(34525) Manager, Partnerships Support

Why This Role Exists

NUSX's ecosystem has grown into a scale where relationship-building talent - the people who develop corporate partnerships, secure donor commitments, and build long-term institutional relationships - is being absorbed by operational work. Contract administration, entitlement tracking, procurement coordination, invoice management, and financial compliance are necessary. They are also not the best use of senior relationship owners' time.

The Manager, Partnerships Support exists to provide a shared operational backbone across key initiatives including the BLOCK71 Singapore, Corporate Partnerships, Development and Donations, and flagship ecosystem initiatives. By concentrating the coordination, delivery, and follow-through work in one capable role, this capability frees relationship owners to focus on what they do best - and ensures that commercial, donor, and programme commitments are tracked, delivered, and documented with the discipline the ecosystem now requires.

This is an enabling role, not an administrative one. It requires commercial literacy, process rigour, and the ability to work across multiple teams and initiative types simultaneously.

Operating Approach

This role operates with a high degree of ownership and initiative. The Associate Director, Strategy and Operations sets the direction. How the operational support model is built, maintained, and improved is yours to develop and iterate. You are expected to surface process gaps, propose solutions, and drive follow-through without being asked.

Key Responsibilities

1. Programme Delivery & Operations (Purple Challenge Lead)

• Own the end-to-end day-to-day operations of the Purple Challenge across all five scope areas, driving execution from initial challenge framing through to final outcomes reporting.
• Coordinate the ASEAN-wide and global outreach campaign by managing digital channels, partner amplification, webinar roadshows, and information sessions across BLOCK71 nodes and disability organisations.
• Manage application intake and screening, running the online portal, tracking submissions, and facilitating shortlisting for Top 20 and Top 5 finalists.
• Coordinate dual-track evaluation panels (technical/commercial and implementation/inclusion), managing scheduling, scoring logistics, and conflict-of-interest protocols.
• Deliver the final pitching event and cocktail networking session end-to-end, overseeing venue, accessibility services (captioning, sign-language interpretation), AV/production, invitations, RSVPs, and catering.
• Serve as primary partner liaison for external & internal stakeholders, ensuring meaningful and accessible engagement at every stage.
• Compile programme outputs, support final outcomes reports, maintain quarterly dashboards, and author recommendations memos for future cycles.

2. Contract Administration and Entitlement Tracking

• Own the end-to-end administration of partnership and donor agreements across BLOCK71 Singapore, Corporate Partnerships, and Development and Donations. This includes maintaining a current and accurate register of all active contracts, commitments, entitlements, and deliverable timelines.
• Own end-to-end day-to-day operations of a global challenge across all five scope areas, from challenge framing through to final outcomes reporting.
• Serve as primary partner liaison for internal and external stakeholders, ensuring meaningful and accessible engagement at every stage.
• Track entitlement fulfilment for each partnership - what has been committed, what has been delivered, and what is outstanding. Surface risks to delivery early and escalate to the relevant relationship owner before they become visible to the external party.
• Stand up and maintain a contract and entitlement tracking system that serves all three functions. In the first quarter in role, this system should be operational and in active use.
• Ensure contract renewals, extensions, and terminations are flagged well in advance and the relevant relationship owner is prepared for the conversation.

3. Commercial and Financial Coordination

• Coordinate procurement processes across the three functions - vendor selection, purchase orders, invoice management, and payment follow-through — in compliance with NUS Enterprise policies.
• Ensure invoices are issued accurately and on time, and track receipt of payments. Flag overdue payments and coordinate with Finance where needed.
• Maintain accurate financial records for all partnerships and donor engagements, supporting the relationship owners in budget management and financial reporting.
• Coordinate with Legal where contracts require review, amendment, or new agreement structures. Ensure the right people are looped in at the right stage.

4. Programme Delivery Coordination

• Support the operational delivery of externally funded programmes and initiatives, ensuring that the administrative and logistical elements are handled so relationship owners can focus on the substance.
• Coordinate across teams where a single initiative involves multiple functions. Maintain a shared view of what is happening, who owns what, and what is at risk.
• Manage reporting requirements for external partners and donors - what reports are due, when, and what inputs are needed from which teams. Own the coordination of those inputs.
• Ensure programme commitments made in partnership agreements are tracked against actual delivery and flag any gaps to the relevant relationship owner.

5. Process and Systems Improvement

• Identify where operational processes across the three functions are inconsistent, manual, or creating unnecessary friction. Propose and implement improvements.
• Build and maintain shared operational tools - trackers, templates, filing structures, process guides - that make it easier for relationship owners to hand off operational tasks and for the coordination function to scale.
• Stay close enough to the work of each function to anticipate what operational support will be needed as partnerships and programmes evolve. Do not wait to be asked.

First 90 Days

• Map the current state of contracts, entitlements, and commitments across BLOCK71 Singapore, Corporate Partnerships, and Development and Donations. Understand what exists, where the gaps are, and what is at risk.
• Stand up a contract and entitlement tracking system that is operational and in active use by the end of the first quarter.
• Build working relationships with the relationship owners across all three functions. Understand their ways of working and where operational friction is highest.
• Identify the two or three highest-priority process improvements and bring a proposal to the Associate Director, Strategy and Operations.

What Success Looks Like

• Relationship owners across BLOCK71 Singapore, Corporate Partnerships, and Development and Donations spend more time building strategic relationships and securing opportunities.
• Contract and entitlement tracking is current, accurate, and proactively managed. No commitment falls through without being flagged first.
• Externally funded initiatives are delivered with operational discipline. Reports go out on time. Invoices are accurate. Payments are tracked.
• The operational coordination function scales alongside ecosystem growth without adding proportional administrative burden to relationship owners.

Requirements

• Degree holder
• 6 to 9 years of experience in a role requiring operational coordination, contract management, programme administration, or commercial support, ideally in a professional services, financial services, or ecosystem environment
• Strong commercial literacy - understands how partnerships and donor engagements are structured and what good follow-through looks like
• Organised and rigorous, with a high standard of attention to detail and follow-through across multiple workstreams simultaneously
• Process-oriented and improvement-minded - identifies friction, proposes solutions, and builds systems that scale
• Comfortable working across multiple teams and functions without a direct reporting line to any of them
• Proactive and solutions-oriented - surfaces issues before they become visible problems
• Experience in a university, research, or innovation ecosystem environment will be advantageous

Please be informed that only shortlisted candidates will be notified.