridge•New York, NY

1d•$140,000 - $200,000•Onsite

About The Position

Starbridge is building the front door for how businesses partner with government in America. Public agencies spend roughly a trillion dollars a year with private companies, and nearly all of it still moves through infrastructure that hasn't changed in decades. Starbridge is building the full operating system for that relationship: the data, the signals, the workflows, and the rails that let a company find a public buyer, win the work, and get paid. We monitor 320,000+ public sector entities around the clock. 500+ customers have joined us since our launch in March. We've raised $50M from top investors including Craft and Michael Seibel of Y Combinator. We're building the next layer of growth beyond direct sales: a partner ecosystem. We've validated that there's real demand for it. Today, referrals from agencies already generate substantial ARR with no dedicated owner and no formal program. We believe there is a much bigger opportunity with different personas. Leadership is aligned and ready to invest in a person who owns this end-to-end, from proving out the size of the opportunity to building the program that scales it. This is a build-from-zero role. There is no existing partnerships function, no partner ops, and no program infrastructure. You'll start by answering one question: how big is the real referral partner universe for Starbridge, and where is it? Then you'll build the function needed to capture it. Compensation includes a quota component, so this role is accountable to revenue as well as activity.

Requirements

Proven 0→1 builder: A track record building a partnerships, channel, or alliances function from zero to one, beyond running an existing program.
Quota-driven mindset: Comfortable being measured on partner-sourced pipeline and revenue, not only program activity.
Strong at market mapping: Able to identify a non-obvious partner universe through research, customer/CRM data, and direct outreach rather than relying on existing lists or inbound.
Founder-mode relationship skills: A genuine relationship-builder who can earn founder-level trust with a small agency or independent operator as easily as with a larger firm.
Comfortable in office 5 days a week: Willing and able to be in the Starbridge NYC office for in-person collaboration.

Nice To Haves

3+ years of experience in partnerships
Existing relationships or credibility in the agency, GovCon, GovTech, or EdTech ecosystem.
Experience with adjacent partner types beyond agencies: VC/PE networks, conference/MDF businesses, media or data-sharing partnerships, or PR partnerships.
Experience standing up partner tiers, certification programs, or partner enablement content.

Responsibilities

Mine the existing customer base, CRM data, call recordings, and sellers to identify which agencies, consultants, and firms are already showing up around our 500+ customers.
Build the Ideal Partner Profile from real, observed examples rather than firmographic guesses. Starbridge's partner universe is wider than traditional public-sector consultancies. It includes Clay/RevOps/GTM-engineering and outbound agencies that happen to serve GovTech and EdTech clients, investors, conference and event businesses that hold MDF budgets, independent operators and advisors in govcon/govtech/edtech, and media, data-sharing, and PR partners.
Prioritize influence over size. The goal is strong, founder-level engagement with a handful of the right partners.
Define and create incentives for our IPP. These can range from thought leadership and data content to networking and PR opportunities.
Build the infrastructure to scale it, including partner enablement, certification, and a partner directory/tiering structure.
Make it easy for partners to routinely refer strong pipeline.
Make it easy and incentivized for the Starbridge sales team to work with partners.
Establish a repeatable recruitment and onboarding motion across every IPP category, not only agencies.
Establish reporting and forecasting for partner-sourced and partner-influenced pipeline and revenue.