Sr. Strategic Partnership Manager

Job Title: Sr. Strategic Partnerships Manager
Team: Partnerships
Location: Onsite - Sawtelle (Between Santa Monica & West LA)
Employment Type: Full-time, Salary, Exempt
Reports To: Head of Partnerships

About Plug
Plug is the marketplace for used electric vehicles. Consumers get an instant cash offer backed by battery-health data, and dealers across the US bid in real time on that inventory. Former Tesla executives founded Plug in 2023. We’ve facilitated over $150M in EV sales and raised a $20M Series A led by Lightspeed Venture Partners.

Why Plug

• You’ll own a piece of the biggest infrastructure opportunity in automotive.

• You’ll work on a platform built exclusively for EVs, with nothing adapted from legacy automotive.

• You’ll be part of an AI-native company. We’re rethinking how work gets done at a fundamental level.

• You’ll work directly with operators who have scaled multi-billion dollar businesses in automotive, EV, and marketplaces.

• You’ll have real ownership, high autonomy, and a direct line to company outcomes.

Why This Role
Partnerships are how Plug scales supply and demand at the same time. The Partnerships team owns the relationships that power Plug’s auction: consumer marketplaces, dealer groups, and commercial vehicle sellers, such as fleets, rental companies, OEMs, and other high-volume consignors.

Reporting to the Head of Partnerships, you will own a major slice of that portfolio end to end. You are not running a support function, and you are not waiting for direction. You set the plan for your accounts, drive it across Operations, Sales, Product, and Finance, and answer for the results.

Your Mission
Our company mission is to electrify the used car industry. Your job is to turn Plug’s most important partnerships into durable, growing programs and be the person inside the company who makes them work.

How We Think About Partnerships
Partnerships are a business, not a relationship-management exercise. Every program should answer at least one of: does this increase vehicle supply, increase dealer demand, improve transaction speed, improve margin, or strengthen Plug’s position with a partner? We don't confuse activity with progress, and we don't keep programs alive out of politeness.

What You Will Own

• Own a portfolio of strategic partnerships: Carry direct accountability for a defined set of partner relationships and the numbers they produce. Set the objectives for your accounts inside the team’s goals, build the plan, and drive it without needing it handed to you.

• Grow the programs you own: Find the expansion inside existing relationships, such as new lanes, new vehicle types, and new commercial structures, and build the case for it. Bring the analysis, not just the idea.

• Lead cross-functionally without authority: Get Operations, Sales, Product, Engineering, and Finance aligned on what your partners need and when. You will not own those teams, so influence, clarity, and credibility are the job.

• Maintain excellence throughout the relationship: Own onboarding, implementation, and the ongoing operating cadence. Track commitments and milestones, resolve issues end to end rather than escalating them, and surface risk before it lands.

• Be the partner’s advocate and Plug’s filter: Translate partner needs into clear internal priorities and product requirements with enough detail that other teams can act. Push back internally when a partner is right, and push back on the partner when Plug is.

• Build the playbook: Document how Plug runs strategic partnerships so the approach scales past you, and contribute the standards and methods the next hires will run on.

• Bring AI-native solutions to your work: We want people who don’t just execute the process but rebuild it, and who apply new tools to their own workflow before asking for headcount.

Success After 12 Months

• Measurable growth in vehicle supply from the partnerships you own.

• Program revenue from your portfolio growing against plan.

• At least one existing program materially expanded in scope or commercial value.

• Partner commitments and program milestones consistently met, with risk flagged early.

• Cross-functional teams moving on your partner priorities without escalation.

• Reporting and forecasts on your portfolio the exec team trusts without checking.

• A documented partnership playbook a new hire could run.

What You’ll Bring

• 5+ years of relevant experience in partnerships, business development, account management, or commercial roles, with real ownership of outcomes rather than support of someone else’s.

• A track record of growing existing relationships into larger programs, with numbers you can speak to.

• Proven ability to lead cross-functional work without authority and drive decisions.

• Strong executive presence and clear written communication with both partners and internal teams.

Preferred Experience

• Automotive, fleet, OEM, or marketplace experience, strongly preferred but not required.

• Experience with two-sided or supply-constrained businesses where partnerships drove liquidity.

• Experience structuring commercial terms alongside legal and finance.

• Already using AI tools in your daily workflow to move faster.

How We Operate
We hire builders who value ownership, velocity, curiosity, and measurable outcomes. We move quickly, make data-driven decisions, and embrace AI as a core operating principle. We hire for skill set over background, and people advance here because their impact grows, not because of tenure or headcount.

The people who do well here scope their own work, run their own process, and keep multiple workstreams moving without close management. They are comfortable with complexity and ambiguity, and can take a partly defined problem and come back with a plan. High agency, low ego, and a bias for action. You put yourself in front of people, and you own the outcome.

What Makes This Role Unique
You will own relationships that directly determine how fast the company grows, with the autonomy to run them like your own business and direct exposure to how a two-sided EV marketplace gets built. This seat offers a clear path to broader commercial ownership as Plug scales.

Not sure you should apply? Do it.
Research consistently shows that people from under-represented groups are more likely to talk themselves out of applying if they don’t meet 100% of the listed requirements. You don’t need to check every box. If this role excites you and you bring most of what’s listed under “What You’ll Bring,” we want to hear from you.

Compensation and Benefits
Annual salary: $150,000 to $175,000

Salary ranges come from independent, third-party benchmarking against national compensation data. Where an offer falls within the range depends on relevant experience, specialized skills, training and qualifications, current business needs, and market conditions. We review ranges periodically and may adjust them as the market changes.

Benefits & Perks

• Health, Vision, and Dental insurance

• 401(k) plan

• Equity

• Unlimited PTO

• Daily lunch and dinner stipend, plus a fully stocked kitchen

• Dog-friendly office and on-site EV charging

• 30-day remote work from anywhere policy

• Ongoing opportunities for growth and development

This full-time position is in-person, based in Sawtelle (between Santa Monica and West Los Angeles). We will not provide relocation assistance to successful candidates. We do not offer sponsorship at this time.

Acknowledgments
Plug is an equal opportunity employer. We don’t discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, creed, national origin, ancestry, sex, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, pregnancy, age, marital status, military or veteran status, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by law. Plug will consider qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records in accordance with the Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring and the California Fair Chance Act.