Strategic Partner Manager

About the role

We’re looking for an experienced channel leader be Blackbaud’s Strategic Partner Manager for our partnerships with strategic partners like Microsoft, AWS, cloud distributors and other ecosystem partners. This is a key business development role that will define and execute Blackbaud’s partnership strategy in collaboration with our product, marketing, customers success, and sales teams to actively drive towards our revenue goals. This candidate must possess a passion for building and managing partner relationships and must have proven success driving business development activities in support of sales opportunities. As the partner manager\, this candidate will be accountable for the growing our partner business in support of our overall sales strategy and customer development ambitions.
At the end of the day, this is about business development and delighting our clients. To that end, we’re looking for a motivated, entrepreneurial self-starter who thrives in a fast-paced environment and relishes the opportunity to build and develop a critical partnership. Most importantly, this requires collaboration, leadership, maturity, a drive for outcomes and a passion for continuous learning and self-improvement.

What you’ll do

Partner Strategy

• Determines and drives to Blackbaud revenue goals based on input from overall market strategy, market growth goals, and practice focus areas
• Coordinates with Blackbaud local market personnel to meet defined performance, engagement and revenue growth objectives
• Proactively assesses, clarifies, and validates partner and Blackbaud’s needs on an ongoing basis
• Develops partner engagement activities such as marketing campaigns, sales alignment and customer engagement, to support overall partner strategy
• Possesses a deep understanding of the partner ecosystem, including incentive programs, enablement offerings, and success measures
• Support our practices in developing GTM strategies aligned to our partners

Partner Sales

• Build strong, trusted relationships within partner organizations centrally and regionally
• Owns the co-sell program including targets and deliverables
• Works closely with internal GTM teams to execute regional growth plans as a subset of business development go-to-market
• Engage internal and partner sales teams globally and partner together in account planning and co-selling efforts
• Promotes sales enablement opportunities, including the development of sales briefings, to increase Blackbaud’s knowledge partner solutions and incentives
• Proactively identifies and manages potential channel conflict posed by the partner, including developing contingency planning, as well as escalating to Blackbaud leadership when necessary

Partner Operations

• Develop and nurture relationships with Blackbaud’s partner teams to leverage best practices and relationships
• Collaborate with partners and Blackbaud Partner operations to ensure all sales data is up to date
• Proactively communicate and manage internal and partner colleagues on partner channel pipeline and forecasts
• Work directly and with partners to register leads and co-sell opportunities in partner portals, works with market leadership to manage pre-sales activities and tracks partner revenue when deal is closed
• Identify opportunities to leverage partner funding and works with local market leaders to apply funds to existing client opportunities
• Manage the performance standards, scorecards and data gathering required to evaluate and manage the performance of the partner
• Support practices in partner-enablement for both sales and technical certifications
• Create and maintain project plans, budgets, and timelines for partner initiatives

Partner Marketing

• Increase Blackbaud’s brand awareness with our top partners through networking, marketing campaigns and partner events, supported by marketing
• Serve as Blackbaud brand ambassador to identify opportunities to present, sponsor or co-market partner events
• Coordinate to align key partner marketing strategies to the overall Blackbaud marketing strategy

What you’ll bring

• Between 10+ years of experience working with or for Microsoft, AWS or Google
• Strong verbal and written communication skills to deliver messages across a variety of internal and external audiences and the ability to persuasively articulate Blackbaud partnership impact value and offerings to customers and partners
• Strong organizational skills and the ability to manage a vast array of information and create structure in heavily ambiguous environments
• Ability to interact with leaders and all levels of the organization in a professional and impactful manner
• Ability to influence and drive revenue goals while working closely with sales teams
• Experience handling budgets and complex schedules to get meetings booked
• Highly self-motivated and able to work both independently and in a team environment to drive critical outcomes
• Strong interpersonal skills and demonstrable experience working with cross-functional teams, including remote teams in multiple time zones
• Understanding of foundational cloud technologies and the cloud partner ecosystem (AWS, Salesforce, Microsoft, etc.) is preferred
• Willingness to travel up to 20%

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Blackbaud powers social impact through purpose‑driven technology and responsible AI. Guided by our Intelligence for Good® vision, we’re building a culture where innovation, trust, and human expertise come together to help organizations make a greater difference in the world.

Blackbaud is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and is committed to maintaining a diverse and inclusive work environment. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, physical or mental disability, age, or veteran status or any other basis protected by federal, state, or local law.

Benefits Include:

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance

• Remote-flexible workforce

• Wellness Programs

• 401(k) program with employer match

• Flexible paid time off

• Generous Parental Leave

• Donations for Doers

• Pet insurance, legal and identity protection

• Tuition reimbursement program