Director, Strategy & Partnerships (Fractional)

Overview

Director, Strategy & Partnerships (Fractional) — the organization

Remote (US time zones preferred) | Occasional travel

Time commitment: Fractional, part-time (~20 hours/week) | Initial short-term engagement with a clear path to grow

Reports to: CEO; works closely with senior leadership

Most important decisions are still made with a mix of instinct, politics, incomplete evidence, and rationalization. The organization exists to change that. We build decision‑grade validation tools and systems that help teams pressure‑test important choices with clarity, evidence, and explicit uncertainty rather than narrative or false confidence. The aim is to turn consequential decisions into auditable outputs people can use and stand behind.

The Opportunity: We are creating a new category, and we are looking for the person who will help find its market. This role is equal parts strategist, partnership‑builder, and product compass. You will help decide which directions to pursue, then build the early relationships and partnerships that prove those choices. This is a hands‑on, high‑judgment seat for someone who wants to help shape an organization while its market is still being decided — someone who can both set direction and do the work to prove it.

Responsibilities

• Shape the direction: read early signals from pilots, customers, and partners, and help decide which product and market paths to pursue, sharpen, or set aside.
• Open the first markets: identify high‑value buyers and partners, build relationships, and personally develop early pilots and partnerships that prove the motion.
• Design the business model: shape packaging, pricing, and go‑to‑market approach, and turn what works into a repeatable commercial playbook.
• Make the category legible: help target buyers quickly understand what the product does and why it matters, without jargon or hype.
• Turn signal into strategy: bring market truth back to the team — what buyers value, what they will pay for, and what they do not yet believe — and shape commercial and product direction accordingly.
• Execute hands‑on: set direction and do the work to prove it; personally engage with buyers and partners to secure early, paid traction.

Qualifications

• Deep go‑to‑market strategy and business development expertise; you understand how new categories get built and adopted and can tell early signal from noise.
• Proven, hands‑on track record of taking something early and complex to market and building it into real, paid traction (not just managing a team that did it).
• Comfortable both setting strategy and driving direct relationships that become revenue; able to read a market, choose a direction, then earn a serious buyer commitment.
• Strong product, pricing, and positioning instincts; you understand how those choices determine whether an early product takes hold.
• Able to make new and unfamiliar ideas click for serious buyers in a few plain sentences.
• Sharp judgment under uncertainty: you know which opportunities are real, which directions are dead ends, and where scarce hours should go.
• Low‑ego, fast‑moving, and trustworthy with relationships and reputation.
• Drawn to hard, consequential problems and motivated for work that matters beyond the balance sheet.
• Cultural fit: integrity, accountability, collaboration, intellectual curiosity, and a desire for social impact — we value people who trust evidence over narrative and pursue what is true even when it is inconvenient.