Senior Partnerships & Engagement Lead

Senior Partnerships & Engagement Lead - UK

Reports to: CEO

Location: UK-based, remote-first (with national travel)

Type: Full-time

Compensation: Base + Performance-Based Commission + Company Equity

Top School is a pioneering AI company reimagining how education works in the age of intelligent technology. We build cutting-edge tools that help schools harness AI not just to improve learning outcomes, but to transform the entire educational experience for students, teachers, and parents.

At the core of our platform is Personalised Learning AI (PLAI™), an adaptive engine that customises learning pathways, supports educators with AI co-pilots, and empowers families with meaningful insight into student progress.

Following successful pilot activity in the UK, Top School is now entering its UK launch phase, working closely with schools to scale responsibly, ethically, and with measurable impact.

As Senior Partnerships & Engagement Lead – UK, you will be the front-line owner of Top School’s UK school relationships.

This role is deliberately not a high-volume sales role. Instead, it is focused on:

• Building trusted partnerships with schools, MATs and school groups
• Deeply understanding school needs and constraints
• Translating those needs into successful pilots, renewals, and long-term agreements

You will run end-to-end engagement cycles: from first conversation, to pilot design, to commercial agreement and initial handover to School Success teams.

This is a senior, outward-facing role suited to someone who understands how UK schools actually work and can balance educational credibility, commercial discipline, and relationship depth.

• Act as Top School’s primary UK relationship lead with schools, MATs and school groups
• Build strong relationships with headteachers, senior leaders, digital/IT leads, and trust executives
• Engage schools through conversations grounded in real classroom and leadership needs, not generic AI pitches
• Represent Top School at UK education events, round tables, and school visits

• Lead structured discovery conversations with schools to understand:
• Teaching and workload challenges
• Leadership, inspection, and reporting pressures
• Data protection, safeguarding, and AI governance concerns
• Translate school needs into clear pilot scopes, success criteria, and rollout pathways
• Work closely with internal teams to shape proposals that are practical, credible, and context-aware

• Own the full commercial journey:
• Initial engagement
• Pilot design and pricing
• Procurement and contracting
• Conversion to paid rollout and renewal
• Manage longer UK sales cycles with multiple stakeholders and decision points
• Ensure pilots are positioned as pathways to sustainable adoption, not standalone trials

• Build long-term relationships that support:
• Renewals
• Expansion across year groups, departments, or trust schools
• Referrals and advocacy
• Work closely with School Success and Product teams to ensure schools feel:
• Heard
• Supported
• Confident in Top School’s ethical and educational approach

• Maintain accurate CRM data and pipeline forecasting
• Share structured feedback from UK schools to inform:
• Product development and feature design
• UK-specific messaging and positioning
• Process and compliance configuration (include SEN support)

Must Have

• 5+ years’ experience in education partnerships, enterprise sales, or school engagement in the UK
• Strong understanding of the UK school landscape (maintained schools, MATs, independent schools)
• Proven ability to manage complex, relationship-driven sales cycles
• Direct experience in RFP / tender response drafting
• High credibility with senior school leaders
• Comfort working autonomously in a fast-growing company

Nice to Have

• Experience working with:
• Multi-Academy Trusts
• Independent or international schools
• EdTech or education services
• Understanding of:
• AI in education (opportunities and risks)
• Safeguarding, GDPR, and responsible AI discussions in schools

Bonus

• Background in teaching, school leadership, inspection, or education consultancy
• Experience designing or running pilots, funded trials, or innovation programmes
• Network across UK school leaders or education associations

• Fully Remote Working
• Flexi Hours
• 23 Days Annual Leave
• Annual All-Team Retreat
• Company Equity Ownership
• Opportunities for International Travel
• Progression to team leadership or regional directorship
• Learning & Development Budget
• Work on cutting-edge AI in Education

📩
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