<div class="content-intro"><h3><strong>About Engine</strong></h3> <p>Engine is the AI-native platform for intelligent travel. For a decade, Engine has built the proprietary technology and supply behind modern business travel, serving over 40,000 customers and nearly 2 million travelers, along with leading travel and AI companies that build on Engine's infrastructure. One system powers business travel, group travel, human agents, and AI agents.<br><br>That work has earned Engine recognition as TravelTech's Reservation Platform of the Year (2026), a spot on Inc.'s Power Partners list (2026), and one of Built In's Best Places to Work (2020–2026).<br><br>We're looking for bold, ambitious people to help redefine how businesses manage and experience travel. Working here, you can expect exponential growth, an ambitious pace, full ownership, and high-caliber colleagues who push you to do the best work of your career. Every hire raises the bar.<br><br>Come outpace the ordinary and build the future of travel with us.</p></div><p>Engine is building the travel and spend management platform for the businesses the rest of the industry overlooked — two products, one ecosystem, growing fast and already cash-flow positive. Partnerships are how we extend that reach, and this role runs the team that turns partnership opportunities into signed, activated, revenue-producing relationships.</p> <p>We're looking for a <strong>Director, Partner Acquisition</strong> to lead and scale our channel partnerships team across verticals — GPOs, trade associations, marketplaces, franchise networks and conglomerates, and technology partners — chartered to sign referral, co-sell, and co-marketing partnerships across Engine's full ecosystem. This is an operationally rigorous, enterprise-grade sales leader — a player-coach who installs discipline, builds the vertical playbook from the ground up, and personally drives complex deals across the line.</p> <p>Reporting to the VP, Business Development, this role owns the front end of partner-sourced growth: a high-throughput engine that prospects, signs, activates, and hands off producing partners to Partner Growth — across every vertical and product.</p> <h3><strong>What You'll Do</strong></h3> <ul> <li><strong>Lead the team and own the number.</strong> Build a team of channel professionals and scale it to 6–8 — at least one per vertical — against clear pipeline, signing, activation, and handoff targets. Set the standard, run the cadence, and hold the line on accountability.</li> <li><strong>Build the vertical playbook.</strong> This is a ground-up build with direct influence over vertical strategy and the GTM motion: define the ICP, sourcing mix, and deal structures for each vertical, and codify what works into a repeatable playbook the team runs.</li> <li><strong>Convert and executive-sponsor deals.</strong> Operate as a player-coach: step into live opportunities, unblock stalled deals, and personally push complex, multi-stakeholder partnerships across the finish line.</li> <li><strong>Run an operationally rigorous funnel.</strong> Install and enforce pipeline discipline — stage gates, time-in-stage, win rates by tier, sourcing channel mix, forecast accuracy, categorized loss reasons, and clean Salesforce hygiene. Make partner-sourced growth predictable, not anecdotal.</li> <li><strong>Sign quality across the full ecosystem.</strong> Drive referral, co-sell, and co-marketing agreements spanning Engine Travel and Spend — with at least one rep carrying the full platform into their vertical. Tier mix and committed volume matter as much as logo count.</li> <li><strong>Structure deals that hold up.</strong> Negotiate commercially sound, operationally executable partnerships — economics, mutual commitments, and activation plans that survive contact with reality. Own days-in-contracting as a number, not an excuse.</li> <li><strong>Drive activation and a clean handoff, not just signatures.</strong> Own time-to-activation, cohort activation rates, and the handoff trigger to Partner Growth — and hold your team accountable to production vs. projection at signing. A partner that signs but never produces is a miss, and the forecast your rep made is the forecast they answer for.</li> <li><strong>Execute cross-functionally.</strong> Align Sales, Marketing, Finance, and Legal to move deals from term sheet to live — fast.</li> <li><strong>Raise the bar on talent.</strong> Hire, ramp, and level up channel talent; build a team that compounds in output as it gains context.</li> </ul> <h3><strong>What We're Looking For</strong></h3> <ul> <li>10+ years in channel sales or partnerships, including 5+ years leading and scaling quota-carrying teams — ideally in high-growth SaaS, fintech, marketplace, or travel technology.</li> <li>A closer <strong>and</strong> a coach: a proven record of personally converting complex, multi-stakeholder deals, and of building teams that consistently hit signing and activation targets.</li> <li>A builder: has walked into a small team, figured out the build, created the playbook, and scaled it — not just inherited a machine that already ran.</li> <li>Deep operational rigor — fluency in pipeline management, forecasting, stage discipline, and the metrics that make a partnership funnel predictable: conversion by tier, time-in-stage, activation cohorts, and production vs. projection. Salesforce proficiency expected.</li> <li>Multi-motion range: comfort selling and structuring across referral, co-sell, and