What We Do
At GoGuardian, we’re helping build a future where all learners are ready and inspired to solve the world’s greatest challenges. Our award-winning system of learning solutions is purpose-built for K-12 and trusted by school leaders to promote effective teaching and equitable engagement while helping empower educators to keep students safe.
What It’s Like to Work at GoGuardian
We are an outcomes-focused learning company with a steadfast focus on improving learning environments, one classroom at a time. Working with us means joining a remote team of diverse, committed, mission-driven employees who are inspired by our vision, dedicated to our customers, and ready to roll up their sleeves. Guardians put their heads together to solve problems, learn together from experiments that fail, and stand together by their work with full accountability. We balance our diligence with an inclusive culture that invites everyone to bring their whole self to work. Join us and learn why “I love the people here” is one of the most frequent comments we hear from Guardians.
The Role
We are looking for an experienced Senior Director, Head of Strategic and Channel Partnerships to lead a high-performing team responsible for overseeing all our key strategic and channel partners. This role will report directly into our Vice President of Sales while working closely with our Chief Growth Officer on key strategic partnerships while also playing a key leadership role across the entire organization. This team plays a significant role in the total revenue of our company through close partnerships with our channel distributors and is responsible for developing deeply impactful short and long-term strategic relationships with key education partners including Google, Microsoft, Clever and many others. These partners are vital to our business, and you will be responsible for working with them directly while simultaneously working with our direct sales leaders to ensure a collaborative, organized, and successful partnership is executed between our channel and direct sales teams in service of our customers.
This role requires a strategically oriented, execution-minded leader with extensive expertise in channel and strategic partnerships. The ideal candidate will possess established, strong working relationships with key channel partners such as CDW, Howard, and Blum, as well as proven connections with organizations like Google and Microsoft within the education sector. Furthermore, this leader will be instrumental in facilitating and developing relationships with government, nonprofit, and research institutions in collaboration with our highly acclaimed Education Strategy team. Beyond managing existing partnerships, you will actively shape and enhance relationships with current strategic partners to align business needs and maximize value for our customers. You will also be tasked with identifying and cultivating new and emerging strategic partnerships, leveraging your creativity and ingenuity to drive both short and long-term value for our organization, with a focus on supporting our customers and aligning with core business objectives.
This leader will need to align the goals of this team to the overall company goals and objectives while leveraging data and data-driven insights to drive business results not only within our organization but across the partners this team is responsible for. It is critical to successfully work across multiple disciplines, including product, marketing and sales.
What You’ll Do
Provide Strategic Leadership with Data-Driven, Operational Rigor:
- Experienced leader with both strategic orientation and operational rigor, you will be accountable for all facets, of our channel and strategic partner relationships, including revenue.
- Strategically lead and inspire a team of dedicated individuals responsible for the day-to-day management and execution of our channel and strategic partner relationships.
- Bring a strategic, collaborative and inspiring approach to rally the sales organization to support your efforts to get the most out of our channel and strategic partners.
- Inspire excitement, creativity, interest, and execution across our partners by bringing strategic thinking that supports our needs, their needs, and the needs of our customers.
- Utilize data and data-driven insights to develop strategic initiatives with clear tactics that deliver on our company goals and objectives.
- Bring a level of data-driven insights and operational rigor that brings out the best in our partners while directly improving how we operate across our channel and sales teams.
Steward & Build a High-Performing Team:
- Directly manage and develop our strategic and channel team members while partnering cross-functionally, notably with our direct sales and operations teams to drive results.
- Advocate for the needs of your team along with your strategic and channel partners in a way that builds excitement and support across the organization while achieving our business goals and objectives.
- Partner closely with our strategic and channel partners to help develop and grow their team capabilities in conjunction with our own team and company goals and objectives
Work Seamlessly Across the Organization:
- Partner collaboratively and effectively with cross-functional stakeholders including marketing, operations, product, finance and the direct sales organization to effectively drive the needs of our strategic and channel partners.
- Develop key reporting dashboards in collaboration with finance, business intelligence, operations and our partners to deeply understand performance to drive results.
- Bring key data-driven insights, including revenue and profit insights and analysis to improve governance, margin and financial performance.
- Develop strategic and channel partner compensation and incentive plans, in collaboration with direct sales, operations and finance to drive financially viable business results.
Drive Outsized Results:
- Develop, drive and own revenue and profit objectives across our channel partners.
- Develop, drive and execute key strategic partner joint business plans and associated revenue or financial objectives.
- Own any strategic and channel related customer issues and drive appropriate resolution.
- Address any operational gaps / stand up operations to measure and track associated strategic and channel partner business objectives resolving any conflicts or issues.
Who You Are
- Well known, proven and experienced channel partner leader with experience in driving broader strategic partnerships (15+ years of experience).
- Prior experience working in a business environment that has both channel and direct sales motions and has utilized strategic partnerships to drive business objectives forward.
- Previous B2B or B2B SaaS and enterprise software experience; Edtech sector a plus.
- Experience is preferred in the K-12 and/or higher education space selling software services into education and government institutions at all levels (schools, districts, states, federal).
- Proven background developing, driving and executing joint business plans with key channel and strategic partners utilizing business reviews to drive performance.
- Customer-centric mindset and experience driving that mindset with and across key strategic and channel partners.
- Strong analytical and financial skills with the ability to interpret data, analyze trends, and implement strategic solutions that drive business results.
- Expert in channel sales process and price optimization, channel sales forecasting, channel sales incentive plans, and channel sales performance management.
- Strategic mindset with expertise in go-to-market strategies and enterprise sales to school districts or similar local government entities utilizing channel and strategic partners.
- Proven track record of building operational rigor and structure that eliminates surprises and drives accountability.
- Experience building strong teams, maintaining an outcome/performance mindset and a customer first approach.
- Great, polished communicator with audiences at all levels of the organization.
What We Offer
- Competitive pay, complete health insurance, 401(k) matching, employee equity plan.
- Flexible time off, paid holidays, paid parental leave, and a paid year-end holiday break.
- A robust catalog of benefits that support your professional growth and personal wellbeing, including work from home funds, fertility & adoption reimbursement, and more…
Plus the intangible:
- A varied and challenging role in an innovative, global company.
- Supportive, driven colleagues who have your back and share your passion.
Please share this with your friends or co-workers who may be interested in working at GoGuardian! We have multiple openings and are always looking for talented people.
GoGuardian is an equal opportunity employer and makes employment decisions on the basis of merit and business needs. GoGuardian does not discriminate against employees, applicants, interns or volunteers on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, ancestry, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition, pregnancy, marital status, sex, age, sexual orientation, military and veteran status, registered domestic partner status, genetic information, gender, gender identity, gender expression, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.
GoGuardian's Job Applicant Privacy Policy is located here.
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What We Do
At GoGuardian, we’re helping shape the future of digital learning by providing educators, students, and schools with tools to create equitable and engaging learning environments. Together, we build innovative solutions to empower students, deliver insights, encourage experimentation, and reduce inequity. We’re growing fast and looking for passionate team members to join us!
Why Work With Us
Our team is made up of a diverse group of highly motivated, mission-driven individuals. As a remote-first company, most of our teammates work from the space that suits them best, wherever they may live. To collaborate in person, we have beautiful headquarters in sunny El Segundo, California.
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