Director, Strategic Business Development (eCommerce)
BigCommerce is disrupting the e-commerce industry as the SaaS leader for fast- growing, mid-market businesses. We enable our customers to build intuitive and engaging stores to support every stage of their growth.
Reporting to our Chief Development Officer, the Director, Strategic Business Development will have an incredible impact on the ongoing success of the company. Strategic Business Development (SBD) drives 30% of BigCommerce revenue through partnerships with leading payment and technology solution providers.
This high-performing team leader will build and manage the framework of our partnerships with third-party solutions, will conduct business development to add world-class third party solutions to our platform, and will lead the internal and external partner/partnership enablement across BigCommerce. SBD exists to create merchant value through world-class partnerships and to drive future innovation in revenue generation at BigCommerce. This experienced tech/e-comm/SaaS executive will be challenged with identifying areas of revenue growth through partnerships, working closely with the SBD partnership teams and senior leadership.
The Director, Strategic Business Development will serve as a central leader and role model at BC HQ, representing SBD throughout the organization, and supporting the partnership teams with cross-departmental infrastructure to ease scale and innovation.
What You’ll Do:
Evolve and Manage the BigCommerce Technology Partnership Program Framework to ensure optimal success for partners, merchants and BigCommerce alike. We aim to provide world-class solutions to merchants through 3rd party integrations, and we strive to create mutually beneficial partnerships that create new merchant growth and adoption for all. Today, our Tech Partnership Program is strong, with high marks from partners on how we manage them and create success for their solutions. We’re ready to elevate the program to the next level, with particular emphasis on customizing the partner experience for enterprise-level partner solutions. This role will manage all aspects of the program, from strategy to execution to logistics and measurement.
Manage the Tech Apps Marketplace, working with product, developer support and sales to identify areas of opportunity for partner acquisition, partner success and leading partner management of our standard tech partners. The Marketplace can and should be a more robust environment for merchant discovery of tools to drive their business growth.
General Business Development, fielding and seeking partners to identify how they fit within the BigCommerce ecosystem. This includes supporting SBD leadership in non-assigned business development initiatives, often the “whales” we seek to align with for strategic long-term partnership.
Manage “long-tail” Partner Sales Enablement, ensuring our standard partners are educated and prepared to represent and refer BigCommerce in conversations and campaigns with their merchants and prospects.
This is a management position, with 2-3 direct reports: partner manager and sales enablement.
You Will:
- Influence executive leadership in setting clear, actionable and measurable performance goals for the Tech Partner Program, while also quickly identifying, quantifying, and solving problems and other roadblocks to success.
- Work closely with the BigCommerce Product, Engineering, Marketing, and Customer Support teams, in order to ensure optimal alignment and execution of key programs across these other groups.
- Act as a primary point of contact/product owner for partner solutions.
- Actively foster a culture of high standards, personal accountability, and high performance.
- Join the team as we take SBD to its next level – company contribution of 40% or higher – by making a more effective and efficient path to success for partners.
Role Model Strategic Acumen and Initiative:
- Draw on experience to see ahead clearly and anticipate future consequences and trends accurately.
- Make good decisions based upon a mixture of analysis, wisdom, experience, and judgment.
- Communicate clearly, concisely, and often; amongst peer departments, executive leadership and externally with partners and the industry as a whole.
- Accurately determine the most effective way forward to achieve assigned objectives.
- Provide organization and stakeholders with the information required to make decisions and take action in support of organizational goals.
- Recognize the need or opportunity to proactively implement change that improves performance and drives the organization forward.
- Take a planned and systematic approach to organizational change
- Adapt to unanticipated events, adjust plans, and deploy resources to maintain progress.
- Make quick accurate decisions even with incomplete or unclear information.
- Advise the leadership team on current and future policies, practices, trends, and information affecting the business and organization.
Who You Are:
- Highly Experienced
- 7+ years’ experience developing, executing and managing partnerships with an exceptional ‘deal toolkit’ that demonstrates a pattern of creativity and success, including experience within a SaaS platform or eCommerce organization driving adoption of a SaaS-based solution with Partners and their clients.
- Strong e-commerce domain expertise.
- You’ve demonstrated a clear trajectory of professional growth over time and have prior experience building shareholder value through revenue growth and partner management.
- You have worked for industry-leading technology companies, including very fast-paced startups at our stage and in a similar or adjacent technology sector.
- Prior marketing, sales management and partner management experience is preferred.
- Connected - You have a network and established relationships with key decision-makers that extends to the executive level within the commerce and adjacent technology sectors.
- Leader - You have a reputation for providing outstanding leadership, creating commitment
and accountability, resolving conflict, influencing without authority, inspiring teams, and creating an atmosphere in which people work together enthusiastically and cooperatively to produce outstanding results. - Strategic - You thrive on challenges, are agile, possess a great deal of perspective and have a clear vision, tolerance for risk, and ability to navigate ambiguous situations.
- Business Savvy - You possess a technical understanding of software and the e-commerce space, keep up with relevant practices and trends, and have a high degree of business and sales acumen allowing you to make sound decisions and provide consistent, accurate forecasts.
- Product and Bottom Line Driven - You are bottom-line oriented, can be counted on to exceed goals, and develop strong relationships with the product team and engineers, both internally and externally.
- Persuasive Master Communicator - You must have strong persuasion and negotiation skills and be able to provide the information people to the right people at the right time in the right way, adjusting your approach to fit the audience and setting (one-on-one, small and large groups, peers, direct reports, and leaders inside and outside the organization). Excellent communication (written and verbal), presentation, and client/partner relationship skills are critical.
- Customer Focused - You have a passion for eCommerce software solutions, the web, web-based software products, our partners, service, and satisfaction.
- Flexible - You not only cope with change, you successfully anticipate and adjust for problems and roadblocks and can shift gears comfortably.
- Courageous and Ethical - You possess professional courage, steadfastly persevere through challenges, are ambitious while humble, have high standards for ethics and integrity, and do the right things the right way.
- Comfortable using technology - Sound knowledge of Salesforce as well as strong Internet, email, and electronic document management skills. A basic understanding of HTML, CSS and internet technologies (shopping carts, web hosting, email, and online marketing tools) a big plus.
- Travel Flexible - Ability to travel domestically or internationally as needed. This job may require upwards of 20% travel which may require overnight stays or week-long stays at locations (depending on the project).
Diversity & Inclusion at BigCommerce
We have the opportunity to build not only a great business, but a great company, with soul. Our beliefs and commitment to diversity and inclusion are a central part of achieving that.
Our dedication to diversity and inclusion is grounded in two things: a moral belief in the dignity, value, and potential of every individual, and a practical belief that diverse, inclusive teams will create the best outcomes for our customers, partners, employees, and company. We welcome everyone to be a part of our journey.