Change starts with water. Change starts with you.

Every day, millions of people live without clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene. WaterAid exists to change that – for everyone, everywhere. Join us, and your energy will help unlock people’s potential and create a fairer future.

About WaterAid

We’re a global federation driven by one vision: a world where everyone, everywhere has clean water, sanitation and hygiene by 2030. Powered by our values of Respect, Accountability, Courage, Collaboration, Integrity and Innovation, we work alongside communities, partners and supporters to make change happen.

About the team

The Corporate Partnerships Team is responsible for developing high value, high impact strategic partnerships with companies, where the value goes beyond financial alone to meaningfully contribute towards WaterAid’s mission, including finding ways to contribute to programmatic, policy and advocacy objectives.

About the role

As our proactive and driven Strategic Partnership Development Manager you will lead partnership development for a range of priority corporate sectors - working closely with global partnerships, programmes and policy colleagues - to secure new multi-year partnerships and drive sustainable change.

In this role, you will:

Business Development:

Generate, cultivate and convert high-value corporate partnership opportunities against a personal income target.
Secure annual and multi-year partnerships for WaterAid, each with a target value of a minimum of £100,000 per year (ideally £250,000+), covering a broad spectrum of partnership types (e.g. corporate donations, cause-related marketing, and employee engagement).
Lead on partnership development for strategically important sectors including food and beverage and agriculture, communicating WaterAid’s partnerships offering and value-add externally to the industries.
Attend networking events and conferences to build a network of relevant corporate contacts.
Identify and research target companies, ensuring WaterAid’s ethical policy implementation guidelines are adhered to.
Develop and deliver tailored and compelling proposals and pitches. This will often involve drawing on the skills and knowledge of colleagues from around the organisation to create innovative and business-aligned proposals.
Assess and manage incoming partnership requests to the Corporate Partnerships team in a timely manner and in line with our partnership development objectives.

Strategic projects:

Coordinate with senior staff across WaterAid departments to ensure broader private sector objectives are prioritised when planning for global events.
Identify, explore and work with WaterAid colleagues to develop innovative collective action propositions for the agriculture and food & beverage industries.
Work closely with corporate teams from across the WaterAid federation to ensure new partnership offerings and financial propositions are utilised.

Requirements

To be successful, you will need:

Proven experience of generating six-figure strategic new business partnerships from cold in the charity sector or in a commercial setting, and proven ability to meet and exceed personal targets.
Confident networker able to represent WaterAid at external events.
Externally focused and proactive attitude, with the energy and passion to engage people and excite them about WaterAid.
Able to forge effective working relationships with stakeholders at all levels, including internal and external C-suite, across a range of industries and differing business cultures.
Aptitude for writing high-quality and engaging proposals and reports for a corporate audience.
Exceptional face-to-face interpersonal negotiating and persuasive skills, matched with a sensitive diplomatic approach.
Experience in handling objections and negotiating successful mutually beneficial outcomes for internal and external relationships.
Ability to manage multiple priorities and assertiveness to ensure that deadlines are met, including managing others’ input.
Experience using a fundraising or customer database and producing marketing or similar analysis reports from the database.

Although not essential, we’d prefer you to have:

Experience and understanding of private sector sustainability and international development.
Understanding of and active interest in the agriculture and food & beverage sectors, including key materially important sustainability topics.
Experience working in corporate sustainability for the private sector, or industry-aligned organisations such as consultancies, agencies, standards or certification bodies, etc.

View the full job description

Closing date: Applications close 12:00 PM UK time on the 10th July 2026.

How to apply: Click Apply to complete the pre-screening questions and upload your CV.

Can I use Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology in my application?

At WaterAid, we strongly advise against using AI technology at any stage of the recruitment process. Our goal is to ensure a fair and transparent process that provides every applicant with an equal opportunity to succeed. We value hearing about your unique experiences and perspectives in your application, and, if shortlisted, during the interview as well.

Pre‑employment screening

To apply for this role, you must be able to demonstrate your eligibility to work in the respective country. All pre-employment checks will be carried out according to local law and WaterAid’s Safer Recruitment policy. All UK based roles require a basic Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check.

Benefits

36 days’ holiday (including 8 Bank Holidays)
Option to buy an extra 5 days’ annual leave
Employer pension contribution up to 10 %
Flexible and hybrid working arrangements
Season ticket loan
Free annual eye tests
‘Give as you Earn’ charitable giving scheme
Enhanced parental leave (maternity, adoption/surrogacy, shared parental and paternity)
Sabbaticals
One paid volunteer day each year

As part of our annual leave policy, all employees receive three additional days of annual leave on top of their standard allocation of 25 days. These days are designated to cover the period when our UK office closes between Christmas and New Year, allowing all UK WaterAiders to take a well-deserved break.

These days are automatically scheduled and cannot be changed or moved. Annual leave is accrued based on your start date. If sufficient leave has not been accrued by the time of the closure, the 3 days will be taken as unpaid leave or pro-rated, depending on your circumstances.

Our People Promise

We will work with passion and focus to make sure everyone everywhere has clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene. WaterAid is a place of purpose – where people have a real commitment and shared responsibility for the impact we have. We are a global community with diverse backgrounds and perspectives, motivated by inspiring, stimulating work. We are determined to be a place where people feel safe and able to contribute their voice and truly live our values.

Equal Opportunities

We welcome applications from people of all backgrounds, beliefs, customs, traditions, ways of life and status. This includes, but is not limited to, race, ethnicity, caste, colour, gender, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth, disability status, neurodiversity, age, marital and family status, sexual orientation and gender identity, health status, place of residence, economic and social situation.

Safeguarding

We are committed to protecting everyone we come into contact with. We have a zero- tolerance approach to abuse of power, privilege or trust across our global work, and to any form of inappropriate behaviour, discrimination, abuse, bullying, harassment, or exploitation. Safeguarding the people and communities we work with, our staff, volunteers and anyone working on our behalf is our top priority, and we take our responsibilities extremely seriously. All offers of employment are subject to satisfactory references and appropriate screening checks (which can include counterterrorism, safeguarding and criminal records checks).

Together, we’ll change the world through water.

Join us and be part of the change!