Partnerships Manager

About You and the Role

The Partnerships Manager owns and grows Zipline’s partnership with an assigned state. You will turn government priorities and contractual commitments into a fully integrated, high-utilisation service that delivers measurable health impact and sustainable account growth. You will be accountable for the state account strategy, service utilisation, priority-use-case adoption, partner satisfaction, contract implementation, renewal and expansion.

Reporting to the State Director, you will work closely with the Nest Lead, Programme Management, Operations, Finance, Legal and other cross-functional teams. You will translate government priorities and contractual commitments into clear execution plans, lead senior state-level stakeholder engagement, and manage the risks and opportunities that determine the long-term health of the partnership.

What You Will Do

State Account Ownership and Growth

• Own the state partnership and account strategy, including utilization, account growth, partner satisfaction, renewal, expansion and material account risks.
• Grow Average Daily Deliveries, Use cases and steady commodity supply while ensuring Customer Success i.e keep customers happy
• Develop and execute annual and quarterly state account plans aligned with country priorities, contractual commitments and agreed performance targets.
• Identify, qualify and convert new use cases, commodities, programmes, funding opportunities and service-expansion opportunities.
• Lead the state-facing components of contract renewals, amendments and commercial negotiations in partnership with leadership, Legal and Finance.
• Maintain an accurate state account plan, stakeholder map, opportunity pipeline and risk register, with clear owners and next actions.
• Use performance, financial and customer data to prioritise interventions and recommend action.

Executive Stakeholder Management

• Build trusted relationships with Commissioners, Permanent Secretaries, Executive Secretaries, agency leadership, programme directors and other senior government stakeholders.
• Manage strategic relationships with funders, donor agencies and implementing partners that can support programme delivery, funding and scale.
• Develop external champions who can advocate for Zipline, remove barriers and support the long-term sustainability of the partnership.
• Represent Zipline in senior state-level meetings and strategic forums, with strong preparation and follow-through.
• Anticipate political, regulatory, contractual and relationship risks and lead appropriate mitigation or escalation.

Health System Integration and Execution

• Embed Zipline into relevant state supply plans, budgets, medical and vaccination campaigns, programme strategies and operating processes.
• Translate government commitments into cross-functional plans with milestones, owners and measures of success.
• Facilitate alignment among Zipline, state institutions, donors and implementing partners to protect service continuity and enable scalable growth.
• Ensure commitments made to government stakeholders are documented, communicated internally and tracked through completion.
• Lead the state partnership workstream for launch and go-live, ensuring that government commitments, facility readiness, priority use cases and stakeholder dependencies are completed on schedule.

Performance Impact and Strategic Engagement

• Lead monthly and quarterly state account reviews using performance, commercial, operational and impact data.
• Coordinate accurate and timely reports for government partners and internal leadership, highlighting risks and recommended actions.
• Use data and storytelling to communicate Zipline's health, social and economic impact and reinforce trust in the partnership.

Success Measures

Success in this role will be assessed through outcomes including:

• Growth in active-facility utilization, organic order volume and priority-use-case adoption.
• Expansion into new commodities, programmes, use cases and funded opportunities.
• Delivery against contractual commitments and achievement of renewal, amendment and state-expansion milestones.
• Strength of senior stakeholder relationships and partner satisfaction.
• Integration of Zipline into eligible state budgets, supply plans, campaigns and programme-delivery processes.
• Quality and conversion of the state opportunity pipeline and timely resolution of material account risks.
• Accuracy and timeliness of state performance reports and account reviews.

What You Will Bring

• Six or more years of experience in business-to-government sales, key account management, market access, partnerships, customer success or programme leadership.
• Demonstrated experience owning complex government or institutional accounts and delivering measurable growth, renewal or expansion outcomes.
• Strong knowledge of Nigeria's public-health system and experience engaging senior state-government stakeholders.
• A proven record of developing proposals, building business cases and leading complex commercial negotiations through to close.
• Experience leading cross-functional programmes and managing, coaching or developing others.
• Strong commercial judgement, data literacy, project-management capability and executive communication skills.
• Experience collaborating with NGOs, donor agencies and implementing partners; experience in healthcare or medical supply chains is strongly preferred.
• The ability to manage detailed scopes of work, multiple priorities and sensitive stakeholder commitments with discipline and accuracy.
• Grit, resourcefulness and resilience in uncertain and rapidly changing business and regulatory environments.
• Professional proficiency in English and willingness to travel approximately 40 percent of the time.

Experience working with government and public-health stakeholders in the North Central region or a comparable northern Nigerian environment is strongly preferred

What Else You Need to Know

Zipline is an equal opportunity employer and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, colour, ancestry, national origin, religion or religious creed, mental or physical disability, medical condition, genetic information, sex, pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, marital status, military or veteran status, citizenship, or other characteristics protected by applicable law or company policy.