Partnerships Manager

HappieHire · India

Role: Partnerships Lead

Location: Bengaluru, India

Work-mode: On-site (Extensive Travel)

Department: Field & Growth Operations

Budget: 18 - 20 LPA

Experience: 4+ years

What You'll Do:

• Broker access at scale. Identify, cultivate, and close relationships with high-leverage intermediaries — presidents of business associations, lenders, banks, politicians, civil servants, and large multinational corporations — who can grant direct, reliable access to hundreds of businesses.
• Build outbound pipeline. Generate leads and open doors through cold calls, email, and LinkedIn — full-cycle, from first outreach to signed partner to collected data.
• Turn one relationship into many. Convert a single institutional connection into structured, repeatable onboarding pathways for entire clusters of businesses.
• Be the trusted liaison. Serve as the ongoing point of contact between the company and partners, managing these relationships over time rather than transacting once.
• Navigate complex stakeholders. Move fluently across political, institutional, and commercial decision-makers to secure top-level buy-in and remove friction.
• Hand off to the field. Work closely with field operations so unlocked networks translate into collected, high-quality data on the ground.

Must-Have Criteria:

• 4–5 Years of B2B Sales Experience: Proven track record in driving business revenue specifically within the SME market.
• Team Leadership: Direct experience managing, mentoring, and driving performance across a sales team.
• Pan-India Exposure & Mobility: Open and willing to undertake extensive travel across Pan-India to manage widespread partner relationships.
• Multilingual Proficiency: Strong communication skills with fluency in Hindi along with at least two South Indian languages (e.g., Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam).
• End-to-End Partnership Management: Ability to independently handle large-scale partner ecosystems and drive business growth across national territories.

Good-To-Have Criteria:

• Background in political consulting, public affairs, or government-facing roles.
• Prior experience as a liaison officer within telecom, banking, or other highly regulated enterprises.
• Proven track record as a business acquisition or partnerships lead at an e-commerce platform or B2B marketplace.
• Experience as a Large B2B Key Account Manager dealing with institutional clients or public sector accounts.
• Strong existing network and strategic contact base across relevant industry sectors.

What Sets You Apart:

• A demonstrable, activatable network among the gatekeepers above
• A founder mindset and bias for action — you don't wait for leads, you create them
• Comfort operating with senior political, institutional, and corporate stakeholders
• A track record of turning relationships into concrete access and outcomes
• Deep fluency in navigating India's institutional and commercial ecosystems