Director of Strategic Partnerships
Preply
At Preply, we are unlocking human potential through learning.
As the world's leading live language platform, we match over 50,000 tutors teaching 50+ languages to learners in 180 countries. Powered by AI technology and best-in-class proprietary learning tools, our Preply tutors can personalize and scale the learning experience like never before to deliver progress, create engagement and motivate our global community of learners. Over 650 Preplers of 60+ nationalities collaborate across 4 offices and 30 countries worldwide, united in our mission to unlock human potential through learning.
We power people’s progress. At Preply, we’re all about creating life-changing learning experiences. We help people discover the magic of the perfect tutor, craft a personalized learning journey, and stay motivated to keep growing. Our approach is human-led, tech-enabled - and it’s creating real impact. So far, 90,000 tutors have delivered over 20 million lessons to learners in more than 175 countries. Every Preply lesson sparks change, fuels ambition, and drives progress that matters.
Meet the team!
This role sits at the intersection of growth, product, brand, payments, and supply, and reports directly to our Chief Operating Officer. You’ll work closely with leaders across every major function to develop a unified strategic partnerships vision that touches the entire Preply business. It’s a high-visibility role with full ownership to build the partnerships function from the ground up - backed by executive alignment, existing tech infrastructure, and a business primed for scale.
What you’ll be doing:
We’re looking for a builder - someone who will define, lead, and own Preply’s strategic partnerships function end to end. You’ll be the person shaping how we partner with external platforms, products, institutions, and marketplaces to unlock distribution, brand reach, user engagement, and long-term commercial value.
You’ll:
- Design and lead a partnership strategy spanning brand co-marketing, product integrations, fintech/payments, B2C and B2B distribution, education institutions, and supply-side partnerships.
- Identify and secure high-impact, multi-faceted partnerships such as global-scale digital platforms, mobile-first ecosystems, education networks, and fintech/payment infrastructure players.
- Collaborate with cross-functional leaders in Product, Engineering, Growth, Brand, Payments, and Supply to surface and activate meaningful partner opportunities.
- Unify existing one-off or team-specific partnership efforts into a single, forward-looking function.
- Own the full lifecycle: from scoping and pitching to negotiation, execution, and performance tracking.
- Leverage Preply’s existing tools and help define what product and engineering support is needed as the function matures.
- Build and scale a team over time, once early traction is established.
What you need to succeed:
- Marketplace fluency: You’ve operated in a multi-sided platform or global-scale digital business, and understand how to structure partnerships that create value for users, partners, and the platform itself.
- Strategic and commercial range: You can lead complex negotiations, build custom partnership models, and identify win-win opportunities that go far beyond templated BD playbooks.
- Product-oriented mindset: You can collaborate closely with product and engineering teams to design embedded, scalable integrations.
- Growth and GTM thinking: You know how to align partnership strategy with user acquisition, brand expansion, and monetization goals.
- Cross-functional influence: You’ve worked across Brand, Product, Marketing, Legal, and Finance to get partnerships over the line and into production.
- High ownership and execution drive: You’re excited to roll up your sleeves and build from zero, not just manage a mature function.
- Excellent communication and storytelling skills: You can confidently pitch, present, and persuade - internally and externally.
- Comfort in ambiguity: You’re energized by a blank slate and thrive in high-growth, fast-evolving environments.
Why you’ll love it at Preply:
- An open, collaborative, dynamic and diverse culture;
- A generous monthly allowance for lessons on Preply.com, Learning & Development budget and time off for your self-development;
- A competitive financial package with equity, leave allowance and health insurance;
- Not in Barcelona? We offer an attractive relocation package to join us in our Preply Barcelona Hub
- Access to free mental health support platforms;
- Access to Gympass-partnered wellness and gym centers throughout Spain to promote and support well-being and physical health;
- The opportunity to unlock the potential of learners and tutors through language learning and teaching in 175 countries (and counting!).
Our Principles:
- Care to change the world - We are passionate about our work and care deeply about its impact to be life changing.
- We do it for learners - For both Preply and tutors, learners are why we do what we do. Every day we focus on empowering tutors to deliver an exceptional learning experience.
- Keep perfecting - To create an outstanding customer experience, we focus on simplicity, smoothness, and enjoyment, continually perfecting it as every detail matters.
- Now is the time - In a fast-paced world, it matters how quickly we act. Now is the time to make great things happen.
- Disciplined execution - What makes us disciplined is the excellence in our execution. We set clear goals, focus on what matters, and utilize our resources efficiently.
- Dive deep - We leverage business acumen and curiosity to investigate disparities between numbers and stories, unlocking meaningful insights to guide our decisions.
- Growth mindset - We proactively seek growth opportunities and believe today's best performance becomes tomorrow's starting point. We humbly embrace feedback and learn from setbacks.
- Raise the bar - We raise our performance standards continuously, alongside each new hire and promotion. We build diverse and high-performing teams that can make a real difference.
- Challenge, disagree and commit - We value open and candid communication, even when we don’t fully agree. We speak our minds, challenge when necessary, and fully commit to decisions once made.
- One Preply - We prioritize collaboration, inclusion, and the success of our team over personal ambitions. Together, we support and celebrate each other's progress.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Preply is committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment where people from all backgrounds can thrive. Different opinions and viewpoints are key ingredients in our success as a multicultural Ed-Tech company.
Preply will consider all applications for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, age or veteran status. Together, we are The World Class.
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