Head, Strategic Partnership

Behind every well-run team is someone who keeps the people side of the business moving, organized, responsive, and human. That's the mindset we bring to supporting our client, a leading African media, technology, and insights group building culture-shaping media brands, products, and intellectual property across the continent and beyond.

In this role, you will be responsible for translating our client's commercial strategy into disciplined revenue execution. Reporting to the Commercial Director, you will lead the partnerships and sales team, manage pipeline health, develop senior client relationships across regional and global markets, and ensure the business consistently pursues high-value opportunities across advertising, sponsorships, events, research, and video products.

Who are we looking for?

• You are a commercial leader and deal-maker. You combine strategic account development with the discipline of pipeline management, forecasting, and team coaching.
• You are a proven sales team leader. You set clear weekly and monthly commercial priorities, holding managers to high standards without becoming a bottleneck for every client pitch.
• You bring deep B2B partnership experience. You possess a track record of closing high-value, multi-stakeholder partnerships across brands, agencies, tech companies, financial institutions, and development organizations.
• You are data-driven and CRM-disciplined. You run rigorous weekly pipeline reviews, tracking conversion rates, sales cycle length, and pipeline coverage to provide clear forecasts to executive leadership.
• You excel at consultative sales. You turn commercial products and intellectual property into persuasive, bespoke packages that respond directly to client business objectives.
• You operate with high integrity. You protect brand equity, delivery margins, and editorial independence while driving aggressive revenue targets.

Your Responsibilities…

Revenue Delivery & Sales Leadership

• You will own the delivery of annual and quarterly revenue targets across advertising, sponsorships, flagship events, research, video, and commercial products.
• You will translate overall commercial targets into actionable revenue plans broken down by product, account, market, and team member.
• You will personally lead and negotiate the most valuable, complex, and strategic partnerships from opportunity design through to contract close.
• You will identify performance gaps early, implementing recovery plans where pipeline conversion or revenue falls behind target.

Pipeline Management & Commercial Discipline

• You will manage the end-to-end sales pipeline, ensuring accurate deal staging, probability metrics, expected close dates, and CRM hygiene.
• You will run weekly pipeline reviews and monthly forecasting sessions, providing reliable revenue forecasts and risk analysis to senior leadership.
• You will evaluate conversion velocity, win/loss patterns, and pipeline coverage against priority target markets.

Strategic Partnerships & Key Account Growth

• You will build and maintain senior relationships with C-suite decision-makers across priority sectors globally and across African markets.
• You will transition transactional campaign relationships into long-term, multi-product, multi-year strategic partnerships.
• You will represent our client at high-level client meetings, industry forums, partner events, and key market-building opportunities.

Team Leadership & Cross-Functional Alignment

• You will coach, mentor, and performance-manage the partnerships and sales team, building capabilities in consultative selling, negotiation, and account planning.
• You will set standards for proposal development, pricing, discount structures, and contract terms to safeguard deal margins.
• You will collaborate closely with product, finance, creative, and delivery teams to ensure clean handovers, realistic execution timelines, and exceptional client experiences.
• You will execute go-to-market strategies for key growth initiatives, flagship event IPs, and research advisory services across regional hubs (Nigeria, East Africa, South Africa) and global accounts.

What Success looks like…

• Target Achievement: Consistently meeting or outperforming quarterly and annual revenue targets across all commercial product lines.
• Pipeline Health: Maintaining a fully qualified, accurately forecasted pipeline with minimal variances between projections and actual revenue.
• Account Expansion: Growing the percentage of overall revenue derived from multi-year, multi-product partnerships and account renewals.
• Team Capability: Building a high-performing sales organization with strong negotiation confidence, pitch quality, and pipeline ownership.

To be considered for this role you should have…

• Significant commercial leadership experience in partnerships, sales, or business development within media, digital publishing, marketing, events, research, consulting, or tech platforms.
• A proven track record of closing high-value, multi-stakeholder partnerships and growing strategic corporate accounts across African and global markets.
• Demonstrated team management experience, leading sales professionals against demanding, multi-variable revenue targets.
• Rigorous pipeline management expertise using CRM platforms to turn commercial data into management actions.
• Exceptional consultative communication skills, with the ability to craft compelling proposals and present to executive decision-makers.
• Challenges you may face in this role…
• Balancing Custom Deals & Operational Efficiency: Structuring high-value, bespoke partnerships that satisfy client objectives without overloading creative and delivery teams.
• Navigating Complex Client Cycles: Managing varying procurement timelines across corporate brands, government entities, and international development agencies while maintaining steady deal flow.

The Goodies…

• Competitive compensation package with attractive performance-linked incentive structures.
• High-impact executive role shaping commercial strategy across premier African media brands and IP properties.
• Collaborative environment working alongside ambitious, creative, and mission-driven colleagues.
• Regional & International exposure with occasional travel for major partner forums, flagship events, and market expansion.