Director, Partnerships

Responsibilities

• Own and close the inbound partnership pipeline by evaluating, prioritizing, and advancing partnership leads to signature.
• Build an outbound partnerships strategy, including priority verticals, target accounts, and repeatable partnership offerings and pitches.
• Structure partnerships to drive high-trust behaviors and meaningful supply growth.
• Source, pitch, negotiate, and close deals end to end; manage relationships through launch and ongoing performance.
• Shape Circles strategy and support tentpole Circles launches through partnerships.
• Build reusable partnerships frameworks, pitch materials, and outreach sequences.
• Track pipeline health, host activation, cost per activated host, and payback; report progress to Growth leadership.
• Define cross-functional ways of working across Circles GTM, Lifecycle Marketing, Product, and Legal.

Requirements

• 12+ years of experience in partnerships, business development, or growth roles.
• Experience building and scaling a partnerships function at a high-growth consumer startup.
• Proven success sourcing, negotiating, and closing partnerships that drove measurable marketplace growth.
• Experience structuring deals around desired user behaviors and business outcomes.
• Strong external-facing negotiation and executive communication skills.
• Ability to operate independently in an ambiguous, high-ownership environment.
• Strong prioritization, analytical judgment, and structured communication.
• Availability for a focused, full-time 6-month engagement, with potential extension or conversion.

Nice-to-haves

• Experience with home-sharing, home-swapping, or other high-trust marketplace models, such as Airbnb, Turo, Vrbo, or Peerspace.
• Partnerships with membership organizations, associations, unions, alumni networks, or corporate employee communities.
• Experience working with Product teams to create bespoke partnership experiences.

Compensation

• Annual compensation range: $216,000–$264,000.