Senior Commercial Partnerships Manager

London, United Kingdom

Overview

Manager: Director of Philanthropic Partnerships
Visa sponsorship: UK national or visa holder preferred, but not a dealbreaker.
Background checks: Due to the non-partisan nature of the work we do with global governments and partners, all employees need to pass background checks, verifying your identity, education (if relevant), work history, sanctions, criminal record, adverse financial history, and right to work. To ensure we maintain high standards of political neutrality, we also perform media and social media checks.
You can expect to hear from us, no matter the outcome, by: 28th August
Salary expectations: We aim for transparency on salary bands. If our range is misaligned with your expectations, we’d welcome an open conversation as early as possible.

About Apolitical

Apolitical's mission is to make governments smarter for people and the planet and we reach over 40 million public servants through our partnerships with governments globally. We are the largest global network for governments, used by 500,000+ public servants in 170 countries to find and share best practices and gain skills on critical topics from AI to climate change to emerging technologies.

Governments use Apolitical to solve public sector transformation challenges - from AI augmentation to reskilling. We offer governments five interoperable components - research and analysis, workforce productivity tools, customisable training, vibrant learning communities and high impact convenings. Everything we do is powered by our unique global network and real-time data.

Apolitical is trusted by 60+ governments and leading organisations that work with governments. Governments include schools of government, departments, ministries and government adjacent bodies in the UK, Canada, India, EU, UAE, Brazil, Ethiopia, Singapore and more. Global foundation partners include the Bezos Earth Fund, Gates Foundation and Rockefeller Foundation, who view governments as key stakeholders in achieving systemic change.

Apolitical’s corporate partners include organisations such as Google, AWS and Microsoft who work with us at scale with governments and public sector bodies worldwide.

Our Government AI Campus and our Government Energy and Climate Campus are examples of our success in bringing together corporate and philanthropic intent with great technology to deliver impactful government learning and capability building on a global scale.

About the Role

We’re entering a new phase of growth and looking to bring more structure and storytelling power to our commercial efforts. As we deepen our work with corporates, foundations and governments, we need a Senior Commercial Partnerships Manager who can combine sales energy with critical thinking, and brings a strong track record in how to pitch, persuade and build narrative in a way that sharpens partnership and commercial strategy and accelerates momentum.

This is a senior IC sales role for someone who combines commercial judgement with exceptional communication and critical thinking. You’ll help shape how we tell our story to diverse partners, leading the development of compelling commercial narratives and representing Apolitical confidently with government, philanthropic and corporate partners. You’ll contribute across the commercial funnel, with a particular focus on the top half, from pitch deck design and proposal writing to CRM rigour, insight generation and improving how the team works.

Impact on our mission

Apolitical exists to equip public servants with the tools and skills to solve the world’s hardest problems. Revenue from these partnerships enables us to scale our work, deepen our impact and accelerate the shift toward smarter, more effective public institutions. Your work will directly influence how we engage new partners, strengthen existing relationships and shape what the future of government transformation looks like.

Tasks and remit

Craft tailored narratives for government, philanthropic and corporate partners, helping shape how Apolitical positions itself across audiences
Prospect new funding partners for Apolitical, initiating outreach and generating new revenue leads
Independently lead multi-stakeholder proposal development, including through partnering with funders and delivery teams to design core program parameters for proposals, communicating them effectively, and ensuring timely and compelling submissions
Analyse commercial performance and pipeline data to generate insights that inform commercial strategy and improve conversion
Develop and continually improve sales materials including pitch decks, partner proposals and one-pagers
Improve sales processes including CRM workflows, contact tracking and follow-up protocols to increase efficiency and visibility across the team
Contribute to business development activities by identifying opportunities, scanning the market and supporting strategic lead generation

Onboarding milestones

Within one month, you will:

Shadow commercial team members to build context on our pipeline, partners and priorities
Familiarise yourself with our CRM, pitch materials and proposal archive
Identify opportunities to strengthen our commercial materials, processes and ways of working

Within three months, you will:

Lead the development of pitch decks and proposals for strategic opportunities
Track and synthesise key market developments to inform partner conversations
Own and maintain core commercial collateral

Within six months, you will:

Be a trusted commercial partner, independently representing Apolitical in partner conversations, leading complex proposals and helping raise the quality of commercial materials and processes across the team
Run defined sales processes such as weekly CRM reporting or proposal coordination with increasing autonomy

Success looks like…

Demonstrating ownership of complex commercial initiatives, exercising sound judgement and representing Apolitical confidently with external partners
Building trusted relationships with internal and external stakeholders, representing Apolitical professionally and confidently in partner conversations
Driving process improvements across CRM workflows, proposal development and partner communications, raising standards for the wider team
Producing high-quality sales insights, dashboards and reports that support business decisions
Collaborating cross-functionally with Customer Success, Product, Learning, Events and Marketing, influencing work beyond your immediate remit to support revenue growth
Communicating clearly and consistently, using Apolitical’s tone of voice in all partner-facing materials

About you

This is a great fit if you:

Have experience in sales, consulting, commercial strategy, partnerships or business operations, ideally in fast-paced, impact-oriented environments where you’ve taken increasing ownership of complex work
Love crafting clear, persuasive narratives and communicating confidently with senior stakeholders
Have an eye for operational detail such as pipelines, processes or CRM systems
Thrive in cross-functional environments where influence, judgement and collaboration matter as much as formal authority
Are energised by mission and the opportunity to shape something that’s still evolving

Let us know in your CV if you have:

Experience supporting partnerships with government, foundations or corporates
Worked on RFPs, procurement processes or institutional grant proposals
Knowledge of HubSpot, Salesforce or other CRMs

This likely won’t be the right role if you:

Prefer to work on a single project at a time. This is a juggling role
Want a clear-cut specialism. This role requires breadth and generalist thinking
Expect a traditional sales or marketing funnel structure. We often build as we go

Don’t meet every single expectation? Studies have shown that women and people of colour are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single qualification. Apolitical is dedicated to building a diverse and inclusive workplace, so if you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyways. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.