You're the senior executive responsible for business development — sourcing partnerships, structuring deals, and being the senior commercial voice on the transactions that grow the company. Half senior dealmaker, half cross-functional coalition builder.
At the VP level, the role moves across the senior partnership and deal pipeline, executive-team conversations about commercial direction, and the cross-functional coalition work that getting consequential deals done requires. You're engaged with the CEO and senior leaders on transaction priorities, working through major partnership or deal structures, engaging directly with executive counterparts at strategic partners, and being the senior BD voice in strategic decisions.
A common surprise is how much of the role is internal coalition-building. Many find that closing the kind of partnerships and transactions a VP-level seat focuses on requires alignment across product, finance, legal, sales, and the CEO — and the political work of maintaining that alignment becomes as consequential as the external relationship work. Long-arc cultivation, M&A-adjacent conversations, and the steady visibility at the executive level shape the seat.
People who enjoy executive-level commercial work and the chess of complex transactions tend to thrive. The role often suits those who can hold long-arc patience alongside operational discipline, and who can sustain attention across the multi-quarter or multi-year timelines that consequential deals run on. The cost is typically the unevenness of major-deal work and the political visibility when high-profile transactions don't close as expected.
An honest look at who tends to thrive in this role — and who might find it challenging.
Where this role sits in the broader career landscape — and where it can take you.
Roles like this one sit within a broader occupational category. The numbers below reflect that full landscape — helpful for context, but your specific experience will depend on level, specialty, and where you work.
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