Partnerships Manager

DLB Associates

6d • $105,000 - $135,000 • Remote

About The Position

The Partnerships Manager provides operational leadership for DLB's external delivery partnerships, including subconsultant relationships, outsourced engineering resources, and offshore teams supporting the Design Department. This role is responsible for ensuring DLB has access to qualified, scalable external resources to support project delivery, business growth, and changing capacity demands. Reporting to the Associate Director, Strategy & Growth, the Partnerships Manager works collaboratively with Project Managers, Program Managers, technical leaders, Contracts, Finance, and external partners to forecast resource needs, engage appropriate partners, develop and issue requests for proposals and fee requests, coordinate commercial requirements, and support successful integration of external resources into DLB project teams. This is NOT a Business Development role; this person will manage existing partnerships internally and will support the Associate Director of Partnerships in new partnership development. The Partnerships Manager serves as a primary relationship and operational owner for DLB's subconsultant and offshore partner network, developing scalable processes that improve the speed, quality, consistency, and effectiveness of external capacity deployment.

Requirements

• Knowledge of the architecture, engineering, construction, or MEP consulting industry and project delivery environment.
• Knowledge of RFP, proposal, fee estimate, and scope-of-work development and coordination.
• Knowledge of professional services contracts, subconsultant agreements, and fee structures.
• Knowledge of resource and capacity planning across multiple projects, disciplines, or geographies.
• Skilled at building and managing productive relationships with internal stakeholders and external partners.
• Skilled at evaluating pricing, scope, resource requirements, and partner capabilities.
• Skilled at coordinating resources and priorities across multiple concurrent engagements.
• Skilled at communicating, presenting, and negotiating with internal and external audiences.
• Ability to understand engineering project requirements and translate them into external resource solutions.
• Ability to analyze operational challenges, develop practical solutions, and drive implementation.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities, deadlines, partners, and concurrent requests.
• Ability to operate successfully in a remote environment through strong communication and self-motivation.
• Ability to grow into increasing levels of responsibility within a rapidly evolving organization.
• B.A. / B.S. degree in engineering, construction management, architecture, business, or related discipline; engineering or technical degree preferred.
• Minimum of 5 years of industry-related experience, with 5-7 years preferred.
• Minimum of 2 years of experience supporting proposals, RFPs, contracts, or commercial management within an engineering, architecture, construction, or professional services organization.

Nice To Haves

• Experience within an MEP consulting engineering firm strongly preferred.
• Experience managing subconsultants, vendors, outsourced resources, or offshore teams preferred.
• Experience with data center, mission critical, or other technically complex project environments preferred.

Responsibilities

• Manage day-to-day relationships with DLB's network of engineering, design, architecture, and specialty subconsultant partners.
• Serve as the primary Design Department counterpart to the Contracts team for subconsultant engagement and administration.
• Coordinate with Project Managers, Program Managers, and technical leaders to understand project scope, schedule, and capacity requirements.
• Develop, issue, and manage requests for proposals, fee requests, and other commercial solicitations to external partners.
• Evaluate subconsultant proposals for scope alignment, pricing, schedule, qualifications, and overall fit.
• Coordinate with Contracts and internal stakeholders to support timely execution of NDAs, master agreements, and subcontracts.
• Maintain visibility into active subconsultant engagements, available partner capacity, and performance.
• Provide operational leadership for DLB's offshore engineering and design resources.
• Coordinate with technical and project leadership to forecast offshore resource demand and align resources with project needs.
• Manage resource requests, allocation, onboarding, utilization, and capacity planning for offshore teams.
• Serve as a central point of coordination between offshore resources, external partner leadership, and DLB Project Managers.
• Monitor partner performance using established service levels, utilization metrics, and quality measures.
• Coordinate resolution of resource, performance, and delivery issues with internal and external stakeholders.
• Develop processes that enable DLB to scale external capacity efficiently as business demand changes.
• Develop and maintain visibility into external capacity, utilization, capabilities, and project demand.
• Partner with Design Department leadership to anticipate capacity gaps and develop external resource solutions.
• Establish and continuously improve standardized processes for requesting, selecting, and evaluating external resources.
• Develop reporting and performance metrics to support data-driven decisions regarding external capacity.
• Identify opportunities to improve cost effectiveness, resource utilization, and speed of deployment.
• Support development of policies, procedures, templates, and governance standards related to external partnerships.
• Build strong working relationships across Design, Contracts, Finance, and Business Development.
• Communicate external resource availability, constraints, risks, and opportunities to appropriate stakeholders.
• Support the Associate Director, Strategy & Growth in evaluating new strategic partnerships and external capabilities.
• Participate in negotiations and commercial discussions with external partners as appropriate.
• Assist in evaluating potential new partners based on technical capabilities, pricing, and organizational fit.
• Lead cross-functional initiatives related to external capacity, partner performance, and operational improvement.
• Performs Other Related Duties as Assigned.

Benefits

• Choice of comprehensive medical plans (including two PPO-style plans and a HDHP w/ HSA option)
• Flex spending accounts (FSA)
• Dental and vision plans
• Comprehensive medical, dental and vision benefits extended to spouse / domestic partner and dependent children up to age 26
• 401k with company match and self-directed brokerage account option
• PTO including additional paid time off during the last week of the year
• Company paid life insurance coverage for employees and their eligible dependents
• Short and long-term disability, AD&D coverage
• Professional development opportunities, tuition reimbursement and professional licensing assistance
• Paid parental leave after one year of employment

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level