Director of Strategic Partnerships

Lead Simprints’ strategic partnerships team to turn relationships and evidence into funded programs that close data gaps, increase verified coverage, and strengthen service delivery. You will own our highest impact partnership opportunities with ministries, multilaterals, and funders, shaping solutions, building trust, and guiding opportunities from first conversation to signature with clarity and integrity. You will work closely with product, delivery, and MEI teams to ensure that what we promise is what we deliver.

• Job Title: Director of Strategic Partnerships
• Reporting To: Chief Strategy Officer
• Grade: UK Grade M8 - We’ll review salary expectations together during your first screening conversation
• Location: Remote - Our ideal candidate will bring strong experience working within Africa and a deep understanding of the stakeholder landscape,. This is a remote role, so we are open to applicants located anywhere in Africa or Europe, as long as they can demonstrate this experience, particularly in partnerships and stakeholder engagement.
• We deeply appreciate your interest in joining Simprints. To maintain the trust and strong relationships we have with governments and Ministries of Health, we are unable to consider applications from individuals who are currently employed by a Ministry of Health or government agency. Thank you for understanding, and for your interest in contributing to our mission.
  

Primary Function: The Partnerships team at Simprints is responsible for building and managing key relationships with global health, development, and technology partners. They ensure Simprints’ biometric solutions are effectively integrated into impactful programs, while expanding the organization’s reach into new markets.

Key Goals:

• Build and maintain strong, strategic partnerships to drive business development and expand market presence.
• Collaborate across teams to deliver scalable solutions that meet partner needs.
• Secure new partnerships and ensure long-term success through strong client engagement.

• Key Responsibilities:
• Own the pipeline and forecast: keep the CRM clean, set clear stage definitions and exit criteria, qualify rigorously, manage financial risks, use data, and optimise cross-team processes to increase win rates and shorten cycle times.
• Lead our biggest partnership opportunities end-to-end, from positioning and solution shaping to pricing, proposal leadership, negotiation, and contracting.
• Build relationships and define account management practices that compound value, such as regular check-ins and feedback loops, as well as clear success plans with shared key performance indicators (KPIs).
• Translate market signals into strategy and delivery by informing product roadmaps, pricing strategies, implementation readiness, and scalable commercial models, with a focus on measurable coverage and data quality outcomes.
• Build and support a high-performing team: hire and onboard, set standards and playbooks, run deal reviews and post mortems, coach for excellence, and nurture a healthy, inclusive culture.
• What success looks like in the first 12-18 months:
• Three to five contract wins with a clear plan for implementation, verified coverage gains, and measurable outcomes.
• A predictable, inspection-ready pipeline with stage definitions, conversion benchmarks, and quarterly forecast accuracy within plus or minus 10 to 15 percent.
• Partnerships with 2 new Ministries of Health with clear fundraising targets.
• Skills:
• At least 10 years of partnerships, business development, or fundraising experience in global health, with a record of closing complex, multi-stakeholder deals.
• Direct engagement with Ministries of Health and major funders in LMICs, including familiarity with procurement, program design, and decision cycles.
• Strong commercial rigour: pipeline qualification, forecasting, CRM discipline, and clear-eyed deal reviews that improve the probability of win.
• Ability to translate program and data evidence into compelling value propositions tied to coverage, accountability, and cost-effectiveness.
• Comfortable working with technical products in digital health, translating partner needs into clear solution outlines and explaining integrations, data flows, and privacy in plain language.
• Optional plus: Previous M&E experience, either as a practitioner or direct user of programmatic data.

Life is short. We believe work should be inspirational, meaningful and fun. At Simprints, we’re taking on global development’s biggest challenges, powered by an amazing culture and incredible people. Work with us, and you will grow faster, learn more, and take on great responsibilities with the potential to make lasting change.

1. We offer a 4-day workweek, meaning everybody has the option to have Fridays off.
2. We also offer unlimited annual leave, which allows you to prioritise your well-being

As long as you're driving results and fostering teamwork, we encourage you to strike that perfect balance between your professional and personal life. Our commitment to this model's success is solidified through semi-annual productivity assessments with our board, ensuring that our high standards of performance are consistently met.

5. Professional development. We promote continual learning and put our money where our mouth is with development plans and access to global experts through the GLG network. We also have a generous professional development budget for each colleague – “Eduprints”. Is there some training you’d like, or maybe you could benefit from professional coaching? Simply provide a business case that shares your aspirations and the resources you need, and we'll do our best to support you.  We care about both your development in Simprints and your holistic long-term career goals. Simprints Alumni have gone on to work for Google, World Bank, Gavi the vaccine alliance, Save the Children, and other top players.