Head of Strategic Alliances

Cambridge Spark Ltd.; Cambridge; Hybrid; GBP 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading education technology company in the UK is seeking a partnerships originator to drive revenue through strategic partnerships in the AI sector. This role involves closing high-value deals, building trust-based relationships with C-suite executives, and shaping a robust partnership strategy. Ideal candidates have a strong network, proven deal closure history, and a business-savvy mindset. This position offers flexibility for remote work with required travel to the London office.

Benefits

Remote first company

Pension with up to 5% matched contributions

25 days holiday plus flexi bank holidays

Health & Wellbeing allowance

Private medical insurance

Qualifications

• Established experience in partnerships, alliances, or enterprise business development.
• Proven track record of closing partnership deals that generate revenue.
• Existing network with decision-makers at tech vendors and consulting firms.
• Comfortable engaging with senior executives.

Responsibilities

• Source and close anchor partnerships in Year 1.
• Build and manage a partnership pipeline.
• Negotiate frameworks that drive mutual revenue.
• Work across teams to activate partnerships.

Skills

Partnership origination

Relationship building

Negotiation skills

Commercial acumen

Business Development mindset

Tech fluency

Education

Experience in SaaS, cloud infrastructure, or AI/data technology

Job description

Department: Sales

Location: Home based, UK (with travel to our London office and partner location)

Reports to: Enterprise New Business Director

Hours: 37.5 per week

Salary: (Depending on experience)

Role Overview:

We are looking for a proven partnerships originator to build Cambridge Spark's technology alliance engine from the ground up. You will be our first strategic hire focused on opening doors with leading AI platform providers, hyperscale cloud vendors, enterprise data platforms, and top-tier consulting firms; then converting those relationships into revenue-generating partnerships.

This is not a partnership management role. You will be originating deals, not managing existing ones. You will spend your time working your network, in boardrooms with vendor executives, and at industry events positioning Cambridge Spark as the indispensable workforce enablement partner for AI transformation.

Your mandate is simple: create partnerships that drive measurable revenue, accelerate our growth, and make our AI skills programmes essential to how technology vendors and consulting firms serve their customers.

Key responsibilities:

Revenue Generation (Primary Focus)

• Source and close 3-5 anchor partnerships in Year 1 that generate substantial influenced pipeline
• Build and manage a partnership pipeline with supporting revenue opportunities into the enterprise sales team
• Negotiate commercial frameworks (co-sell, referral agreements, joint propositions) that drive mutual revenue
• Own partnership-influenced revenue metrics and report progress against targets

Relationship Building & Origination

• Use your existing network to fast-track conversations with VP/C-level executives at target tech vendors and consulting firms
• Build trust-based relationships with partner BD, alliance, channel, and product leaders
• Identify and prioritise high-value partners across the AI, data, cloud, and consulting ecosystems
• Represent Cambridge Spark at partner executive forums, conferences, and industry events

Strategic Value Creation

• Design an alliance strategy that creates competitive advantage and accelerates market penetration
• Create repeatable go-to-market motions that sales and marketing teams can scale
• Craft compelling partner-ready materials and executive presentations

Cross-Functional Execution

• Work with sales, marketing, product, and delivery teams to activate partnerships and drive results
• Translate partnership opportunities into actionable pipeline for the sales organisation
• Establish success metrics and accountability for partnership performance

Candidate Specification:

Essential

• Established experience in partnerships, alliances, or enterprise business development within SaaS, cloud infrastructure, or AI/data technology companies
• Proven track record of personally closing partnership deals that generated substantial influenced revenue
• Existing network: You have established relationships with senior decision-makers at target tech vendors and consulting firms who will take your call
• Business Development mindset: You are energised by prospecting, relationship building, and closing; not process management or administration
• Commercial acumen: You understand partnership economics, deal structures, and can negotiate complex agreements
• Executive presence: Comfortable presenting to and influencing C-suite and VP-level stakeholders
• Tech-fluent: You can hold credible conversations about LLMs, cloud data platforms, enterprise AI adoption, and data transformation
• Start-up agility: Comfortable being strategic one moment and hands-on the next; you thrive in fast-moving environments

