Director, Strategic Growth & New Partnerships

About the role

The Director, Strategic Growth & New Partnerships is a collaborative partner that seeks opportunities to learn and engage across the organization. The Director directs and oversees UFCU’s strategic growth and new partnership development function, including market expansion, new partnership strategy, pipeline development, prospect cultivation, executive relationship development, strategic initiative execution, and cross-functional coordination in support of UFCU’s long-term growth priorities.

Responsibilities

• Identify, cultivate, and advance new strategic partnership opportunities that support UFCU’s long-term growth priorities, member expansion, and community impact
• Lead expansion into targeted growth markets, with emphasis on higher education, the Houston Medical District, healthcare ecosystems, employer groups, and other priority community or institutional segments
• Develop and execute market-specific growth strategies to increase UFCU’s visibility, relevance, and partnership opportunities within assigned markets
• Build, manage, and maintain a robust pipeline of prospective strategic partnerships using defined qualification criteria, relationship stages, opportunity tracking, and forecasting practices
• Research, identify, and prioritize prospective partners based on strategic fit, growth potential, member opportunity, community impact, and alignment with UFCU’s mission and values
• Create innovative partnership strategies, value propositions, and engagement models that align prospective partner needs with UFCU’s products, services, capabilities, and community impact priorities
• Represent UFCU at industry events, market engagements, higher education forums, healthcare ecosystem events, community convenings, networking opportunities, and prospective partner meetings
• Develop and drive a proactive, collaborative partnership between Business Development and the business, understanding market opportunities, creating engaging conversations with prospective partners, monitoring market and competitive trends, and identifying opportunities to advance UFCU’s overall business strategy and vision
• Develop and drive a proactive, collaborative partnership between Business Development and the business, understanding market opportunities, creating engaging conversations with prospective partners, monitoring market and competitive trends, and identifying opportunities to advance UFCU’s overall business strategy and vision
• Provide market intelligence, competitive insights, and partner feedback to inform UFCU’s business development strategy, product positioning, community engagement, and growth priorities
• Lead discovery conversations, needs assessments, business case development, proposal strategy, presentations, and negotiation support for prospective strategic partnerships
• Establish and monitor success measures related to new partnership development, market expansion, pipeline growth, strategic initiative execution, and partnership conversion outcomes
• Lead, inspire, motivate, and develop team members by providing guidance and training to attain departmental and individual development goals and support organizational needs
• Plan, monitor, and appraise job results with an emphasis on coaching and developing employees to achieve desired performance results
• Ensure team members understand how to have an impact and are aware of that impact when they've made it
• Collaborate with departments across the business, including Retail, Marketing, Lending, Wealth Management, Commercial Services, Operations, Legal, Compliance, Risk, and Finance, to support new partnership evaluation and execution
• Facilitate joint brainstorming and team collaboration to create market growth strategies, prospective partner solutions, and cross-functional execution plans
• Collaborate with business partners to determine future needs, operational readiness, and support required to successfully launch and scale new partnerships
• Serve as a strategic connector between external market opportunities and internal business capabilities to ensure new partnership strategies are both market-responsive and operationally executable
• Perform other duties as assigned

Qualifications

• Proven ability to create a high-performance climate through talent identification, recruitment, and retention
• Strong and demonstrable leadership skills with the ability to inspire and motivate others
• Proven ability to build a team of diverse talents that complement one another
• Proven ability to hold themselves to the highest standard of integrity and personal behavior
• Exceptional interpersonal skills with the proven ability to influence senior level management and key stakeholders
• Demonstrated ability to build credibility quickly with external executives, centers of influence, institutional leaders, and internal senior leaders
• Adept at maintaining effective relationships with internal departments, external business and community partners, and others key stakeholders
• Proven delivery track record and exceptional service orientation
• Demonstrated ability to identify, qualify, pursue, and advance new business or partnership opportunities through a structured pipeline
• Adept at translating UFCU’s mission and strategic priorities into actionable, quantitative growth plans
• Possesses high levels of energy, persistence, initiative, and ownership in developing new markets and strategic relationships
• Rigorously holds self and others accountable for achieving high levels of individual, departmental, and organizational performance
• Strong project management, opportunity management, negotiation support, and executive presentation skills
• Expert knowledge of business development, strategic partnerships, market expansion, relationship development, and community engagement principles
• Strong understanding of financial services, credit union business models, member growth strategies, and community-based partnership opportunities
• Ability to evaluate decisions in terms of business impact, member value, market opportunity, operational feasibility, risk, and long-term strategic alignment
• Strong analytical capability with the ability to use market intelligence, CRM data, pipeline reporting, and performance metrics to inform decisions and communicate progress