The role of the Partnerships Director – Kenya is to lead and successfully close complex government partnerships that are foundational to Zipline’s long-term impact and scale within Kenya. This critical position demands deep policy fluency, exceptional judgment, and the patience necessary to navigate long, high-stakes deal cycles while maintaining integrity.
Responsibilities (What You’ll Do)
- Own partnerships that directly drive daily delivery volume and cash collection for KE-1 and future Kenya operations.
- Ensure KE-1 consistently exceeds daily delivery goals by converting signed contracts into sustained utilization.
- Structure partnerships and commercial terms that guarantee on-time, 100% invoice payment.
- Treat utilization and collections as core responsibilities, not downstream finance or ops issues.
- Close and institutionalize large-scale B2G partnerships (Business-to-Government) from strategy through execution.
- Navigate procurement, policy, and political complexity to ensure deals are legally and operationally durable.
- Build and manage consortiums of funders, NGOs, embassies, and private partners that support utilization and payment.
- Embed Zipline services into long-term government plans and budgets.
- Act as a strategic thought partner to senior leadership, identifying risks to volume or collections and defining mitigation strategies.
- Represent Zipline confidently in high-level public and private-sector partner engagements.
Requirements and Qualifications (What You’ll Bring)
- 5+ years closing large (7–8 figure USD) B2G deals in Kenya.
- Deep understanding of Kenyan public procurement (PPADA), devolution, and healthcare systems.
- Demonstrated integrity and anti‑corruption posture.
- Exceptional communication skills across technical, political, and executive audiences.
- Entrepreneurial mindset with strong ownership and follow‑through.
- Experience in enterprise sales or multilaterals.
- Program/project management and donor reporting experience.
- Background launching or scaling new markets or products.
- Qualification: BA/BSc/HND.