Desirable

• Previously worked in partnerships, alliances, or BD at a hyperscale cloud provider, enterprise AI/ML platform, enterprise data platform, or enterprise SaaS company
• Experience in global consulting firm partnerships
• Background in education-tech, workforce development, or skills-based partnerships
• MEDDIC or Sandler methodology certification
• Understanding of UK government-funded training programmes and apprenticeships

What Makes You Different:

You are proactive and hungry. You do not wait for inbound – you create opportunities. You have built something from nothing before. You have a mental rolodex of people you can call today. You understand that partnerships are about creating mutual value, not transactional referral agreements. You are as comfortable pitching a CEO as you are working through contract terms with legal teams.

This role is not for you if:

• You are a partnership manager who maintain existing relationships rather than originate new ones
• You are a process administrator focused on partner satisfaction scores over revenue generation
• You need large teams or extensive resources to be effective
• You are a channel manager from traditional reseller or distributor models
• You are a marketer acting as partnerships professionals
• You are uncomfortable with heavy prospecting and outbound relationship building

Company Benefits:

• Remote first company providing flexibility to work from home
• Pension with up to 5% matched contributions
• Opportunity to opt into our salary sacrifice scheme
• 25 days holiday + Flexi bank holidays + 1 day off on your birthday
• A day for volunteering
• Enhanced Maternity and Paternity Leave
• Health & Wellbeing allowance of up to £30 per month
• Annual Summer and Xmas events
• Company socials including everything from Cambridge College formals, pub nights to team building events
• CPD Allowance
• Private medical insurance and cash plan
• Holiday buy back scheme (up to 10 days p/a)
• EAP with 24 hour confidential support line

Background to our Organisation

We are an education technology company that enables corporate and government organisations to achieve their business goals by educating their workforce with critical digital transformation skills to succeed in the AI era.

We deliver unique and innovative professional education that is accelerating the digital transformation of our clients, advancing the careers of their employees, helping people get into work and closing the digital skills gap. We are in a sector that is crucial to the economy and workforce, with a lot of opportunity for change and innovation. We are at the cutting edge of teaching applied data and digital skills, with our unique patented learning platform EDUKATE.AI offering our clients and learners a unique learning experience. EDUKATE.AI was developed with support from Innovate UK and provides all of our learners with 24/7 immediate feedback on their work, helping accelerate the learning process and providing a sandbox environment to experiment on real world datasets.

Since 2016, we have supported more than 15,000 learners across four continents with nearly 550,000 pieces of code submitted for feedback on EDUKATE.AI. We are trusted by some of the most recognisable brands in the world to educate their workforce, including Microsoft, the NHS, GSK, easyJet, the BBC and John Lewis. Our focus on applied learning to create business impact sets us apart - individual learners have reported applying their skills at work to generate recorded value of up to £40m.

Our Values

Entrepreneurial

We take initiative and show entrepreneurial spirit which fuels innovation at Cambridge Spark. This includes identifying opportunities for improvement, taking ownership for implementing solutions effectively and driving improvement by using proof of concepts to demonstrate the feasibility and value of their work.

Team Spirit

Everyone is part of building an open and transparent culture, communicating effectively to raise issues, discuss improvements and share the evidence used to make decisions.

Customer-focused

Our customers are at the centre of everything we do, inspiring us to create great work. We strive to build friendly, professional and lasting relationships with them to better understand and anticipate their needs.

Gold Standard

We are experts in our field and are constantly developing our technology and offering. We set the benchmark in our industry: both in what we offer customers and in how we deliver it.

Cambridge Spark is an Equal Opportunities Employer and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any kind. Cambridge Spark is committed to the principle of equal employment opportunities for all employees and to providing employees with a work environment free of discrimination and harassment. All employment decisions at Cambridge Spark are based on business needs, job requirements and individual qualifications, without regard to race, colour or ethnicity, ability or disability, gender or gender reassignment, sexual orientation, marital status, religion, age or any other status protected by the laws or regulations in the locations where we operate. Cambridge Spark will not tolerate discrimination or harassment based on any of these characteristics. Cambridge Spark encourages applicants of all ages.