Director, Partner Acquisition

About Engine 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. 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). 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. Come outpace the ordinary and build the future of travel with us. 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. We're looking for a Director, Partner Acquisition 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. 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. What You'll Do • Lead the team and own the number. 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. • Build the vertical playbook. 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. • Convert and executive-sponsor deals. Operate as a player-coach: step into live opportunities, unblock stalled deals, and personally push complex, multi-stakeholder partnerships across the finish line. • Run an operationally rigorous funnel. 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. • Sign quality across the full ecosystem. 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. • Structure deals that hold up. 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. • Drive activation and a clean handoff, not just signatures. Own time-to-activation, cohort activation rates, and the handoff trigger to Partner Growth — and hold your team accountable to pr