About Us:
native is a game-changing marketplace of experiences twinned with a SaaS platform, revolutionising the student experience and student economy for Students, Students' Unions and Advertisers.
Our marketplace of experiences supercharges the university experience for students with an intuitive discovery platform for both native's own proprietary concert touring as well as all other experiences across SUs.
Our student advertising platform unifies the student advertising landscape, making it easy for advertisers like GoPuff, Converse and BBC Radio 1 connect with student consumers at scale, while providing additional commercial income for SUs.
Inspired by the founder's desire to help students have the best time at university, native truly enriches the lives of students as well as enabling SUs' to reach their potential. It’s what we call the native win-win-win.
About the Team:
The Students’ Unions Partners Team manages the relationships with Students’ Unions and through that the contracts for media rights, and licensing of our other products which underpin the native business. The team is responsible for managing the supply side of the native platform. our exclusive contracts for campus media inventory across the UK, and can address the 2.86m students in the UK market.
The Students’ Unions Partners Team team is dedicated to building and nurturing strong, long-term relationships with our valued partners, with a view to achieving meaningful commercial success for them and native., and enhancing what students receive and experience. We manage every aspect of the partnership journey, from relationship building across the UK’s university institutions, through negotiating, contracting, onboarding, to ongoing collaboration throughout the partnership lifecycle. At the core of what we do is a commitment to fostering trust, delivering exceptional value, and ensuring mutual success. Ours is an evolving proposition, and maintaining highly effective communication and dialogue is critical. Relationships are the foundation of our work, and we take pride in cultivating meaningful connections that drive impactful outcomes for both our partners and our business.
What you’ll be doing:
We are seeking a Head of Partnerships to lead our Students’ Unions Partners Team, and drive its success. The person will bring experience in leading enterprise account management in a tech-enabled space and will demonstrate strong strategic and operational effectiveness.
The ideal candidate will combine strong account management expertise, excellent people management, and the ability to deliver on a vision. They will lead by example, building their own relationships across the university and student union space, and will focus on equipping and enabling their team to operate with high standards. Strong leadership, a focus on accountability, and preparedness to engage in matters across the relationship set will be key.
This role is accountable for winning, retaining, and growing students’ union business. It works closely with other business leaders to promote and drive our strategic agenda. It embodies professionalism and excellent standards with knowledge of, and interest in, student life.
Key responsibilities include:
- Translating Strategy into Operational impact
Bring together the components of success which enable native. to grow and win. - Market & Industry Knowledge
Deep knowledge of the university, students’ unions, and student space. Drive a culture of being well informed about industry trends and developments. - Commercial impact
Develop methodologies to optimise the commercial value of contracts with partners for all parties; strong deal management, negotiation, and contracting capabilities. Drive commercial outcomes. - Relationship management
Ensure excellent account management, bringing a clear understanding of continuous improvement approaches. - Value Proposition
Actively engage with other leaders to develop and improve native's Value Proposition. - Product Knowledge
Lead the positioning of our products and solutions. - Performance Monitoring & Reporting
Own the performance metrics for this function and ensure appropriate review and remedial actions where needed. - Cross-Functional Collaboration
Work closely with other internal teams to deliver on company goals. - Building a high-performance culture
Establish a management framework which supports the team to perform in line with company goals, and which exemplify native. Values.
What you’ll need:
- Minimum 5+ years of experience in managing and leading partnership management, account management, or business development, in a long-term relationship setting, preferably with enterprise accounts.
- Excellent record of delivery and execution.
- Ability to lead and develop a team of Partner Success Managers, and other key complementary roles.
- Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to build trust and rapport with senior stakeholders.
- Proven track record of developing and maintaining long-term, strategic relationships.
- Demonstrable track record of negotiating and agreeing complex deal structures.
- Highly analytical and data-focused.
- Ability to work cross-functionally and manage multiple stakeholders effectively.
What's in it for you:
🏫 Pension contributions of 5%
🏖️ 25 days holiday ➕ bank holidays ➕ your birthday ➕Christmas shutdown
📈 Share Options for all
💻 A Mac or Windows laptop
🐶 Dog-friendly office
🌿 Health and Wellbeing budget
🥗 Wednesday free office lunches
🚂 Season Ticket Loan scheme
👶 Paid maternity, paternity, adoption or shared parental leave
Equal Opportunity Statement
We are actively creating an equitable environment for everyone at native to thrive.
Diversity and inclusion are a priority for us and we are making sure we have lots of support for all of our people to grow at native. At native, embracing diversity in all of its forms and foster an inclusive environment for all people to do the best work of their lives with us.
Important Notice: No Agencies
Please note that we do not have established agreements with recruitment agencies for this position. We encourage interested candidates to apply directly through our application process. Any unsolicited CVs or candidate profiles submitted by agencies will be treated as voluntary and will not incur any associated fees.