About the job

Note: By applying to this position you will have an opportunity to share your preferred working location from the following: Accra, Ghana; Nairobi, Kenya; Lagos, Nigeria; Johannesburg, South Africa.

Minimum qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent practical experience
• Experience in a partner-facing role at a technology company, start-up, or similar environment
• Experience in agreement negotiation, partner management, or product management in an Internet or technology environment

Preferred qualifications:

• Master’s degree or equivalent practical experience
• Experience, educational or professional, in physical or life-sciences
• Experience in technology, business development, or other entrepreneurial environments
• Passion for, and interest in, science, technology, and emerging/early-stage products
• Excellent communication, analytical, problem-solving, process navigation, and cross-functional collaboration skills

About The Job

The Partnerships organization works with a wide range of external partners to help build Google products through product-enabling relationships (e.g., data licensing, content partnerships, API/platform integrations, and technology licensing).

As a Strategic Partner Development Manager, you’ll empower and enable Project teams by understanding their mission, identifying partners, initiating relationships, discussing agreements, and serving as a strategic resource to advance the research work and product launches.

As a Strategic Partner Development Manager for the Research team, you’ll lead exploratory discussions with partners, evaluate research collaboration engagements, and develop business opportunities. You will lead cross-functional teams and provide thought leadership. You will escalate and present research and business development strategies and key issues to executive management. You will work closely with Google Researchers, Product Managers, Engineering, Legal, Marketing, University Relations, and other cross-functional teams on initiatives and key strategic relationships that support our Research organization.

In this role, you will focus on supporting the Google Research team focused on the African region to establish foundational partnerships in the region. You will be engaging in partnerships covering machine learning, natural language understanding, and university collaborations. You will participate in early stage product development and work alongside research scientists and product managers to realize product direction through external partner development.

Google’s Global Partnerships team powers extraordinary user experiences through partnerships that solve users’ needs, advance our partners’ goals, and further Google’s mission. Our team provides meaningful solutions — from helping publishers and developers grow their businesses through monetization solutions, to helping our long-term partners anticipate and navigate change in a way that delivers economic and reputational value. We build and distribute products through partnerships across a multitude of product areas, including Ads, Search & Assistant, Geo, Platforms & Ecosystems, Devices & Services, Health, Retail, Payments, Next Billion Users, and more. We collaborate across Google, ensuring a coordinated approach when engaging with our most complex and strategic partners.

Responsibilities

• Identify and lead exploratory discussions with external partners.
• Discuss strategic product partnership agreements, including licensing technology and content, collaborative research agreements, and more.
• Create written communications and presentations with messages effectively tailored to different audience levels.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to develop partner strategy and collaboration plans for the Research leadership team.
• Invest in understanding the complex technical areas of the Research organization.