Director of Strategic Partnerships in Manchester

Field-based, Greater Manchester and the North (occasional travel to London).

About the organisation

Our client is a well-established UK professional body with a national remit across membership, professional registration, apprenticeships and enterprise learning. It is building out a small network of new regional roles to grow its presence, relationships and commercial pipeline in priority sectors and city regions.

The role

This is a brand new, front-end business development role for Manchester and the North. It is a hunter role, not an account management one. You will get out into the region, build relationships at a strategic level with employers and their leaders, understand their business problems and present our client's membership and learning offer as the solution. Once you have identified a genuine opportunity, you hand it to the central sales team, who take it through to close and delivery. You will not manage or service accounts long-term. Your job is to be visible, connected and commercially sharp across your patch, and to keep bringing new, qualified opportunities into the pipeline. There are no direct reports. This is a new role, so there is real scope to shape it.

What you will do

• Get immersed in the Manchester and North West business ecosystem, building a strong network of senior contacts across large employers, particularly those with complex IT needs or an AI agenda.
• Identify business problems and translate them into a clear pitch for our client's membership, AI readiness support and IT skills development offer.
• Build and track a portfolio of relationships and a live, qualified pipeline in Salesforce.
• Hand qualified opportunities to the central sales team with full context, then stay connected to the relationship as it moves into delivery.
• Represent the organisation at regional forums, conferences and industry events, building its profile as a trusted partner in the region.

What we are looking for

This is the part that matters most: a proven, demonstrable track record of turning relationships into commercial outcomes, not just a strong network. Being well connected in the region is not enough on its own. Beyond that, we are looking for a genuine hunter mentality, someone comfortable identifying opportunities from a standing start and building relationships rather than managing existing ones. Experience in membership organisations, professional bodies, consultancy or training and enterprise learning is a strong plus, as is a background spanning both corporate and not-for-profit environments. You should be resilient and comfortable with a business that moves and changes direction quickly. Familiarity with Salesforce or a comparable CRM is expected.

This is a field-based role. Your office is wherever you live in the region, and you should expect to be out meeting people regularly, with occasional travel to London for internal meetings. A full current UK driving licence is required. Some evening or weekend event attendance should be expected. There is no on-target bonus attached to this role.