Partnership Executive

About the Role

This position represents our nontraditional (adult) programs and initiatives to external organizations and individuals with the aim of developing enrollment pipelines. The role is assigned to a specific vertical (e.g., healthcare, corporate, community colleges) and region, requiring extensive travel, in-person engagement, partnership development, and enrollment-related responsibilities. Operating with a high degree of autonomy, the position manages its own schedule, prospecting, and partnership pipeline while reporting directly to the Director of Partnership Pipelines and being accountable for measurable enrollment and partnership outcomes. The role also coordinates partnership development activities with academic leaders to align academic programs with enrollment pipelines.

Responsibilities

• Market Awareness
  • Identifies prospective partners, alumni, and university affiliates within the assigned region to build a strategic approach to partnerships.
  • Engages in awareness events such as Chamber of Commerce meetings, conferences, and industry-focused associations.
  • Identifies and executes lead generation events and experiences to support market awareness.
• Partnership Development
  • Creates and executes direct university-to-organization contact and development strategies to engage prospective partners, nurture relationships, present offerings, and guide partners through the development funnel to increase enrollment.
  • Ensures administration of legal agreements for new partners using existing templates.
  • Executes strategies to meet performance targets, including the number of partnerships and enrolled students.
  • Conducts needs assessments with prospective and current partners to identify pathway opportunities and align programs with organizational needs.
  • Identifies, develops, and forms new partnerships within the assigned vertical and region.
• Onboarding & Engagement
  • Supports the onboarding of new partners.
  • Provides ongoing communication with partners to ensure engagement, optimize relationships, and ensure long-term success.
• Recruitment Strategies
  • Develops custom recruitment strategies to communicate transfer pathways, degree completion programs, and articulation benefits to community college students, advisors, and staff.
  • Carries out recruitment activities with partner organizations by collaborating with internal influencers and decision-makers.
• Presentation & Events
  • Creates customized presentations and recruitment materials for influencers, decision-makers, and prospective students.
  • Plans and conducts onsite and virtual presentations and information meetings.
  • Registers for, attends, and maintains exhibit space at education, benefit, career, transfer, and other fairs and conferences.
  • Serves as an IWU representative at events as requested.
  • Delivers classroom presentations, lunch-and-learns, and advisor/influencer meetings to promote programs.
• Internal Partners
  • Builds strong relationships with enrollment leaders, counselors, and support staff to promote enrollment aims.
  • Collaborates with academic leaders to design and execute outreach strategies.
• Data Management
  • Maintains timely, accurate, and complete records of all recruitment and account activity in Salesforce.
  • Tracks lead and contact data in Salesforce to support reporting, trend analysis, and relationship management.
  • Develops and tracks weekly, monthly, and annual benchmarks to support development goals using Salesforce data.
  • Maintains accurate accounting of all partners in tracking systems.
• Performs other tasks as assigned.

Requirements

According to Indiana Wesleyan University employment policy, all employees must possess a strong Christian commitment and adhere to the standards outlined in the IWU Community Lifestyle Statement.

Qualifications

• Education
  • Minimum of a bachelor’s degree required.
  • Master’s degree preferred.
• Experience
  • Minimum of two (2) years of experience in sales, marketing, college recruitment, and/or public relations.
• Skills
  • Excellent organizational ability, superior interpersonal skills, detail-oriented, and ability to multi-task.
  • Enjoys working with diverse audiences and values multicultural awareness.
  • Self-initiating, self-managed, intrinsically motivated, innovative, creative, and persevering.
  • Ability to arrange and conduct meetings and presentations with influencers and prospective students.
  • Strong interpersonal and communication skills.
  • Ability to articulate Christian faith.
  • Excellent driving record.
  • Working experience in Office 365 and Salesforce.
  • Superior communication skills (spoken, written, group, and individual).
  • Proficiency in artificial intelligence (AI) tools and technologies to support market research, communication, workflow optimization, and data analysis.

Schedule

• Work primarily remotely.
• 50% - 75% travel required, with possible evening, weekend, and overnight travel.