The Role
After 33+ years of excellence, Leighton are on our next chapter of growth, and we need a commercially sharp, relationship-driven Strategic Alliance Lead to play a pivotal role in that journey.
You will be the commercial engine behind some of our most significant partner relationships. This is a revenue-carrying role with a personal target, your primary focus is net new growth: originating opportunities, building and executing GTM plans with partners, and winning enterprise-scale work alongside the world’s largest consultancies and system integrators.
This is not a delivery role. You will be the strategic and commercial presence within partnerships, ensuring existing programmes are healthy, relationships are thriving, and that every engagement becomes a platform for the next opportunity.
You will be given the chance to grow and develop within Leighton as we continue to drive commercial success whilst always maintaining outstanding company culture.
Please note: this role will require regular travel to Leeds, Newcastle and London as part of it's remit.
Why Leighton?
- Established credibility: 33 years of delivering custom software solutions to global companies.
- Awareness: Recognised as one of the leading technology partners for the world’s biggest consultancies.
- Real strategic influence: You will shape how we grow inside our partner ecosystem and with the enterprise clients we serve together.
- Elite technical talent to support: Partner with our world-class engineers and architects to back your commercial conversations with genuine delivery credibility.
- High-value deals: You will pursue and help close enterprise-scale engagements that require deep business acumen and consultative relationship management.
What You Will Do
- Own the day-to-day and strategic relationships across a portfolio of major consultancies, systems integrators, specialist technology partners and trusted advisors, while proactively identifying and securing new strategic partnerships that can help Leighton access high-value AWS, product engineering, AI and modernisation opportunities.
- Manage and Deepen Existing Partner Relationships
- Act as the commercial lead for your partner portfolio, building trusted relationships at multiple levels within each organisation.
- Lead regular business reviews and joint planning sessions with partner stakeholders to ensure alignment, momentum, and mutual accountability.
- Monitor the commercial and relationship health alongside partners ensuring things are on track, relationships remain strong, and risks are surfaced early.
- Resolve commercial tensions and navigate partner dynamics with confidence and diplomacy.
- Develop clear partner propositions that explain where Leighton complements, strengthens or de-risks each partner’s own offer, particularly across AWS product engineering, AI-enabled delivery, migration, modernisation and cloud operations.
- Proactively identify new commercial opportunities within your partner ecosystem, whether that is new practice areas, new geographies, or new buyer relationships within each firm.
- Develop a deep understanding of each partner’s go-to-market strategy and identify where Leighton’s capabilities can add value.
- Build and maintain a pipeline of partner-sourced and partner-influenced opportunities, working closely with the Business Development team to progress and close them.
- Represent Leighton at partner events, workshops, and industry forums to raise our profile and generate new leads.
- Where Leighton is already delivering work alongside a partner for an end client, actively identify opportunities to develop a direct and expanded relationship with that client.
- Work strategically to move Leighton from being a subcontractor into a trusted partner in our own right with enterprise-scale end clients.
- Collaborate with pre-sales and Business Development to craft compelling propositions for end clients that go beyond the current scope of work.
- Build relationships with senior stakeholders at end clients to uncover additional needs, new workstreams, and longer-term strategic opportunities.
- Carry a personal revenue target and take full accountability for delivering against it through net new opportunity origination and account growth across your partner portfolio.
- Create and own joint GTM plans with each partner, defining target sectors, propositions, and go-to-market motions, then driving execution with the support of Marketing, pre-sales, and the wider Business Development team.
- Proactively originate new opportunities, not just respond to inbound, by building relationships deep inside partner organisations and converting them into qualified pipeline.
- Feed market intelligence back into the business to inform our positioning, proposition development, and strategic priorities.
What You'll Bring
- Experience opening new strategic partner relationships from cold.
- A proven track record managing strategic partnerships or alliances with major global consultancies, Big 4 firms, or large SIs, and the ability to navigate complex, matrixed organisations with confidence.
- Experience creating and owning partner growth plans, setting joint objectives and defining GTM motions.
- Strong commercial acumen and a genuine hunger to grow revenue, you see every partner relationship as an opportunity, not just something to maintain, and you know how to convert relationships into pipeline.
- Evidence of building partner-sourced pipeline, not just maintaining partner satisfaction.
- Experience shaping large, complex, multi-stakeholder deals, you can navigate enterprise procurement, influence senior decision-makers, and bring internal teams together to construct and close significant opportunities.
- A background in consultative or technology services sales, you are comfortable selling outcomes and expertise rather than products, and you understand how large organisations buy professional and technical services.
- Self-motivated and ambitious, energised by building something significant rather than managing the status quo.
- You build trust with internal stakeholders as readily as external ones, and know how to orchestrate pre-sales, delivery, and executive teams around a shared commercial goal.
- Comfortable with regular travel and the demands of senior enterprise partnerships, when a critical pitch requires it, you want to be there.
Success Metrics
- Strong, active relationships with key contacts across your partner portfolio at multiple seniority levels.
- A consistent pipeline of new opportunities originating from or influenced by your partner relationships.
- Measurable expansion of Leighton’s commercial footprint within existing partner-adjacent end clients.
- Partner-sourced and partner-influenced revenue that grows year-on-year.
- Active programmes of work alongside partners are commercially sound and risks are identified and managed proactively.
Who You Will Work With
- Reporting directly to the Head of Business Development, you will be a significant part of the Business Development Team.
- Day-to-day you will collaborate closely with the Chief Revenue Officer, Head of Marketing, and our technical leadership team, working together to shape propositions, build pipeline, and ensure what we take to market is compelling, credible, and backed by world-class delivery capability.
- This is not a ‘lone wolf’ role. You will be supported, resourced, and empowered, but you will also be expected to lead, influence, and drive outcomes across both partner organisations and within Leighton.
Ready to help lead our next chapter of growth?
If you’re an ambitious, proven commercial professional who wants to make a real impact at a company that’s established enough to win but nimble enough to innovate, we would love to hear from you.
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An open and genuine communicator
- Able to take responsibility for your actions
- Always learning and wanting to improve
- Takes responsibility for own development
- Love what you do
- Value and support your team
- Embrace who you are
- Open minded and willing to explore new ideas
We value our team and to attract exceptional people, we offer an excellent package! In 2023, 2024 and 2025 we were recognised as one of the Best Workplaces in Tech by Great Place To Work UK, the global authority on workplace culture.
As a Leighton employee you can look forward to:
- A competitive salary this will be dependent on experience.
- A contributory pension scheme
- Private healthcare
- 25 days annual leave, plus bank holidays and the opportunity to buy or sell holiday
- A flexible approach to working hours
- Continuous personal development, career path and training
- And more....
Leighton: 33 years and counting. Experienced and agile. Trusted by some of the world’s biggest brands. We develop and deliver custom software. We use technology to make money, save money, create efficiencies, integrate systems, solve problems. To help our customers thrive. We have a pool of talent. To manage projects. Test to high standards. Create user experiences for every type of user. We include, include, include. Our service is personal. We know your name. We can do amazing things with tech. We’ve got the talent. We decide what’s best for our customer together.
Our Values
The Leighton culture defines how we do business and how we interact with our colleagues and customers. It makes us unique and provides us with a competitive advantage
- We act with honesty and truth, always!
- We collaborate to bring our purpose to life in a caring and supportive way
- We nurture our amazing people to be the best version of themselves
- Passionate about what we do, proud of what we achieve
- Our curiosity inspires the amazing
