Partnerships Manager Birmingham

Role: Partnerships Manager - Birmingham

Location: Birmingham (onsite during term time)

Salary: 60000-80000k OTE

The Partnerships team builds long-term relationships with Multi-Academy Trust (MAT) Leaders to drive meaningful impact across their schools and ultimately for students in the classroom.

MATs are facing significant challenges: budget pressures recruiting and retaining high-quality staff and a rising demand for SEND support. Im looking for experienced sales professionals who are able to understand the impact of these challenges on schools and advise MATs on solutions that Zen Educate can offer.

Selling to MATs is unique - success requires both trust-level relationships and school-level engagement. This means you should be just as comfortable picking up the phone to do cold school outreach as you are leading strategic conversations with MAT CEOs.

We know that might not be for everyone - but for the right person its one of the most rewarding sales roles which puts you in the room with todays leaders who are shaping education. If youre passionate about making a difference willing to roll your sleeves up for a challenge and thrive on building relationships wed love to hear from you.

What were building (and why it matters)

UK schools spend over 2 billion a year on temporary staff - and hundreds of millions of that goes to traditional recruitment agencies. Thats money that could instead fund teacher pay rises classroom resources or student support.

At Zen Educate were fixing that.

Weve built a platform that connects schools directly with fully vetted teachers and support staff cutting out agencies and saving schools money.

Our SaaS tools now help schools and MATs manage recruitment compliance and workforce planning more efficiently.

Since 2017 weve already saved schools over 30 million - and we recently raised $37 million in Series B funding the largest EdTech round in Europe last year. Were scaling fast across the UK and US.

Now were expanding our Partnerships team - and we need senior sales professionals who can build long-term MAT relationships close preferred supplier agreements and drive adoption of our SaaS tools at scale.

What this role looks like day-to-day

As a Partnerships Manageryoull own the full partnership lifecycle: from outreach and negotiation through to activation expansion and renewal.

Youll work with senior stakeholders across MATs - CEOs CFOs HRDs - to understand their priorities design solutions and show the impact Zen can deliver.

Heres what your week might look like:

• Personalised and thoughtful outreach to school and MAT leaders
• Build and manage relationships with trust central teams to secure Preferred Supplier Agreements (PSAs).
• Lead consultative discovery conversations with MAT decision-makers understanding their recruitment setup challenges and goals.
• Develop tailored proposals and presentations that demonstrate Zens impact and ROI.
• Partner with Account Managers and Regional Leads to ensure smooth activation of new PSAs across individual schools.
• Conduct termly reviews with central teams to monitor performance address challenges and identify growth opportunities.
• Track and lead renewal conversations ensuring every trust stays engaged and grows their use of Zen.
• Stay ahead of sector trends (DfE funding shifts MAT growth competitor movement) to inform strategy and conversations.
• Its a strategic high-impact role where relationship-building meets execution - and every deal you close delivers tangible value to schools.

Who you are

You dont need to have worked in education before - well teach you that. But youll thrive if youre:

• A consultative B2B seller with experience managing multi-stakeholder deals.
• Skilled at building relationships with senior leaders and driving long-term partnerships.
• Strategic and commercially sharp - you balance mission with metrics.
• Highly organised and proactive able to manage complex accounts and multiple renewals.
• Confident leading presentations negotiations and executive-level discussions.
• A collaborative team player who shares insights and lifts others up.

Youll love this role if

You want to combine serious commercial growth with social impact.

You enjoy strategic selling and influencing senior stakeholders.

You thrive in fast-paced scaling environments where you can shape the playbook.

It might not be your thing if

• You prefer a highly structured slow-moving environment.
• Youre not comfortable leading outreach or building new relationships.
• You want every week to look the same this role evolves constantly.

Whats in it for you

• Meaningful work - every partnership you secure helps schools save money and improve teacher retention.
• Competitive salary commission equity.
• 25 days holiday that increases with tenure UK public holidays.
• 1:1 coaching and professional development support.
• Life & Health Insurance Cycle to Work Scheme Electric Car Scheme.

How we hire

We move quickly and keep things simple:

Intro chat Meet our talent team

Partnerships interview Lets talk strategy outreach and stakeholder management.

Practical task & role play Show us how youd approach a real trust partnership.

Culture chat Meet the wider team to ensure a great fit both ways.

If its a yes well move fast no endless waiting around.

Diversity & inclusion

We welcome applicants with diverse backgrounds and different experiences and perspectives - just like the staff who teach through Zen and the children at the schools we work with. We believe in hiring the best people from the widest pool and creating an inclusive atmosphere with a culture where peoples voices are heard and all our team can look forward to coming to work.

We value and respect all differences in all people (seen and unseen). We believe in an environment with equal access to career development opportunities and actively encourage applications from BAME candidates.

If you require any reasonable adjustments during your interview process with us please do let us know.

Due to the high volume of applications we regret that we are unable to provide individual feedback on initial submissions.

Please note before applying
This role is based full-time at our Birmingham office and requires onsite attendance five days per week during term time. We encourage applications from candidates who live in or near the local area of this office or plan on relocating.

Ready to make a difference

If youre excited about building partnerships that transform how schools work - hit Apply. Wed love to chat.

We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process such as reviewing applications analyzing resumes or assessing responses and identifying potential inconsistencies or verification signals in application materials based on available information. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed please contact us.

Required Experience:

Manager

Employment Type : Full-Time
Experience: years
Vacancy: 1
Monthly Salary Salary: 60000 - 80000