Strategic Partnerships Development Manager

Overview

As a Strategic Partnerships Development Manager, you will play a pivotal role in building and growing high-impact relationships within the programmatic advertising ecosystem. Operating in a fast-paced, collaborative environment, you will work closely with internal product, commercial and technical teams while managing strategic partnerships with leading media agencies. This role is focused on driving adoption of supply-side platform (SSP) solutions across major agency groups and enabling long-term, scalable growth.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and manage senior relationships with the UK’s Big Six holding company media agencies, acting as a trusted commercial and strategic partner.
• Drive the sale and adoption of SSP and programmatic solutions across agency trading desks, investment teams and programmatic specialists.
• Own the end-to-end partner lifecycle, from opportunity identification and pitching through to commercial negotiation, contract execution and ongoing account growth.
• Create and execute partner strategies, including prospecting new opportunities, conducting industry and partner research, and contributing to broader product and go-to-market strategy.
• Manage partner engagement by tracking commercial and technical performance, building forecasts, analysing trends and ensuring strong brand and reputation management.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with internal stakeholders to resolve partner issues, optimise integrations and advocate for partner needs.
• Navigate complex stakeholder environments with confidence, influencing at executive level both internally and externally.

Minimum Qualifications

• 4+ years’ experience working with media agencies within adtech, with a strong focus on programmatic advertising.
• Demonstrated experience managing and growing relationships with major agency groups or holding companies.
• Strong commercial acumen with experience negotiating and executing complex deals and contracts.
• Proven ability to manage opportunities and pipelines, supported by data analysis, reporting and insight generation.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills, with the ability to influence senior stakeholders.
• Strong project management and planning capabilities, comfortable navigating complexity and ambiguity.
• Deep understanding of the programmatic advertising ecosystem, including SSPs, DSPs and agency operating models.

This role offers the opportunity to sit at the centre of the digital advertising ecosystem, shaping strategic partnerships that drive meaningful impact at scale.

This role is open for a limited time. Next steps will be shared with shortlisted candidates by January 16th. Due to the high volume of applicants, we may be unable to reply to each applicant individually. If you have not received a response, please assume that you have not been selected for progression to the next stage of the hiring process.