Senior Manager/Director of US Higher Education, Riipen
Sales
$130-180k
OTE
Inclusive of variable
More information about location
Experiential learning platform and marketplace
Be an early applicant
Experiential learning platform and marketplace
101-200 employees
Be an early applicant
$130-180k
OTE
Inclusive of variable
More information about location
101-200 employees
Company mission
To help students of all backgrounds and geographies boost their skills, gain career clarity, network with potential employers, and find jobs they love.
Role
Who you are
- The right candidate will be an expert in academic life cycles and the intricate mechanics and layers of influence in the largest institutions
- They will be able to open doors and speak with authority from the Provost’s Office to Career Service
- This fluency needs to reach beyond the walls of the institution. Riipen’s value is in bridging the gap between school and work and selling it requires a deep understanding of the local, state, and national ecosystems of educational institutions, employers, policy-makers, private and public funders with a shared stake in workforce development
- Significant experience closing complex, high-value enterprise deals with US post-secondary institutions (EdTech/Workforce SaaS + Service), with a history of securing multi-year agreements
- A proven ability to engage senior decision-makers in higher-education institutions and systems—building alignment across executive sponsors, operational stakeholders, and policy influencers
- A history of building trust with senior academic leaders quickly, including comfort navigating politics, ambiguity, and competing institutional priorities
- A disciplined, insight-driven approach to discovery, capable of uncovering institutional priorities, barriers, and drivers—and converting them into clear, compelling partnership recommendations
- Fluency in structured qualification and pursuit management, using consistent frameworks to assess opportunity strength, navigate multi-threaded buying processes, and progress deals predictably
- Understanding of the dynamics that shape educational and workforce ecosystems—including funding cycles, governance structures, institutional readiness, and employer-aligned program needs
- Experience coordinating complex pursuits across cross-functional teams, ensuring the right expertise is brought in at the right stage to shape solution fit and strengthen value propositions
- A track record of performing in evolving, fast-moving environments, bringing clarity, momentum, and commercial judgment to opportunities without waiting for perfect structure
- A confident, executive communication style, able to simplify complex concepts, influence diverse stakeholders, and foster conviction in high-stakes conversations
- We ask that if you feel like you don’t check all the boxes but have the potential to learn what you don’t know, that you still apply!
- We believe that diverse teams are high performing teams and we strive to employ individuals with a diversity of backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives
What the job involves
- The US Partnerships team leads Riipen's enterprise sales motion across higher education and workforce partners in the United States—setting the direction for named-account strategy, shaping commercial narratives, and driving transformative new logo growth
- The Senior Partnerships Manager or Director will lead enterprise sales engagements across higher education, pursuing and securing transformative, multi-year partnerships aligned to institutional priorities
- Your work will ensure that post-secondary learners are equipped to enter a rapidly changing world of work that is increasingly out of reach for new graduates and emerging talent
- As a senior individual contributor, you will own the full lifecycle of strategic pursuits: identifying opportunities, shaping value propositions, engaging executive stakeholders, and mobilizing internal teams to win high-value agreements
- You will operate with authority, commercial rigor, and executive presence, contributing meaningfully to Riipen’s enterprise growth trajectory
- Your primary concentration will be acquisition of higher education partnerships
- Lead and orchestrate enterprise sales engagements, owning the pursuit from opportunity identification through discovery, solution design, negotiation, and contract finalization
- Engage senior institutional leaders —Presidents, Provosts, VPs, system leaders—to build trust, help institutions clarify priorities, and position Riipen as a long-term strategic partner
- Run world-class discovery, translating institutional priorities, constraints, and policy drivers into compelling partnership narratives and proposal structures
- Develop and execute named-account pursuit plans, collaborating with GTM Strategy & Solutions and Revenue Marketing for ABM-aligned engagement and account penetration
- Build and advance a healthy pipeline of strategic opportunities through a mix of direct engagement, ecosystem relationships, and targeted outreach
- Collaborate with internal partners—pulling in expertise at the right moments to strengthen solution fit and accelerate deal momentum
- Drive responses to complex bids and RFPs, shaping tailored, outcome-focused proposals that reflect institutional goals and measurable impact
- Apply rigorous qualification and forecast discipline, leveraging structured frameworks to ensure predictable execution
- Represent Riipen credibly at conferences, leadership forums, and other ecosystem events, elevating Riipen’s presence in the sector
- Deliver against an individual new business quota, ensuring growth is aligned to partner readiness, impact goals, and long-term success
Application process
- Application Received
- Phone Screen with People and Culture
- Once we have reviewed your application and want to learn more a member of our team will reach out to you to schedule a time to chat
- 1st Interview - Hiring Manager
- The 1st interview is an opportunity for you to meet with the Jennifer Albrecht, SVP, Revenue & Partnerships, and the hiring manager for the role and help us both further assess alignment and fit
- Jennifer will share more about the role and team and will be looking to learn more about your partnerships and higher-ed experience and perspective. We hope this will give you a fuller understanding of the role and our vision for US Academic partnership sales, and how that aligns to the work you're most excited about doing
- 2nd Interview
- As this role is critical we want to make sure that you meet the right team members at Riipen
- Final Interview
- In this final stage, we endeavour to round out your experience of meeting the team at Riipen and in turn have the final members of our team hear about your experiences before we make a hiring decision
Our take
It’s a problem many graduates are painfully familiar with: you need experience to get a job, but you can’t land a job without experience. Riipen is a company helping to tackle this issue. Their platform offers post-secondary institutions the ability to connect their students to real-world problems and training, and to companies in search of new talent.
The company have helped over 100,000 students engage in applied learning, which historically might only have been accessed through an internship - typically freezing out students without the connections or resources to land one. So Riipen’s addressing inequality of opportunity in the post-secondary demographic, alongside streamlining the work of companies in sourcing talent.
With the economy still in recovery, and traditional ‘first job’ positions in certain industries curtailed, there’s an urgent need to reimagine what stepping onto the career ladder looks like. Riipen’s solution has been refined over the past several years and is now well set to take advantage of this opportunity.
Freddie
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
Company
Funding (last 2 of 3 rounds)
Jan 2021
$1.5m
LATE VC
Dec 2019
$3.8m
EARLY VC
Total funding: $6m
Company benefits
- Enhanced health & dental benefits
- Generous time off
- Choose your work environment
- Paid parental leave
- Paid learning opportunities
Company HQ
Chinatown, Vancouver, BC
Leadership
Dave Savory
(Co-Founder & VP of Experiential Learning)Previously a Franchise Manager at College Pro Painters, before moving on to work in Sales and Business Development at Travergence Interactive, and then Softree Technical Systems.
Dana Stephenson
(Co-Founder & CEO)Previously held various managerial roles in recruitment, marketing, and business at The Acquisition Group Enterprises, Advanced Air Supply, and The Moore Law Group. Subsequently worked as a sales rep at Beldon Home Solutions.
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