Assistant Director – Emerging Tech Relationships Lead

About the role

The Emerging Tech Relationships Lead will bridge ecosystem formation and alliance operations, ensuring new technology partnerships are set up with robust governance, processes, and stakeholder alignment. Reporting to the GDS Alliance Contracts Lead, this senior role drives the transition of early‑stage relationships into scalable, mature alliances.

Key responsibilities

• Support end‑to‑end formation and activation of new ecosystem and alliance relationships, coordinating with Service Lines, Risk, Legal, Finance and other global stakeholders.
• Guide business teams through intake, approval and onboarding, reviewing business cases and documentation for completeness and readiness.
• Design and operationalise foundational operating models for emerging relationships, defining roles, processes, reporting and engagement cadences.
• Partner with Alliance Operations and Market teams to ensure smooth hand‑over from formation to steady‑state operations for relationships with scale potential.
• Establish early tracking and reporting mechanisms (pipeline, activity, benefits, risks) to support informed decision‑making.
• Drive adherence to risk management, independence and quality‑control requirements, maintaining audit‑ready records.
• Identify bottlenecks and opportunities to standardise, automate and improve ecosystem formation and early‑stage operations.
• Develop playbooks, checklists, FAQs and guidance materials to enable consistent execution.

Required profile

• Proven experience in ecosystem formation, alliance management or partnership operations within a technology‑focused environment.
• Strong understanding of governance, risk and compliance frameworks and ability to apply them to early‑stage relationships.
• Excellent stakeholder management skills, with a track record of collaborating across legal, finance, risk and business units.
• Analytical mindset with ability to design operating models, reporting structures and process improvements.
• Ability to translate strategic partnership goals into actionable operational plans.

Required skills