Director, Institutional Partnerships & Business Development (Corporates & Higher Education)

What this role is not:

Let's start by being clear about what this role is NOT.

It is not K-12 sales. School partnerships are owned by our Director, Sales & Business Development (Schools). This role focuses only on higher education and corporations.

It is not a curriculum or product development. Our Curriculum team designs the programmes. Your job is to understand them, position them well, and help institutions adopt them.

It is not programme delivery or account management. Our Director, Program Management owns onboarding, delivery, LMS operations, and the ongoing institutional relationship. Your responsibility is to build the relationship, close the partnership, and hand over a clear scope for delivery.

If you're looking for a mature sales organisation with established playbooks, this is probably not the role for you.

Why this role exists ?

CDSW is a Section - 8 not-for-profit working to make digital safety and wellbeing a part of mainstream education and the workplace.

We've built strong credibility in K-12 education. Our next step is higher education and corporates.

Your job is to build the institutional partnerships and revenue engine that make CDSW's mission sustainable and scalable.

This happens through two very different growth motions.

Higher Education: We offer a semester-long, graded, for-credit elective. Success depends on working with university leadership, faculty champions and Boards of Studies to make the course part of the academic programme.

Corporates: We offer a subscription-based digital learning programme delivered through our LMS. You'll work with CHROs, HR leaders and Learning & Development teams to help organisations build safer digital workplaces.

Different buyers. Different sales cycles. One leader responsible for building both.

The role

This is a builder's role.

You'll create the sales motion for higher education and corporates, build long-term institutional partnerships, create repeatable sales processes, and eventually build the team that scales this work.

This role owns revenue for the Corporate and Higher Education verticals.

What you'll do ?

Own revenue

Own revenue targets for both verticals.

Build and manage a healthy pipeline.

Forecast accurately and maintain strong sales discipline.

Decide which sectors, institutions and markets CDSW should focus on first.

Build partnerships in higher education

Build relationships with Vice Chancellors, Deans, Registrars, Boards of Studies, Academic Councils and faculty champions.

Take institutions through the approval process until the course becomes part of their academic offering.

Build long-term partnerships with universities and affiliated college networks.

Build partnerships with corporates

Build relationships with CHROs, HR leaders, Learning & Development teams and employee wellbeing leaders.

Structure enterprise and per-seat subscription agreements.

Grow accounts through renewals and expansion.

Grow CDSW's reach

Build relationships with university associations, industry bodies and strategic partners.

Open new sectors, new regions and new institutional networks.

Develop partnerships that help CDSW reach more institutions every year.

Build the sales engine

Create simple, repeatable sales processes.

Own proposals, commercial discussions and pricing.

Build strong CRM discipline and forecasting.

Hire and lead the sales team as the vertical grows.

Who will you work with ?

Dr. Anil Rachamalla

Co-Founder and Chief Mission Officer, CDSW India

You'll also work closely with

Director, Program Management

Curriculum Team

Marketing & Awareness

Advisory & Policy

CDSW leadership

Who we're looking for:

This role is for someone who enjoys building.

You'll probably be a good fit if you:

Have at least 15 years of experience in enterprise sales, institutional partnerships or business development.

Have sold into Indian higher education, or have sold to CHROs, HR leaders or Learning & Development teams. Experience in both is ideal.

Have owned and consistently achieved significant revenue targets.

Know how to sell to institutions where decisions are made by committees, not individuals.

Have built something from scratch before. A market, a business unit, a geography, a sales function or a partnership network.

Can build trust with senior leaders and negotiate long-term commercial partnerships.

Are disciplined about pipeline management, forecasting and CRM.

Want your work to contribute to a mission with long-term public impact.

Experience in education, digital safety, AI, compliance or wellbeing is helpful but not essential.

Success in this role:

Three years from now, success will look like this:

CDSW has long-term partnerships with leading universities and employers across India.

Revenue is predictable, growing and supports the organisation's mission.

There is a clear sales playbook that others can follow.

A strong sales team has been built around that playbook.

Thousands more students and working professionals are learning about digital safety and wellbeing because of the partnerships you've built.

Location: Hyderabad is preferred.

Travel: This role requires regular travel across India to meet universities, colleges, corporates and strategic partners.