The Senior Strategic Partner Manager is accountable for driving net-new partner growth by identifying, opening, developing, and scaling high-potential reseller and non-traditional partner relationships across North America.
This role requires a hunter mentality: the ability to create opportunity where little or no active relationship exists, navigate complex partner organizations, influence multiple stakeholders, and build a commercial path from first engagement to revenue-generating partnership.
The role blends business development, strategic account planning, partner acquisition, and cross-functional leadership. Success will be measured by the ability to convert target partners into active, growing, and scalable commercial relationships.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
Create and Convert New Partner Opportunities
Own the pursuit and development of a curated list of high-potential reseller and non-traditional partners. The successful candidate will be expected to create momentum without waiting for fully developed opportunities to be handed to them.
- Research target partners and develop a clear account pursuit strategy.
- Identify relevant entry points and build outreach plans for each partner.
- Engage decision-makers across executive, commercial, merchandising, vendor management, purchasing, sales, and operations teams.
- Create commercial interest by connecting StarTech.com capabilities to the partner's business model, customer base, category gaps, and growth priorities.
- Move partners from unknown or underdeveloped status into active business development conversations
Build Strategic Partner Expansion Plans
Develop clear partner growth plans that define where StarTech.com can win within each target partner and how the opportunity can scale beyond initial engagement.
- Identify relevant product categories, commercial gaps, stakeholder priorities, buying behavior, ecommerce opportunities, competitive positioning, and regional expansion paths.
- Build a practical expansion thesis for each partner that goes beyond account maintenance.
- Translate target-partner insight into revenue opportunity, action plans, launch priorities, and measurable growth milestones.
- Use data, market context, and internal expertise to create urgency and a clear reason for partner engagement.
Lead Cross-Functional Opportunity Development
Act as the internal quarterback across Product Management, Merchandising, Marketing, Content, Data & Analytics, Operations, Finance, Supply Chain, and Sales.
- Translate partner opportunity into internal action and align teams around the commercial case.
- Coordinate the creation of partner-specific proposals, product focus, pricing logic, content support, launch requirements, and go-to-market plans.
- Influence teams the role does not directly manage by providing clarity, context, urgency, and commercial rationale.
- Once partners are acquired, lead coordination of internal systems, processes, and support structures required for launch and ongoing growth.
Drive Executive Visibility and Commercial Accountability
Provide regular updates to leadership on partner pursuit progress, commercial traction, obstacles, revenue potential, and support requirements.
- Provide concise, action-oriented updates that focus on business progress rather than activity reporting.
- Surface risks, decisions, resource needs, and escalation points early.
- Maintain clear visibility into target-partner status, next steps, expected outcomes, and ownership.
- Use CRM and reporting tools consistently to support pipeline discipline and leadership visibility.
ROLE CLARITY: WHAT THIS ROLE IS AND IS NOT
This role is focused on:
- Creating new commercial opportunities with target partners
- Opening doors with senior, commercial, merchandising, vendor-management, purchasing, and sales stakeholders
- Building a compelling case for why StarTech.com matters to each partner
- Turning early-stage interest into structured growth plans
- Driving internal alignment to support partner activation and growth
- Expanding partner potential beyond the first transaction, first category, or first region
This role is not focused on:
- Maintaining an inherited book of business
- Responding only to inbound partner requests
- Routine account maintenance or relationship caretaking
- Waiting for fully developed opportunities to be handed over
- Reporting activity without converting activity into measurable progress
- Protecting comfort at the expense of growth
EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE
- Bachelor's degree required; MBA or equivalent business qualification preferred.
- Typically 5+ years of experience in strategic partner acquisition, channel business development, reseller/vendor management, commercial sales, ecommerce partner growth, or B2B technology business development.
- Experience working with mid- to large-sized IT resellers, distributors, industrial/B2B sellers, marketplaces, ecommerce partners, or technology companies is strongly preferred.
- Existing relationships with relevant reseller, distribution, ecommerce, industrial, or B2B technology contacts are preferred but not required if the candidate can demonstrate strong opportunity-creation capability.
- A proven record of creating net-new commercial opportunities and converting them into measurable revenue growth is required.
SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE
- Hunter mentality with the ability to create opportunity from ambiguity.
- Deep understanding of B2B reseller ecosystems, IT channels, ecommerce, distribution, marketplace models, or connectivity hardware markets.
- Strong commercial acumen including revenue growth, margin, pricing, category expansion, business case development, and partner planning.
- Ability to distinguish between managing an existing opportunity and creating a new one.
