Associate Director of Strategic Partnerships

Mission Statement

The primary mission of the Associate Director of Strategic Partnerships is to build and grow a portfolio of Watson Institute's corporate and foundation partnerships. The Associate Director of Strategic Partnerships will play a critical role in building and growing a portfolio of partnerships with corporations and foundations to create Fellowships powered by Watson Institute.

Role

• Partnership Building - 80%: Play a critical role in building and growing a portfolio of partnerships with corporations and foundations to create Fellowships powered by Watson Institute. Write and design compelling, persuasive, tailored, and well-designed/visual impact updates for Watson Institute's top prospects and partners. These impact updates may include decks, emails, Alumni and Fellow highlights, Fellow profiles, and more.

• Complex Stakeholder Mapping and Engagement - 20%: Coordinate and strategically engage a complex map of stakeholders across each corporate and foundation partner. Develop compelling concept notes, decks, and grant applications for prospects and partners. These concept notes, decks, and grant applications should demonstrate both business impact (for the partner) and community impact (for the Fellows and their communities) in a strategic and nuanced way. Coordinate with Watson Institute's VP of Strategic Partnerships, CEO, and other members of the leadership team closely to ensure successful outcomes across all partnerships. Collaborate with Watson Institute's Design Team on the monitoring, evaluation, and learning process and analysis to ensure impact metrics support partner expectations.

• Special Projects - 20%: Serve as the Strategic Partnerships Lead for special projects that are critical to Watson Institute's corporate partnership strategy and growth. Examples include conducting a landscape analysis for partners who are looking to bring their Fellowship to new markets and developing thought pieces/reports on current trends in corporate impact and community impact. New responsibilities may develop as the position evolves.

Requirements

• Eager to join a team with extremely high standards for quality and excellence, recognizing that demonstrating excellence in partnership building is a direct path to scaling impact and achieving outsized results.

• An exceptional eye for detail. You enjoy spending time in the details with words, style, formatting, and talking points in order to make the most compelling product possible.

• Detail Oriented: You are meticulous and have excellent organizational skills. You are especially attuned to spotting mistakes or inconsistencies in writing and external communications. You take pride in completing your work accurately and on schedule. You have a knack for project management and a love for work plans and checklists. You cringe at missed steps and you are the first to identify a typo or formatting error.

• Intentional: Your working style is about creating order and planning ahead. You think systematically and excel at establishing elegant processes.

• Results-Driven: You bring an eagerness to grow and to roll up your sleeves and contribute. You have a go-getter attitude and a drive to solve all sorts of problems, no matter the size or shape. When you take on a responsibility, you find a way to see it through to the end.

• High Integrity: You will be asked to make sensitive and critical judgment calls, and as such, you are known for your integrity and you take that reputation seriously. You always choose to make the right decision versus the easy decision. You know what information is sensitive, and you will protect it accordingly. You are comfortable escalating issues and holding your ground when you think it's the right thing to do for the organization and mission.

• Systems-minded: Demonstrated experience in building and implementing systems. You are comfortable designing, testing, improving, and smoothly running systems and processes. This could be any system that involves inputs from or serves multiple people and requires consistent and accurate functioning.

• Communication Style: Based on a story from Watson Institute's early days, 'Come to the Window' represents the principles of our communication including: Obligation to Dissent, Disagree and Commit, No Drama, Go to the Source.

Candidate Profile

• A deep-seated passion for Watson Institute's mission to develop innovators, leaders, and entrepreneurs to solve the toughest challenges facing the world.

• Experience in enterprise sales/strategic partnership roles, specifically with corporations, corporate foundations, and corporate CSR teams. Previous experience should include building and growing impactful corporate partnerships that deliver on business impact (for the corporate partner) and community impact (for the Fellows and their communities).

• A natural inclination to build and strengthen relationships and partnerships to grow Watson Institute's impact.

• A love and talent for persuasive writing, complex enterprise sales, and communication designed to build and grow impactful corporate and foundation partnerships.

• A systems-oriented and highly organized approach to work.

• Experience with Salesforce (or other CRM platforms) and Canva (or other graphic design platforms) are a strong plus.

Vitals

• The Associate Director of Strategic Partnerships is a full-time commitment and reports to the VP of Strategic Partnerships.

• The Associate Director of Strategic Partnerships position can work remotely, but should be based in CO, PA, GA, FL, ME, AZ, DC, OK, SC, IL, or MD.

• Travel: You will likely take short trips each year to spend immersive, hands-on time with our team, Fellows, and partners—whether at events, conferences, or other programming.

• We accept applications on a rolling basis until the position is filled. The anticipated start date for this position is as early as July 13, 2026, with flexibility based on candidate availability.

• We use E-Verify to confirm the identity and employment eligibility of all new hires.