Partner Relations Manager (Higher Education)

We are looking for an experienced Partner Relations Manager (internally referred to as an Account Manager) to join our Academic Account Management team!

As a Partner Relations Manager, you will act as the primary point of contact for our current and future North American schools holding a book of 30-40 academic clients based in Canada and the US. You will be responsible for the renewal and expansion of those accounts, driving faculty adoption of the Riipen platform, and building Riipen’s brand on and off campus. Leveraging your knowledge of the higher education industry you will establish and nurture relationships with decision-makers and educators at your institutions to ensure they find success with Riipen and can partner with us on encouraging their colleagues to adopt Riipen in their classes.

Your passion for sales and delivering exceptional customer support will connect employers, students, and academic partners to the right experiential learning opportunities helping students throughout North America connect with some of the world’s most exciting companies and find jobs they love when they graduate.

This role collaborates with academic clients across Eastern, Central, and Pacific time zones. The ideal candidate will have flexibility in scheduling and availability.

Key Responsibilities

• Work closely with our Customer Success team to ensure that your accounts are receiving exceptional customer service;
• Create proposals and presentations to drive renewal and expansion discussions;
• Host webinars, platform demos, meetings and workshops (including on-site, when possible) to spread Riipen brand awareness at your partner institutions;
• Conduct regular check-ins and follow-ups with decision-makers and educators at institutions in your book of accounts;
• Report on key metrics for your accounts that align with Riipen departmental and company OKRs (Objectives and Key Results);
• Partner with career services teams to help them engage their own employer and alumni networks in project-based learning;
• Work closely with Employer Partnerships to ensure we are acquiring good-fit projects for academic institutions.
• Consult on experiential learning assignment design and development with educators;
• Develop account success plans at the account and educator level; deeply understanding the goals of the account and the individual educators using the Riipen platform to drive the best possible experience;
• Drive revenue growth and contract renewals for a book of accounts across North America working with all contacts associated with the account including educators, career services, and decision-makers;
• Coordinate with partners at academic institutions to design a detailed rollout plan for top-down and organic bottom-up faculty adoption with targets and timelines customized for the academic partners’ goals utilizing all Riipen customer-facing teams;
• Work closely with the Academic Sales team to successfully transition new accounts to our services and set them up for future success;

Skills, Knowledge and Expertise

Great Candidates Will Have...

• A natural ability to inspire our customers to get excited about working with Riipen;
• Strong problem-solving, organizational, and analytical skills.
• An entrepreneurial spirit and enjoy working in a fast-paced, start-up environment;
• Previous experience working in or a clear understanding of the education sector (higher-ed preferred);
• 5+ years experience in a client-facing relationship-building or sales role, ideally in a role focused on account growth and expansion;
• Passion and experience in building strong relationships both in person and remotely;
• A data-driven spirit, driven and motivated to understand metrics and KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) to hit your goals;
• Bachelor's degree or equivalent diploma in education, business, marketing, or related discipline;
• A sales mindset, working to meet and exceed revenue targets through delivering exceptional, value-add relationships with your accounts;
• Experience in presenting to clients and are comfortable building engaging sales-based presentations to a range of audiences;

Bonus Points:

• Experience working in or closely with a SaaS business;
• Experience and success working with remote teams;
• Experience with HubSpot, G-Suite for Business.
• Knowledge of or experience with project-based experiential learning;

If you feel like you don’t check all the boxes but have the potential to learn what you don’t know, still apply! We believe that diverse teams are high-performing teams and we strive to employ individuals with a diversity of backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives.

If this role excites you, we look forward to receiving your application!