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About the Global Undergraduate Awards (GUA)
The Global Undergraduate Awards (GUA) is the world’s leading academic undergraduate awards programme, recognising and celebrating outstanding undergraduate work from students across the globe. Founded in 2008, GUA has grown to receive submissions from over 350 universities across 50 countries, fostering a network of high-achieving students, faculty members, and institutions.
As we embark on our ambitious, new three-year strategy, we are looking to develop our institutional partnerships through a tiered engagement model. Academic partnerships are core to helping GUA achieve our mission, not just from a commercial perspective, but also because a majority of GUA’s submissions come from partner institutions. Therefore, engaging with a wider range of universities enables us to support and promote student participation while contributing to the long-term sustainability and growth of the organisation.
This is an exciting opportunity to join a mission-driven organisation where your work will have a direct impact on the reach, reputation, and growth of GUA. As we scale the programme, this role provides excellent opportunities for career development within GUA, offering exposure to high-level engagement with global universities and a platform to build your profile within the higher education sector in Ireland and globally.
The Role
Reporting to the Executive Director, the Partnerships Executive/Lead will be leading on building and expanding university partnerships through a structured tiered engagement model, which will include driving revenue growth, and increasing the profile of GUA across the partner institutions. This role focuses primarily on securing Silver Partnerships—higher-volume, scalable agreements with universities.
The role will implement a ‘Land & Expand’ model, targeting individual faculties or academic leads within Universities and progressively broadening engagement across multiple departments. It will also play a key role in identifying and supporting the Executive Director on larger opportunities for institution level partnerships.
Beyond partnerships, this role will also contribute to marketing and communications, support university engagement events, and assist with research and input to help shape the overall business development strategy. This is an opportunity to join a mission-driven organisation where your work will have a direct impact on GUA’s global reach, reputation, and long-term sustainability.
The Person
The ideal candidate is a highly motivated, ambitious professional, with a passion for building relationships, driving revenue, and celebrating academic success. They thrive in a target-driven environment, have a natural ability to connect with deans and heads of academic departments, and other relevant offices and key stakeholders within target institutions, and are comfortable taking a proactive approach to lead generation. The role will provide the right candidate with great opportunities to grow their skill set in sales and development.
This individual brings exceptional communication skills, resilience, and a commercial mindset, ensuring that partnerships deliver real value for both GUA and its university partners. They are comfortable with both winning and nurturing clients, collaborating with relevant staff to promote submissions to GUA’s programme, and capable of spotting opportunities from past wins and pipeline trends to support the expansion of GUA’s institutional network.
They may have backgrounds such as:
* Business Development Executive in the education sector, working with institutions on partnerships or engagement strategies.
* University Partnerships Executive or Institutional Relations Specialist with experience securing formal agreements with academic institutions.
* Commercial or Membership Sales Professional in an education or non-profit organisation, focused on revenue generation through institutional engagement.
* Engagement or Programme Coordinator with strong experience in university relationship-building and external partnerships.
Key Responsibilities - Academic Partnerships & Revenue Growth
* Deliver a structured outreach plan targeting Deans and Faculty Heads within universities.
* Drive revenue generation through partnership agreements, focusing on high-volume, scalable engagements.
* Implement a ‘Land & Expand’ model, securing initial partnerships within a university and progressively expanding reach across multiple departments.
* Identify and track potential high-value partnerships, ensuring a structured approach to moving institutions into higher-tier agreements (managed by the Executive Director).
* Maintain and grow a pipeline, tracking engagement and progress through a CRM system.
* Support the Executive Director in securing and managing larger, high-value partnerships.
Marketing & Communications Support
* Support the communications team to develop promotional materials tailored for university engagement.
* Provide case studies and impact stories to showcase the benefits and successes of GUA partnerships.
* Assist in targeted email campaigns and digital outreach efforts to drive institutional engagement.
* Event Coordination & University Engagement.
* Support on the management of our annual calendar of events.
* Represent GUA at higher education conferences and industry events, building relationships and increasing brand awareness.
* Coordinate in-person or virtual meetings with prospective partners, ensuring smooth follow-ups and conversion into formal agreements.
Administration
* Maintain and update CRM records, tracking partnerships and revenue contributions.
* Prepare monthly reports on partnership activity, identifying successes, challenges and opportunities.
Candidate Profile
Qualifications & Experience
* Experience in a relevant sales or partnerships role (e.g., business development, sales, partnerships, or higher education engagement).
* A strong understanding of the higher education sector is beneficial but not essential.
Key Skills & Attributes
* Goal-driven: Passion for hitting targets and developing long-term pipelines.
* Stakeholder engagement: Ability to build relationships with university leaders (Deans, Faculty Heads, Careers office etc.).
* Negotiation & persuasion: Confidence in securing formal agreements and expanding institutional engagement.
* Project management: Strong organisational skills to manage multiple partnerships and events.
* Marketing awareness: Understanding of how to position GUA to universities and leverage promotional materials.
* Data & CRM proficiency: Ability to track and report partnership progress effectively.
* Strategic mindset: Ability to spot opportunities from the existing partnership pipeline to support higher-tier growth.
Salary: c.30k depending on experience, with additional performance related incentives.
Hybrid working: Flexible remote and in-office working arrangements.
Flexible hours: Outcome-driven, allowing for work-life balance.
Career growth: Opportunity to develop within GUA’s ambitious three-year strategy, with progression potential.
Travel opportunities: Occasional travel for conferences, university visits, and events.
Seniority level: Mid-Senior level
Employment type: Full-time
Industries: Non-profit Organizations
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