Partnerships Manager

Overview

• Reporting to: Senior Partnerships Manager
• Visa sponsorship: Unfortunately, we are unable to offer visa sponsorship for this role. Applicants should have the right to work in the UK at the time of application.
• 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, right to work, media and social media.
• You can expect to hear from us, no matter the outcome, by: 3rd July
• 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.
• Tools: Asana, HubSpot, Contentful
• Role closes: 14th June, 23:59 BST

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.

Why we're hiring

Apolitical is growing quickly. As our portfolio of government partnerships, learning programmes, and global funder relationships continues to expand, we are scaling the operational and delivery capacity of our Partnerships team to support this growth.

A major driver of this expansion is the Government AI Campus, a trusted global hub for AI excellence in government, preparing 1 million public servants to lead in the age of AI with support from Google.org , which this role will work closely on, as well as several other projects.

The role

This is a highly collaborative delivery and operations role with meaningful external stakeholder exposure. You will support the day-to-day management and delivery of government partnerships on the Government AI Campus and related projects. While this is not primarily a sales role, you will build strong relationships with government partners and help create an excellent partner experience that supports long-term growth and renewal opportunities.

Success in this role will come from being highly organised, proactive, detail-oriented, and comfortable coordinating across multiple teams and workstreams simultaneously.

Tasks and remite

1. Partnership Delivery & Operations (40%)

• Support end-to-end delivery of government partnerships on the Government AI Campus
• Help gather partner requirements and translate them into actionable internal delivery plans
• Coordinate onboarding and delivery processes for learner cohorts across multiple partners
• Help ensure learner communications, translations, reporting workflows, and platform configurations are delivered accurately and on time
• Troubleshoot operational issues and escalate risks or blockers proactively

2. Partner Management & Stakeholder Coordination (30%)

• Act as a day-to-day point of contact for government partners once partnership scope and delivery plans have been agreed
• Help coordinate communications and expectations between partners and internal teams
• Support partner meetings, scheduling, follow-ups, and ongoing communications
• Build trusted relationships with government stakeholders and ensure a high-quality partner experience through professional account management

3. Project Management & Internal Coordination (30%)

• Manage timelines, trackers, action logs, and internal documentation to ensure projects stay organised and on schedule
• Coordinate delivery across internal teams, including Product, Evaluation, Customer Support, and Operations
• Track progress against milestones and support regular reporting internally and externally
• Identify opportunities to improve operational efficiency and delivery processes

Onboarding milestones

Within one month, you will

• Complete onboarding and develop a strong understanding of Apolitical's mission, products and partnership delivery model.
• Build relationships with key internal stakeholders across Partnerships, Learning, Product and Operations.
• Gain a working understanding of the Campus, our programme delivery approaches, active partner portfolio and partnership pipeline.
• Begin supporting partner meetings, programme delivery activities and account management processes.

Within three months, you will

• Independently manage day-to-day delivery activities across assigned partner programmes, with support from the Senior Partnerships Manager.
• Build trusted working relationships with key partner stakeholders and contribute to successful programme delivery against agreed timelines.
• Take ownership of project management, coordination and reporting for assigned partnerships.
• Identify opportunities to improve partner experience, delivery quality or operational efficiency.

Within six months, you will

• Confidently own relationships with partner stakeholders across a portfolio of government and institutional accounts.
• Step into other accounts and projects as needed, providing flexible support across the Partnerships team.
• Contribute to commercial and partnership development discussions, drawing on insights from programme delivery.
• Be recognised internally as a trusted partner to colleagues and externally as a credible representative of Apolitical.

What we're looking for

This is a great fit if you

• Enjoy coordinating complex projects and making operations run smoothly
• Are highly organised and detail-oriented, while still able to manage multiple moving parts
• Communicate clearly and professionally with both internal teams and external stakeholders
• Are proactive and comfortable taking ownership of workstreams and solving problems independently
• Work well cross-functionally and enjoy collaborating with different teams
• Have strong relationship management skills and are comfortable interacting with government stakeholders
• Are excited by the opportunity to work on AI capability-building and public sector innovation globally

Useful experience (but not required)

• Experience working with governments, public sector organisations, international organisations, edtech, learning programmes, or mission-driven organisations
• Familiarity with project management and collaboration tools such as Asana
• Experience coordinating operational or delivery workflows across multiple teams
• Exposure to learner onboarding, training delivery, or evaluation/reporting processes
• An interest in AI, digital government, or public sector innovation
• We expect most candidates might have around 3 years of relevant experience.

This probably isn't the right role if you

• Dislike operational coordination or detailed project management work
• Prefer purely sales-focused or commercial roles
• Don't enjoy collaborating across multiple teams and stakeholders
• Are uncomfortable managing several projects and priorities at once
• Prefer working independently rather than in a highly collaborative environment

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.