Why This Job is Featured on The SaaS Jobs
Distribution partnerships are a meaningful lever in subscription and freemium SaaS, especially for consumer platforms where acquisition and retention are influenced by device makers, telcos, and large digital ecosystems. This role sits at that intersection, owning the post-signing partner lifecycle and turning distribution agreements into measurable adoption and engagement outcomes in a major market.
For a SaaS career, the work builds durable skills in operating growth channels that are not purely product led. It blends partner marketing, performance analysis, and cross-functional execution, while also surfacing how operational tooling and partner portals evolve as partnership volume scales. That combination tends to translate well across SaaS businesses that rely on indirect go-to-market, bundles, or platform integrations.
This position is best suited to professionals who like being the single point of accountability and can move between relationship management and detailed execution. It favors a working style that is comfortable coordinating Product, Marketing, and Operations, and using data to guide tradeoffs and optimizations. It also fits someone who wants ownership over outcomes with external partners while still influencing internal workflows and priorities.
The section above is editorial commentary from The SaaS Jobs, provided to help SaaS professionals understand the role in a broader industry context.
Job Description
At Spotify, we’re reinventing the audio industry by transforming how people discover, experience, and engage with music and podcasts. Our Distribution Partnerships team plays a key role in that journey by building and growing strategic partnerships that help drive user acquisition, engagement, and retention through partner distribution channels and marketing initiatives.
As a Strategic Partner Manager, you’ll help shape and grow some of Spotify’s most important strategic partnerships in India. You’ll work cross-functionally with teams across Business Development, Marketing, Product, and Operations to deliver seamless partner experiences, unlock new growth opportunities, and create meaningful impact for Spotify, our partners, and our users.
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What You'll Do
- Work closely with our internal stakeholders, Partner Marketing, Product and the Business Development Managers- assume day-to-day ownership of the partner lifecycle, from post signing through to renewal or termination
- You will be the ‘single threaded owner’ and ‘go to’ person for the partner’s needs; leading marketing conversations to drive incremental users and awareness, managing launch timelines and vendor/supplier payment, and being quick on your feet to problem solve issues that arise
- Build deep relationships with key partners and their organizations so that we are a preferred and trusted partner. This includes regular partner check-ins to discuss performance and suggest optimizations that match our needs with theirs to grow the business
- Evaluate, seek and secure incremental opportunities that drive awareness of new products and conversion of free to paid
- Work closely with our product operations team to clearly define missing features or enhancements that will influence the build out of account management tools and workflows into our partner portal, allowing this team to be more efficient in servicing a large and diverse set of partnerships
- Actively work with partners to influence their marketing plans and execution, including analyzing marketing channels, target audiences and campaign metrics and follow-up with appropriate optimization measures
- Work closely with internal teams at Spotify to collect and share insights and learnings that can be used to optimize and elevate partner activities and help inform future deal renewals
Who You Are
- You have at least 6+ years of experience in strategic partner management, alliance management, global account management or subscriber acquisition
- Your background is in one or several of the following: management consulting, content distribution, media, telecom, and app or subscription based consumer services/products with extensive knowledge of the India market
- Knowledge of deal and operational terminology, marketing channels, important marketing and growth metrics
- Experience working closely with cross functional teams such as marketing, product and tech
- Able to influence internal and external senior management and cross-functional stakeholders to drive positive outcomes for Spotify, Partners and our Users
- Willing to roll up your sleeves when needed, love for problem solving, and geared towards taking the initiative to get things done
- Comfortable with taking risks and navigating ambiguity - leaning on data to guide decisions and build insights to support the growth of the business
- Strong analytical mindset and personality - you know how to identify the right data and how to interpret it to build compelling cases to fix problems and grow the business
- Skilled at prioritization, effective communication and collaboration amongst teams
- Comfortable working in a distributed/remote environment with occasional travel to meet with teams and partners
- Solid presentation skills and able to articulate key points to stakeholders
- Experience dealing with telcos is a plus
- Experience using AI tools is a plus
Where You'll Be
- This position will be based in Mumbai, India
- We offer you the flexibility to work where you work best! There will be some in person meetings, but still allows for flexibility to work from home. We ask that you come in 3 times per week
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