Vice President, Global Strategic Partnerships

Description:
**Title**: Vice President, Global Strategic Partnerships

**Department**: Global Corporate Development & Partnerships

**Location**:Flexible: U.S., U.K., Switzerland, Canada, Sweden, Norway, Italy, Mexico, Colombia

**Travel**: The position requires international travel (approximately 20% of the time)

**Direct Reports**: Yes

**General Description**:
The **Vice President, Global Strategic Partnerships** will lead a refreshed and evolved function at Operation Smile, responsible for significantly growing and managing high-value relationships with global corporations, brands, and foundations. This senior role will drive strategy and execution for identifying, cultivating, and stewarding multi-market partnerships that align with Operation Smile’s mission, programmatic goals, and global footprint.

Working across fundraising markets and program countries, the VP will develop and lead a globally dispersed team tasked with building compelling value propositions and delivering innovative, high-impact collaborations. The postholder will also provide strategic support to market teams’ corporate and foundation engagement efforts, ensuring consistency, knowledge sharing, and operational efficiency across regions. This is a transformational leadership opportunity to shape the future of global partnerships at Operation Smile.

This is a rare opportunity to scale a high-impact, globally integrated partnerships function. The **Vice President, Global Strategic Partnerships**, will shape how Operation Smile engages the world’s most influential brands and institutions—transforming philanthropic ambition into lifesaving surgical care.

**Essential Functions**:
**_ Strategic Leadership and Vision_**
- Build and lead the Global Strategic Partnerships function, defining the vision, structure, and roadmap for global engagement with corporations, brands, and foundations.
- Develop and implement a multi-year growth strategy for global institutional partnerships, with clear revenue goals and relationship milestones, articulated in ambitious quantitative and qualitative KPIs.
- Ensure alignment of global partnerships with Operation Smile’s mission priorities, medical programs, and geographic presence.
- Model a collaborative, partnership-first approach to institutional fundraising - supporting cohesion, shared learning, and collaboration across market-based teams.

**_ High-Value Partnership Development_**
- Personally lead the cultivation, negotiation, and management of a portfolio of high-value, complex partnerships at a global level.
- Collaborate with Program, Medical, Finance, and Global Marketing teams and colleagues from partner and programmatic countries to craft compelling, tailored proposals and concept notes.
- Lead the design of innovative partnership models including unrestricted funding, cause-marketing campaigns, strategic grants, employee engagement, and shared value initiatives.
- Identify emerging global funders - multinational corporations, global foundations, and purpose-driven enterprises - with high alignment and revenue potential.

**_ Operational Excellence and Internal Alignment_**
- Develop systems and standards for partnership prospecting, due diligence, proposal development, and relationship stewardship.
- Collaborate closely with Global Marketing, Program, Medical, and Finance teams and colleagues from partner and programmatic countries to ensure cohesive messaging, budgeting, and operational delivery of partnerships.
- Ensure compliance with Operation Smile’s ethical standards, with a focus on contractual rigor, and global mission and policy alignment across all partnerships.
- Lead the design and rollout of tools (CRM dashboards, prospect pipelines, playbooks, etc.) to enable data-driven decision-making and reporting.

**_ Thought Leadership and Market Intelligence_**
- Represent Operation Smile externally at high-level convenings, including global health and philanthropy forums.
- Monitor global philanthropy, ESG, and social impact trends to inform partnership strategy and organizational positioning.
- Maintain strong relationships with peer NGOs and sector leaders to ensure best-in-class practices and collaborative opportunities.

**Requirements**:
**QUALIFICATIONS**:
**_ Required:_**
- Minimum 15 years of experience in corporate partnerships, institutional fundraising, or private sector engagement - ideally within a global nonprofit or international development organization.
- Proven track record in developing and securing 7-figure (USD) multi-modal partnerships with global corporations and/or major foundations.
- Strong experience managing and mentoring diverse, distributed teams.
- Expertise in strategy development, value proposition creation, and relationship lifecycle management.
- Fluency in English (spoken and written); additional language skills are a strong asset.

**_ Preferred:_**
- Deep familiarity with global development, public health, or humanitarian issues.
- Experience wo