Director, Partner Development & Strategy - Remote (26-19)

Overview 

Spok® is seeking a Director of Partner Development & Strategy to build, organize, and scale a high-impact partner ecosystem. This role carries a dual mandate: managing external partner relationships with discipline and purpose, and serving as an internal bridge that ensures Sales, Product, Engineering, and other teams can effectively execute on partnership commitments. 

This is not a traditional “manage the channel” role. The person who succeeds here will be equally comfortable negotiating a partner agreement, walking a Product Manager through an integration requirement, and sitting with the Sales team to demonstrate why partners create opportunities rather than compete for them. They will inherit an existing partner portfolio, rationalize it, and build toward a partner program, traditional or otherwise, that generates measurable value for Spok and its customers.  

Key Responsibilities 

1. Partner Portfolio Rationalization & Relationship Management 

The starting point for this role is bringing order and clarity to Spok’s existing partner relationships. 

>Audit the current partner portfolio to identify which relationships are active, productive, and worth maintaining, and which should be wound down. 

>Establish clear criteria for what a “working” partner relationship looks like: defined engagement models, mutual commitments, and measurable contribution. 

>Manage and grow productive relationships, serving as the primary point of contact and ensuring partners have what they need to succeed. 

>Exit underperforming partnerships cleanly and professionally, preserving goodwill where possible. 

>Maintain an organized system of record for all partner agreements, certifications, contacts, and engagement history.

 2. Internal Liaison & Cross-Functional Coordination 

A recurring failure mode in partner programs is external commitments that stall internally. This role exists in part to solve that problem. 

>Act as the internal champion and project manager for partnership deliverables that require action from Product, Engineering, QA, or other teams. 

>Navigate internal processes and relationships to move integration work, roadmap input, and co-sell commitments from discussion to completion. 

>Identify where internal friction is slowing partnership progress, unclear ownership, capacity constraints, competing priorities, and work with leadership to resolve it. 

>Communicate partner timelines, dependencies, and urgency internally in ways that earn responsiveness rather than generating noise. 

>Report regularly to the CRO on internal blockers, partnership health, and what is needed to accelerate execution. 

 3. Channel & Revenue Partner Development 

>Identify and recruit new channel, referral, and alliance partners that can extend Spok’s market reach beyond the direct sales team. 

>Design and implement a partner program that reflects how Spok actually wins business, including referral arrangements, co-marketing models, and other non-traditional structures that may outperform classic reseller programs. 

>Build joint go-to-market plans with key partners, including pipeline generation, co-sell motions, and mutual accountability for outcomes.

>Develop partner onboarding, enablement, and certification programs that allow partners to represent Spok credibly and independently. 

>Establish incentive structures and program tiers that reward partner performance and sustain long-term commitment. 

>Establish and track partner performance metrics, and use data to optimize the program over time. 

4. Sales Team Alignment & Enablement 

Partner programs fail when the Sales team doesn’t believe in them. This role must earn Sales’ trust, not assume it. 

>Engage directly with the Sales team to understand their objections to partner-sourced deals, channel conflict concerns, commission questions, co-sell friction, and address them structurally. 

>Work with Sales leadership and the CRO to design rules of engagement that make partnering feel like an advantage to salespeople, not a complication. 

>Demonstrate the value of partner relationships through pipeline data, closed deal attribution, and visible wins that Sales can point to. 

>Be present with the Sales team in calls, in deals, in QBRs to build the relationship and credibility needed for genuine collaboration. 

>Help develop sales enablement materials that make it easy for reps to co-sell with partners. 

5. Technology & Product Partnership Development 

>Partner with Product Strategy and Product Management to identify complementary technologies that can extend Spok’s product value through integrations, connectors, or embedded solutions. 

>Evaluate integration and technology partnership opportunities with a business lens: strategic fit, development cost, customer value, and revenue impact. 

>Structure technology partnerships including business case development, agreement terms, and go-to-market alignment. 

>Own the ongoing relationship with technology partners and serve as the internal translator between what the partner’s technology can do and what Spok needs it to do. 

>Contribute meaningfully to Spok’s product differentiation roadmap through the lens of partner-enabled capabilities.  

6. UCAS/CCAS & Communication Infrastructure Partner Management 

Spok’s software integrates directly with the unified communications and contact center platforms that hospital and enterprise customers operate. Staying current with these platforms is a product quality, customer retention, and sales eligibility issue. 

>Maintain active, structured relationships with UCAS/CCAS and CTI platform vendors including Cisco, Avaya, Alcatel-Lucent, and others in Spok’s customer base. 

>Establish formal notification and communication channels with platform vendors so Spok receives advance notice of software upgrades, API changes, deprecations, and new release timelines. 

>Coordinate with Engineering and QA to ensure integration testing is initiated and completed when partner platforms release new versions, managing internal timelines with the same urgency as external ones. 

>Maintain a version compatibility matrix documenting which Spok product versions are certified against which versions of partner UCAS/CCAS platforms. 

>Proactively identify gaps where a platform vendor’s upcoming release may break or degrade Spok functionality, and escalate to Product and Engineering with sufficient lead time to act. 

>Represent Spok in partner developer and ISV programs (Cisco DevNet, Avaya DevConnect, and others) to ensure continued access to integration APIs, SDKs, and beta programs. 

>Manage partner agreements, technical certifications, and compliance requirements associated with communication infrastructure partnerships. 

7. Executive Reporting & Strategic Input 

>Provide regular reporting to the CRO on partner ecosystem health, pipeline contribution, integration compatibility status, and program development progress. 

>Surface market intelligence and partner feedback to inform Spok’s product roadmap and competitive positioning. 

>Represent Spok in partner and industry engagements, conferences, and vendor forums. 

>Identify and escalate decisions that require CRO or executive involvement, partner agreements, resource commitments, strategic tradeoffs. 

Required Education, Skills & Experience 

>Bachelor degree

>8–12+ years of experience in partner development, business development, or strategic alliances in healthcare IT, SaaS, or enterprise software. 

>Demonstrated track record of building partner ecosystems that generate measurable revenue, not just signed agreements. 

>Experience managing both channel partners (resellers, VARs, referral partners) and technology partners (integrations, OEMs, ISVs). 

>Direct experience managing relationships with UCAS/CCAS, CTI, or communication infrastructure platform vendors (Cisco, Avaya, Alcatel-Lucent, Genesys, or similar). 

>Proven ability to operate cross-functionally, particularly working with and through Product and Engineering teams to deliver on partnership commitments. 

>Experience earning Sales team trust and driving genuine co-sell adoption, not just compliance. 

>Strong relationship-building, negotiation, and communication skills, effective with both external partners and internal stakeholders. 

>Comfortable working in a CRO-reporting structure with high visibility and executive accountability. 

Salary range: 180,000-195,000k base + incentive compensation