Strategic Partnership Development Manager

Strategic Partnership Development Manager

Contract type: Permanent, Full-time, 35 hours per week

Location: London, UK

UK hybrid working – a minimum of 40% of working time is spent face-to-face (London office, external meetings or travel). 60/40 hybrid working at WaterAid means roughly three days wherever you work best and two days together in person.
 

Salary: £47,423 per year with excellent benefits

*We offer competitive, market-aligned starting salaries. While most roles are offered at the advertised starting salary, we may adjust this in exceptional cases depending on a candidate’s experience, skills, and potential.

Change starts with water. Change starts with you.

Every day, millions of people live without clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene. WaterAid exists to change that – for everyone, everywhere. Join us, and your energy will help unlock people’s potential and create a fairer future.

About WaterAid

We’re a global federation driven by one vision: a world where everyone, everywhere has clean water, sanitation and hygiene by 2030. Powered by our values of Respect, Accountability, Courage, Collaboration, Integrity and Innovation, we work alongside communities, partners and supporters to make change happen.

About the team

The Corporate Partnerships Team is responsible for developing high value, high impact strategic partnerships with companies, where the value goes beyond financial alone to meaningfully contribute towards WaterAid’s mission, including finding ways to contribute to programmatic, policy and advocacy objectives.

About the role

As our proactive and driven Strategic Partnership Development Manager you will lead partnership development for a range of priority corporate sectors - working closely with global partnerships, programmes and policy colleagues - to secure new multi-year partnerships and drive sustainable change.

In this role, you will:

• Lead on partnership development for strategically important sectors including food and beverage and agriculture, as well as other sectors to be determined. Effectively utilising your commercial awareness and corporate partnerships expertise to present WaterAid’s partnerships offering and value-add externally to these industries.
• Develop and manage a pipeline of potential high value, annual and multi-year new business opportunities, ensuring there is sufficient lead generation, active movement and conversion to secure annual and multi-year 6-figure+ partnerships.
• Collaborate with colleagues across the WaterAid federation including partnerships, communications, programmes and advocacy to identify and develop high-quality propositions that meet both partner and WaterAid needs.
• Lead WaterAid’s presence at global events and conferences, building a network of contacts amongst companies and actively cultivating this network.
• Champion WaterAid’s commitment to equity, inclusion and safeguarding.

Requirements

To be successful, you will need:

• Proven experience in generating six-figure strategic, new business partnerships from cold in the charity sector or in a commercial setting and proven ability to meet and exceed personal targets.
• An externally focused and proactive attitude, with the energy and passion to engage people and excite them about WaterAid, alongside the ability to forge effective working relationships with stakeholders at all levels, including internal and external C-suite.
• Excellent presentation, verbal and written communication skills with an aptitude for writing high-quality and engaging proposals for a corporate audience.
• Strong working understanding of charity-corporate partnerships, corporate sustainability, Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

Although not essential, we’d prefer you to have:

• Understanding and experience of international development
• Understanding of and active interest in the agriculture and food & beverage sectors, including key materially important sustainability topics.

Closing date: Applications close 12:00 PM UK time on Thursday, 14th May 2026. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, and the role may close earlier if a suitable candidate is identified, so we encourage you to apply as early as possible. Interviews are expected to take place week commencing 18th May 2026.

How to apply: Click Apply to complete the pre-screening questions and upload your CV.

Can I use Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology in my application?

At WaterAid, we strongly advise against using AI technology at any stage of the recruitment process. Our goal is to ensure a fair and transparent process that provides every applicant with an equal opportunity to succeed. We value hearing about your unique experiences and perspectives in your application, and, if shortlisted, during the interview as well.

Pre‑employment screening

To apply for this role, you must be able to demonstrate your eligibility to work in the respective country. All pre-employment checks will be carried out according to local law and WaterAid’s Safer Recruitment policy. All UK based roles require a basic Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check.

Benefits

• 36 days’ holiday (including 8 Bank Holidays)
• Option to buy an extra 5 days’ annual leave
• Employer pension contribution up to 10 %
• Flexible and hybrid working arrangements
• Season ticket loan
• Free annual eye tests
• ‘Give as you Earn’ charitable giving scheme
• Enhanced parental leave (maternity, adoption/surrogacy, shared parental and paternity)
• Sabbaticals
• One paid volunteer day each year

As part of our annual leave policy, all employees receive three additional days of annual leave on top of their standard allocation of 25 days. These days are designated to cover the period when our UK office closes between Christmas and New Year, allowing all UK WaterAiders to take a well-deserved break.

These days are automatically scheduled and cannot be changed or moved. Annual leave is accrued based on your start date. If sufficient leave has not been accrued by the time of the closure, the 3 days will be taken as unpaid leave or pro-rated, depending on your circumstances.

Our People Promise

We will work with passion and focus to make sure everyone everywhere has clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene. WaterAid is a place of purpose – where people have a real commitment and shared responsibility for the impact we have. We are a global community with diverse backgrounds and perspectives, motivated by inspiring, stimulating work. We are determined to be a place where people feel safe and able to contribute their voice and truly live our values.

Equal Opportunities

We welcome applications from people of all backgrounds, beliefs, customs, traditions, ways of life and status. This includes, but is not limited to, race, ethnicity, caste, colour, gender, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth, disability status, neurodiversity, age, marital and family status, sexual orientation and gender identity, health status, place of residence, economic and social situation.

Safeguarding

We are committed to protecting everyone we come into contact with. We have a zero- tolerance approach to abuse of power, privilege or trust across our global work, and to any form of inappropriate behaviour, discrimination, abuse, bullying, harassment, or exploitation. Safeguarding the people and communities we work with, our staff, volunteers and anyone working on our behalf is our top priority, and we take our responsibilities extremely seriously. All offers of employment are subject to satisfactory references and appropriate screening checks (which can include counterterrorism, safeguarding and criminal records checks).

Together, we’ll change the world through water.

Join us and be part of the change!