Partner Success and Program Manager

If you want to work for a rapidly growing company that values the work you do, then we want to meet you.

WHO WE ARE:

Plug and Play Tech Center is the ultimate innovation platform, bringing together the best startups and the world’s largest corporations to create the most meaningful connections that bring innovation to anyone, anywhere. We operate 30+ innovation platforms worldwide and are one of the most active VCs in the world. Our mission is to help bring new technology to market faster.

We are a diverse team with backgrounds in business, innovation, entrepreneurship, technology and venture capital. With over 35 global locations, Plug and Play is searching for new team members in South Africa to join our growing team.

WHO WE’RE LOOKING FOR:

We’re an exceptional team with backgrounds in corporate, innovation, technology and entrepreneurship and we’re growing rapidly to deliver on our mission. We’re actively seeking a Partner Success and Program Manager to continuously deliver value to our partners. An ideal candidate is highly strategic, ambitious, detail oriented, and able to effectively influence both within the organization and with our external partners. 

HOW YOU WILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE:

• Build trusted relationships with key stakeholders within our partner organizations to generate adoption, renewals, and new revenue opportunities.
• Devise engagement plans that consider partner business goals, internal organization structures, and map products and services to achieve these goals. 
• Facilitate successful on-boarding of new customers and establish key metrics of success. 
• Drive escalation of client issues, coordinate key resources in the escalation process, and assist with client issues through resolution.
• Host events, track corporate participation with high attention to detail and design new ways to increase corporate engagement.
• Schedule and facilitate bi-weekly calls and participate in planning corporate facing events.

Duties and Responsibilities

Startup Facing

Create meaningful and positive relationships with the startups on the African continent. Introduce new members to corporate partners when there is a potential match or opportunity. Arrange virtual, casual dinners and/or small group lunches in an effort to form a sense of community amongst the startup batches. Host bi-weekly sync calls, while remaining the contact for all startup facing questions. Perform additional operational work for Plug and Play Ventures as needed

Corporate Facing 

Consult large corporations on their innovation efforts. Work closely with our global venture and program management staff to meet corporate client needs. Develop a comprehensive understanding of our corporate partners innovation challenges,

focus areas and tech interests. Collaborate with corporate representatives in deal flow sessions, workshops and event formats. Schedule and facilitate deal flow meetings between startups and corporate partners. Curate startup lists for corporate partners based on their technology interests. Maintain relationships with industry partners. Funneling all custom interest of our corporate partners into the outline of the business development programs and timelines (e.g. Workshops, Innovation Days, etc.). This is executed together with the partner success and ventures team.

Community Facing 

Build and maintain an ecosystem of relevant stakeholders around innovation, venture capital and startups (incl. clusters, government representatives, mentors, coaches, keynote speakers, etc.) in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Marketing

Prepare documents for major events such as: Selection Day, New Start up Orientation Day, flyers for meetups, and so forth (Documents must be approved by Group Marketing before submitting). Coordinate a monthly newsletter with your team to keep entire network up to date on events. Work with our Marketing team to post relevant news and updates to social media.

Event Planning

Customize and prepare respective materials as they pertain to different events. Update Orientation packets for each new batch of startups. Collaborate with Mentors and plan group, one on one, or individual sessions for pitch polishing; organize catering and inform startups of the mentor session. Schedule monthly team meetups. Confirm attending startups for the EXPO event; gather all information for the EXPO brochure regarding startups from your vertical; record attendees; prepare corporate nametags and essentials.

REQUIRED EXPERIENCE:

• Bachelor’s degree in business, marketing, communications, or a related field.
• 3+ years of work experience in a client facing role.
• Experience in Corporate innovation.
• Detail oriented, highly organized, and comfortable working in a fast-paced environment.
• Strong process and analytical skills to identify inefficiencies and create improvements. 
• Excellent communication skills and proficiency in public speaking.
• Self-motivated with the ability to work with minimal supervision. 
• Startup experience and project management experience a plus.