- Executive communication skills with the ability to engage senior commercial stakeholders and build urgency around a business case.
- Strong cross-functional influence skills, including the ability to lead through clarity and accountability without direct authority.
- Data-driven approach to partner prioritization, proposal development, reporting, and performance tracking.
- CRM discipline and comfort using reporting tools to manage pipeline, account pursuit plans, milestones, and leadership visibility.
- Resilience, persistence, and professional courage to challenge partners constructively and push for growth.
SUCCESS MEASURES
- Net-new partner pipeline created from target accounts and non-traditional partners.
- Number and quality of target partners moved from initial outreach to active commercial engagement.
- Partner activation milestones achieved, including stakeholder engagement, commercial agreement progress, launch readiness, and first revenue.
- Incremental revenue and revenue potential tied to acquired or expanded partners.
- Quality of partner-specific growth plans, including clarity of target categories, value proposition, internal support needs, and measurable next steps.
- Effectiveness of cross-functional coordination and ability to move internal teams toward action.
CONTRIBUTION, COMPLEXITY AND INNOVATION
This role is central to StarTech.com's partner acquisition and revenue expansion strategy. It directly contributes to incremental growth by creating new routes to market, opening underdeveloped or non-traditional partner channels, and building scalable commercial engagement models.
The work is complex and multidimensional. Target partners may have different business models, stakeholder structures, category priorities, ecommerce capabilities, and regional requirements. Success requires commercial creativity, persistence, business judgment, and the ability to simplify ambiguity into a clear partner pursuit plan.
DECISION MAKING AND AUTONOMY
In close collaboration with the Director of Partner Success, this role operates with a high level of autonomy. The Senior Strategic Partner Manager is expected to make informed decisions that impact revenue generation, partner relationships, pursuit strategy, internal prioritization, and resource alignment.
The role follows corporate policies and strategic goals but requires entrepreneurial judgment to adapt the approach based on partner context. The successful candidate will be comfortable operating with support but not constant direction, and will know when to escalate issues that require leadership input or cross-functional prioritization.
RELATIONSHIPS AND COMMUNICATION
- Communication expectations: The role requires executive-level engagement, commercial storytelling, persuasive communication, negotiation, internal leadership, and the ability to translate partner opportunity into clear action across teams.
- Internal Contacts - Customer & Partner Success, Sales, Data & Analytics, Product Management, Marketing, Merchandising, Content, Finance, Supply Chain, Operations, Executive Leadership.
- External Contacts - Reseller leadership teams, vendor/product/category managers, purchasing leaders, ecommerce leaders, sales leadership, operations contacts, strategic partnership stakeholders.
Hiring Process
- Intro call with Talent Acquisition (30–45 minutes)
- Interview with Hiring Manager + Director, Channel Sales
- Practical assessment
- Final interview with senior leadership
- Offer & onboarding
About us
We are in the business of human-centered experiences starting with yours. We believe delivering on our promise of "hard-to-find, made easy" begins with an employee experience founded in opportunity, teamwork, empowerment, and curious minds always asking what if. Not only does our commitment to the exceptional deepen relationships with our partners and customers, it also ignites connection within our team.
Born and raised in London, Ontario, Canada and now taking on the world, we are a vibrant and growing tech company with a proven track-record of success. StarTech.com makes it easy for IT professionals around the globe to identify, find, get and use the hard-to-find connectivity parts they need to enable and enhance their technology solutions.
Operating in 26 countries globally, we are proud to be included as one of Canada's Best Managed Companies for 2025 and for the 15th consecutive year. In 2022, StarTech.com was proud to be included in Financial Post's FP500, a ranking of Canada's largest corporations based on revenue. We are honoured to be named by Kincentric in 2019 as one of Canada’s “Best Employers” as well as “one of Canada’s fastest growing companies” for a ninth year in a row by “Profit 500”.
StarTech.com is an Equal Opportunity Employer. In accordance with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 and the Ontario Human Rights Code, StarTech.com will provide accommodations throughout the recruitment, selection and/or assessment process to applicants with disabilities. If selected to participate in the recruitment, selection and/or assessment process, please inform Human Resources of the nature of any accommodation(s) that you may require in respect of any materials or processes used to ensure your equal participation.
StarTech.com uses AI tools only for administrative support, such as transcribing interview notes and organizing candidate details into standardized prescreening and interview templates. These tools do not screen, rank, or assess candidates. All hiring decisions are made by our Talent Acquisition team and Hiring Managers. Candidate information is collected and used solely for recruitment purposes in compliance with applicable privacy laws.