Director, Partner Acquisition

Engine is building the travel and spend management platform for the businesses the rest of the industry overlooked — two products, one ecosystem, growing fast and already cash-flow positive. Partnerships are how we extend that reach, and this role runs the team that turns partnership opportunities into signed, activated, revenue-producing relationships.

We're looking for a Director, Partner Acquisition to lead and scale our channel partnerships team across verticals — GPOs, trade associations, marketplaces, franchise networks and conglomerates, and technology partners — chartered to sign referral, co-sell, and co-marketing partnerships across Engine's full ecosystem. This is an operationally rigorous, enterprise-grade sales leader — a player-coach who installs discipline, builds the vertical playbook from the ground up, and personally drives complex deals across the line.

Reporting to the VP, Business Development, this role owns the front end of partner-sourced growth: a high-throughput engine that prospects, signs, activates, and hands off producing partners to Partner Growth — across every vertical and product.

What You'll Do

• Lead the team and own the number. Build a team of channel professionals and scale it to 6–8 — at least one per vertical — against clear pipeline, signing, activation, and handoff targets. Set the standard, run the cadence, and hold the line on accountability.
• Build the vertical playbook. This is a ground-up build with direct influence over vertical strategy and the GTM motion: define the ICP, sourcing mix, and deal structures for each vertical, and codify what works into a repeatable playbook the team runs.
• Convert and executive-sponsor deals. Operate as a player-coach: step into live opportunities, unblock stalled deals, and personally push complex, multi-stakeholder partnerships across the finish line.
• Run an operationally rigorous funnel. Install and enforce pipeline discipline — stage gates, time-in-stage, win rates by tier, sourcing channel mix, forecast accuracy, categorized loss reasons, and clean Salesforce hygiene. Make partner-sourced growth predictable, not anecdotal.
• Sign quality across the full ecosystem. Drive referral, co-sell, and co-marketing agreements spanning Engine Travel and Spend — with at least one rep carrying the full platform into their vertical. Tier mix and committed volume matter as much as logo count.
• Structure deals that hold up. Negotiate commercially sound, operationally executable partnerships — economics, mutual commitments, and activation plans that survive contact with reality. Own days-in-contracting as a number, not an excuse.
• Drive activation and a clean handoff, not just signatures. Own time-to-activation, cohort activation rates, and the handoff trigger to Partner Growth — and hold your team accountable to production vs. projection at signing. A partner that signs but never produces is a miss, and the forecast your rep made is the forecast they answer for.
• Execute cross-functionally. Align Sales, Marketing, Finance, and Legal to move deals from term sheet to live — fast.
• Raise the bar on talent. Hire, ramp, and level up channel talent; build a team that compounds in output as it gains context.

What We're Looking For

• 10+ years in channel sales or partnerships, including 5+ years leading and scaling quota-carrying teams — ideally in high-growth SaaS, fintech, marketplace, or travel technology.
• A closer and a coach: a proven record of personally converting complex, multi-stakeholder deals, and of building teams that consistently hit signing and activation targets.
• A builder: has walked into a small team, figured out the build, created the playbook, and scaled it — not just inherited a machine that already ran.
• Deep operational rigor — fluency in pipeline management, forecasting, stage discipline, and the metrics that make a partnership funnel predictable: conversion by tier, time-in-stage, activation cohorts, and production vs. projection. Salesforce proficiency expected.
• Multi-motion range: comfort selling and structuring across referral, co-sell, and co-marketing — and across partner types from GPOs and trade associations to marketplaces, franchise networks, and ERP/technology partners.
• Strong commercial negotiation skills with a bias toward partnerships that activate — not vanity logos.
• A direct, data-backed communicator who gives and receives hard feedback without flinching.
• Thrives on speed, high standards, and ambiguity; uses AI and automation to scale both personal and team output.
• Bonus: experience with two-sided marketplaces, embedded / API distribution, or corporate cards and spend management.