About Partnerships at Bench

Are you ready?! To fully take advantage of our opportunity, we are now looking to add a new senior Leader to our Strategic Partnerships Team. This is an incredible opportunity for a Partnership professional to make a huge impact on the trajectory of our business.

We have a track record of exceptional partnerships with leading ecommerce, SaaS and fintech companies, many of which are now leading to product integrations. We need you to take our Strategic Partnerships Team to the next level.

Joining Partnerships at Bench means you will be signing up to strategically grow the revenue generated from each of your signed and activated partners, help Bench and our partners reach their goals and targets, respond to the shifting needs of small business clients, work cross-functionally with all Bench teams, and create a world-class experience for our partners. While at the same time finding and creating new opportunities, channels, and partnerships that serve our customers and the revenue goals of the company.

About the Role

You will work with our SVP, Sales to reset our Strategic Partnerships Strategy. You will think deeply about how we create immense value for our customers, our partners, and Bench. You and your team will develop a pipeline of partnership opportunities. You will manage our current partnerships to ensure consistent and increasing lead and client flow in both directions.

Summary of Key Responsibilities:

• Devise and implement a Partnership strategy to offer and/or embed Bench’s accounting and tax readiness services across a wide array of eCommerce, SaaS and FinTech platforms, building on the learnings from a portfolio of existing partners.
• Dependably and consistently achieve revenue, budget and forecasting targets.
• Drive partner lifetime value by developing key value drivers of each partnership that drive the highest benefit both internally and to our partners; deploying programs to help drive business value, Partner goal achievement, new products, and services; collaborating across teams to identify and pursue Partner growth.
• Ensure the Partnership team establishes a solid foundation of successful, long-term partnerships during new partner onboarding.
• Lead efforts in negotiating partnership agreement renewals with terms that support our overall business objectives and long-term enterprise value creation.
• Maintain direct and active relationships with partners, including proactively resolving business, technical and policy issues, serving as an internal and external advocate.
• Implement tracking and standardization of partners’ objectives and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) reporting.
• Report key metrics to the executive team, company, and board with materiality and action plans for any improvement opportunities
• Manage partner profitability trends and identify, and action on, areas for improvement.
• Stay abreast of industry trends, market dynamics, and regulatory changes that may impact partnerships.
• Represent the voice of the partner and influence internal stakeholders by promoting a partner-centric mindset across the organization.
• Partner across the organization on initiatives that will improve our value proposition to partners, including new products, features, and channels.
• Work closely with marketing, sales, product development, and other teams to integrate partnership initiatives into overall business strategies.
• Represent Bench in external meetings with executives from other companies, as well as industry events and conferences.
• Strive for bold ambition and challenge convention.

To be successful in this role, you’ll need to have:

• 10 years in progressively senior roles within partnerships or Business Development in a top-tier startup, technology company or similar product-driven company, with 5 of those in a people leadership capacity.
• A proven track record of sourcing, signing and monetizing successful partnerships with high profile eCommerce, SaaS, FinTech and Service based companies focused on SMB
• Strong leadership skills: Ability to motivate, inspire, grow and develop the team
• A strategic mindset: Ability to apply strategic thinking when solving problems
• A collaborative working style: both internally and externally
• A feedback driven approach: Ability to seek feedback from a variety of sources internally and externally and the ability to ensure that feedback channels are robust within their teams
• Strong verbal and written communication skills
• An activated curiosity and openness to being an equitable and inclusive leader. Our commitment to anti-racism and anti-discrimination as a company excites you.
• A well-developed equity lens: You actively lead teams and strategic-level work with an equity lens and an eye for inclusivity. You don’t just accept equitable practices, you model and advocate for them on your teams and in your work.

The extra details:

• We offer an extended benefits package that includes paid vacation, paid flex days, stock options, and full health, dental, and vision.
• You’ll get access to Inkblot Therapy’s Employee and Family Assistance Program (EAP) that offers counseling and support, for you and family members, as well as professional development coaching, financial advice, legal advice and much more.
• Bench has a number of Affinity Groups - groups of people who have shared identities and experiences! The purpose of these groups is to support underrepresented Benchmates and amplify their voices.
• If you live in BC’s Lower Mainland, you have the opportunity to work at home or in our downtown office location, depending on your preference! If you’re interested in remote only, we currently focus our hiring efforts in the following provinces: British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia.
• We provide solutions to bring all teams together for collaboration and connection.
• Regardless of how many days you decide to visit the office, you’ll have access to our Home Office Setup Fund to ensure that you have everything you need to work comfortably from home, from day one.
• You’ll have the opportunity to work from somewhere other than your home province for up to 90 days in a 12-month period.

Everyone has their own unique talents. Even if you don’t meet 100% of the qualifications outlined above, tell us why you’d be a great fit for this role in your application.

We believe that unchecked biases disproportionately impact the most marginalized people in society—including but not limited to BIPOC, LGBTQ2S+ people, immigrants, and people with disabilities. We strongly encourage applications from people with these identities or other marginalized communities because we believe that without you, we are all less. If you are selected for an interview and require support during the process, including disability accommodation, we'll give you the opportunity to tell us when we contact you.