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Position Title: Senior Director, Partner Management & Channel Sales American Express Global Business Travel (GBT) Alliance
Job Overview
Join the Worldwide Leader in Corporate Travel & Expense Management Services as a Senior Director, Partner Management & Channel Sales for our new strategic alliance with GBT. SAP Concur is the world's leading provider of business services that automate Corporate Expense Management. Established in 1993, Concur’ s solutions are used in over 90 countries around the world and are trusted by more organizations than any other provider of Expense Management solutions. SAP Concur has forged a transformative strategic alliance with GBT, creating the industry’s premier integrated solution for travel and expense management. This partnership is a cornerstone of our growth strategy, delivering unparalleled value, control, and efficiency to customers worldwide.
As the Senior Director of Partner Management & Channel Sales, you will serve as the strategic lieutenant to the Managing Director, responsible for the commercial success of this industry-leading partnership. You will bridge the gap between high-level strategic vision and on-the-ground sales execution.
In this role, you will own the holistic health of the partner relationship and the aggregate revenue performance of the channel. You will provide functional leadership and strategic direction to a team of Regional Channel Sales Executives (who report to you via a dotted line), ensuring global consistency, sales discipline, and pipeline velocity. You are the architect of the sales motion, ensuring that both SAP Concur and GBT sales teams are aligned, enabled, and executing effectively to hit revenue targets.
Responsibilities
- Strategic Partner Management & Governance
- Relationship Strategy: Act as the senior operational counterpart to GBT leadership, cultivating deep, trusted relationships with GBT’s VP and Director-level sales and account management leaders.
- Alliance Governance: Orchestrate the alliance governance framework designed by the Managing Director. This includes leading preparation for Quarterly Business Reviews (QBRs), tracking joint sales initiatives, and ensuring accountability on both sides.
- Conflict Resolution: Serve as the primary escalation point for channel conflicts and Rules of Engagement (ROE) disputes that cannot be resolved at the regional CSE level, ensuring fair and swift resolution to maintain partnership momentum.
- Executive Alignment: Facilitate alignment between SAP Concur and GBT executive stakeholders to ensure the partnership remains a top priority for both organizations.
2. Channel Sales Leadership & Revenue Execution
- Revenue Accountability: Partner with the Managing Director to manage the global revenue forecast. You are responsible for ensuring the team meets or exceeds the aggregate Channel Sales quota and pipeline generation targets.
- Functional Leadership: Provide strategic guidance, mentorship, and coaching to the Regional Channel Sales Executives (dotted line reports). You will define the "Standard of Excellence" for territory planning, account mapping, and deal execution.
- Pipeline Rigor: Implement and oversee a rigorous pipeline management process. Conduct global pipeline reviews to identify trends, risks, and opportunities, translating data into actionable sales strategies for the field teams.
- Deal Strategy: Act as an executive sponsor on major, complex joint opportunities, helping to structure deals, align executive resources, and unblock internal hurdles to close business.
3. Sales Enablement Strategy
- Curriculum Definition: Set the global enablement strategy for both SAP Concur and GBT field teams. While CSEs deliver the training, you define the curriculum, ensuring the "Better Together" value proposition is consistent and compelling across all regions.
- Resource Development: Oversee the creation of high-impact sales tools, playbooks, and battle cards that empower sellers to identify, qualify, and close joint opportunities.
- Adoption Monitoring: Monitor the effectiveness of enablement programs through sales performance metrics, iterating content based on field feedback and win/loss analysis.
Qualifications & Experience
- Experience: 12+ years of experience in B2B technology sales, with at least 5-7 years specifically in Channel Sales, Strategic Alliances, or Partner Management.
- Leadership & Influence: 5+ years of experience in roles requiring high-level influence and matrix management. Must demonstrate a proven track record of driving performance through cross-functional teams or dotted-line reports without direct authority.
- Industry Knowledge: Deep understanding of the Corporate Travel ecosystem (TMC model) and the SaaS/T&E software landscape is strictly required. Experience with SAP Concur or GBT solutions is highly preferred.
- Education: Bachelor’s degree in business, Marketing, or related field; MBA is a significant plus.
- Tools: Mastery of CRM/PRM systems (Salesforce, etc.) for forecasting and partner management.
Critical Performance Competencies
- Matrix Leadership: Exceptional ability to lead through influence. You must be able to drive performance and accountability within the Regional CSE team via a dotted-line reporting structure.
- Strategic Execution: The ability to take a 5-year high-level strategic plan (owned by the MD) and break it down into quarterly execution plans and measurable sales tactics.
- Diplomacy & Negotiation: Sophisticated negotiation skills required to navigate complex partner dynamics, resolve "channel conflict," and balance the interests of two large enterprise organizations.
- Executive Presence: Polished communicator capable of presenting to and influencing VP and C-level stakeholders at both SAP Concur and American Express GBT.
- Analytical Acumen: Strong financial literacy. Ability to interpret P&L requirements and sales data to make logical business decisions.
- Builder Mindset: Thrives in ambiguity. You are not just running a machine; you are helping to build and fine-tune the engine of a new strategic alliance.
- Collaboration: A "we before me" mentality. Success in this role is defined by the success of the partnership and the regional teams.
- Results Oriented: Unwavering focus on the bottom line—driving revenue, increasing win rates, and accelerating pipeline.
Preferred location(s):
USA
Bring out your best
SAP innovations help more than four hundred thousand customers worldwide work together more efficiently and use business insight more effectively. Originally known for leadership in enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, SAP has evolved to become a market leader in end-to-end business application software and related services for database, analytics, intelligent technologies, and experience management. As a cloud company with two hundred million users and more than one hundred thousand employees worldwide, we are purpose-driven and future-focused, with a highly collaborative team ethic and commitment to personal development. Whether connecting global industries, people, or platforms, we help ensure every challenge gets the solution it deserves. At SAP, you can bring out your best.
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Compensation Range Transparency: SAP believes the value of pay transparency contributes towards an honest and supportive culture and is a significant step toward demonstrating SAP’s commitment to pay equity. SAP provides the annualized compensation range inclusive of base salary and variable incentive target for the career level applicable to the posted role. The targeted combined range for this position is $194,100-$411,600(USD) USD. The actual amount to be offered to the successful candidate will be within that range, dependent upon the key aspects of each case which may include education, skills, experience, scope of the role, location, etc. as determined through the selection process. Any SAP variable incentive includes a targeted dollar amount and any actual payout amount is dependent on company and personal performance. Please reference this link for a summary of SAP benefits and eligibility requirements: SAP North America Benefits.
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Requisition ID: 442828 | Work Area: Sales | Expected Travel: 0 - 10% | Career Status: Professional | Employment Type: Regular Full Time | Additional Locations: #LI-Hybrid
