Principal, Financial Sponsor Partnerships

The Principal, Financial Sponsor Partnerships builds and activates Phocas's relationships with the private equity firms, family offices and other financial sponsors that own and acquire our ideal customers in the United States. It owns the sponsor book, the Phocas for Financial Sponsors offer, weekly deal-flow monitoring, and three plays: winning additional logos across sponsor platforms where we already have a customer, winning new logos as the day-one standard inside newly acquired portfolio companies, and defending sponsor-owned ARR.

This is an ideal opportunity for a senior commercial operator who has moved beyond single-account selling and works the relationship that sits above the account — someone who earns genuine trust with operating partners, orchestrates without formal authority, and can stand a new channel up from a blank page.

Strategic Context

Twenty-five US sponsors already own a Phocas customer, representing around $2.5M of live ARR. Inside those same platforms sit roughly 200 more companies that match our ideal customer profile exactly, and sponsors in our verticals close around four deals a week. Sponsor-level systems decisions already move our ARR up and down — and today no one at Phocas owns the relationship above the account.

This role is a build. There is no sponsor program, no portfolio agreement template and no operating-partner network at Phocas yet. It reports to the VP Partnerships, works through the teams that own the accounts, and carries a decision point at twelve months on whether we scale, hold or exit the program — evidenced by the person in the seat.

Why This Role Matters

·       Sponsor-Influenced New Business: Delivers new logo ARR sourced or influenced by the sponsor relationship — three sponsor-influenced wins by month six and eight by month twelve.

·       Retention of Sponsor-Owned ARR: Protects the ~$2.5M already sitting under sponsor ownership, holding gross revenue retention at 96% or better.

·       Sponsor Relationships That Hold: Builds five sponsor relationships or portfolio agreements by month twelve, each with a named operating partner actively influencing portfolio bookings.

·       A Program, Not a Campaign: Stands up the Phocas for Financial Sponsors offer — acquisition integration playbook, named sponsor team, portfolio reviews and exit-readiness packs — with the sponsor data model owned alongside RevOps.

·       Evidence for the Next Decision: Produces the evidence pack behind the twelve-month scale, hold or exit call on the sponsor program.

Team Structure

Reporting to the VP Partnerships, this is a principal-level individual contributor role with no direct reports. It works through AEs and the US New Business market lead, Account Managers and the US Expansion market lead, Customer Success, Partner Marketing, RevOps, Enablement and Services, and partners with Legal and FP&A on portfolio agreements. It convenes the monthly Sponsor Tiger Team and works directly with the VP US Sales and the CRO. Externally it holds relationships with operating partners and portfolio-operations leads at sponsors, and with portfolio-company CEOs and CFOs.

What You Will Be Responsible For

·       Develop the pitch: what these firms care about, what their alternative approaches are, and the jobs to be done for sponsor operators.

·       Know and prioritize target sponsors — roll-up platforms, family offices and holdcos, large-cap platform owners — and build the sponsor book by priority and connection path.

·       Work top down with operating partners and portfolio-operations leads, and bottom up through portfolio-company CFOs, to earn introductions upward and deliver the sponsor pitch.

·       Negotiate portfolio agreements with Legal, FP&A and Ops at approved terms, and operate inside each sponsor's rules of engagement.

·       Monitor sponsor deal flow weekly, verify ownership, obtain sponsor portfolio lists and key contacts, and report to the business on how the cohort is moving.

·       Work opportunities with AEs, register them with the sponsor as influence, and orchestrate group licenses across sister brands.

·       Build sponsor-level account plans with Account Managers and Customer Success, and run quarterly portfolio reviews.

·       Own the sponsor data model in HubSpot with RevOps, convene the monthly Sponsor Tiger Team, and work with Partner Marketing on the narrative, program page and events.

Who We Are Looking For

·       Has carried a number in B2B software sales, partnerships or alliances, and has opened doors themselves at operating-partner, managing-director and CFO level.

·       Private equity fluency: has sold into or worked alongside sponsors and their portfolio companies — from a vendor PE team, a sponsor value-creation team, or a PE-focused consultancy. Experience inside a firm is a bonus.

·       Network: can point to operating partners already in their network and describe concretely how they would turn them into pipeline.

·       Financial acumen: can clearly articulate hold periods, the investment hypothesis, value-creation levers and unit economics — and why a PE operating team exists, what it offers portfolio companies, and why it would care about working with a vendor like Phocas.

·       Builder's track record: has stood something up from nothing on a ninety-day clock and been happy to be judged on what it produced.

·       Orchestration without authority: has delivered results through people who do not report to them, and keeps CRM and pipeline data accurate while doing it.

·       Domain: mid-market distribution and manufacturing, and the ERP ecosystem around them (Epicor, Infor, NetSuite, Sage, Acumatica, SAP), are familiar ground. A strong bonus.

·       AI fluency: has used AI with teams to solve problems, move faster, and lift productivity.

Benefits

•       Health Care Plan (Medical, Dental & Vision)

•       Retirement Plan (401k, IRA)

•       Life Insurance (Basic, Voluntary & AD&D)

•       Paid Time Off (Vacation, Sick & Public Holidays)

•       Family Leave (Maternity, Paternity)

•       Short Term & Long Term Disability

•       Training & Development

•       Work From Home

•       Wellness Resources

Phocas is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, colour, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability and protected veterans status or any other characteristic protected by law.

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