Director, Strategic Partnerships

SUMMARY: KRA is seeking a Director, Strategic Partnerships with a solid record of successfully taking ownership of business development and execution of partnerships, providing thought leadership, strategic direction, market analysis, and program oversight to guide the development of capabilities that meet market needs. The ideal candidate will have experience with WIOA/TANF workforce development programs in the advocacy space, excellent writing and editing skills, a self-starting entrepreneurial spirit, and a desire to advance KRA’s mission via revenue generation.

Director, Strategic Partnerships is part of the senior leadership team, and collaborates with the senior leadership team to understand the organization's goals related to financially positioning the company for long-term growth and advancement.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Work with senior leadership to build a comprehensive business development strategy and execution plan aligned with KRA’s value proposition, services positioning, and long-term growth goals.
• Conduct research to identify new markets, business opportunities and partnership opportunities within the company’s objectives.
• Develop a detailed list of potential clients and partners, and a prioritization framework for engaging.
• Establish KPIs and processes to track partner engagement, new opportunities, and revenue.
• Deliver monthly/quarterly reports on progress, status and results of business development activity.
• Facilitate meetings with senior leadership to present viable opportunities to pursue.
• Provide leadership across a multi-disciplinary team to ensure proposals pursued are well written, accurate and compliant with the requirements of the proposal request and addressing the client’s needs.
• Secure new TANF/WIOA contracted business meeting/exceeding corporate financial goals.
• Develop processes to facilitate information sharing and enable smooth hand-offs to program management team on successful proposals.
• Orchestrate communications and marketing efforts to optimize the results from public outreach to established partnerships.
• Manage KRA sponsorship programs.
• Represent KRA at conferences, community events, board meetings, podcasts and social media.
• Develop and implement departmental budget
• Perform other duties as assigned.

QUALIFICATIONS: To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required.

CORE COMPETENCIES:

• Ability to develop professional relationships with both existing and potential clients.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills required, including strength in persuasive writing, editing, and presentation design
• Demonstrated ability to manage the drivers of profit and loss to achieve business results
• Excellent project management skills, including the ability to collaborate with staff across multiple program areas to obtain content, information, and resources
• Entrepreneurial approach, flexible attitude, and ability to handle multiple projects in a fast-paced and deadline-oriented environment
• Ability to work both independently and as a part of a team in a highly distributed organization
• Ability to analyze market/industry data and create clear strategies
• Ability to influence the decision-makers at client locations
• Ability to analyze and evaluate people, data, and things to determine positive courses of action.
• Ability to multi-task between competing priorities and initiatives
• Ability to manage remote employees nationwide.
• Must be a self-starter and committed to completing tasks timely, which may include working additional hours and / or over the weekend as needed
• Willingness to travel (nationally - up to 60%)

EDUCATION and/or EXPERIENCE:

• Bachelor’s Degree in from an accredited college or university.
• Minimum of 5 years of business development experience, with 2 years of supervisory experience.
• Minimum of 5 years of experience with WIOA/TANF workforce development programs
• Experienced with government contracting opportunity and procurement process
• Experienced drafting and presenting workforce development proposals

OTHER SKILLS AND ABILITIES:

• Personal computer literacy required, including effective use of the Internet, e-mail, video conferencing (Zoom, Teams) and Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook)
• Experienced with social media platforms (LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube)
• Prior experience and proficiency with database management or CRM highly preferred

PHYSICAL DEMANDS: While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to walk, sit, talk and hear. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential function.