Job Description

The Director, Strategic Growth & New Partnerships is a collaborative partner that seeks opportunities to learn and engage across the organization. The Director directs and oversees UFCU’s strategic growth and new partnership development function, including market expansion, new partnership strategy, pipeline development, prospect cultivation, executive relationship development, strategic initiative execution, and cross-functional coordination in support of UFCU’s long-term growth priorities.

The Director works closely with senior leaders to outline and execute organizational goals, identify and cultivate new partnership opportunities, lead expansion into targeted growth markets, and create innovative partnership strategies aligned with UFCU’s business priorities. This role is responsible for developing relationships within priority markets, including higher education and the Houston Medical District, while building a robust pipeline of future strategic partnerships that advance UFCU’s mission, market presence, member growth, and community impact.

The Director develops and drives a proactive, collaborative partnership between Business Development and the business, understanding market opportunities, creating engaging conversations with prospective partners, monitoring market and competitive trends, and identifying opportunities to advance UFCU’s overall business strategy and vision.

The Director position is an exempt role, reports to the Vice President & Chief Lending Officer and leads the Strategic Growth Business Development team. 

About UFCU

Our Credit Union was founded in 1936 and has grown to serve members throughout Texas and beyond. At UFCU, we are more than just a financial institution, and our people are more than just employees. We are dedicated to our purpose of empowering our Members to achieve financial success and build brighter futures

In pursuit of our aspiration that UFCU isloved by millions of Members and built to thrive for generations, we are guided by our values:

• Purposefully Member-Obsessed: We are driven by a profound sense of empathy to deeply understand our Members’ needs and preferences, what brighter futures means to them, and the obstacles in their way. We act in our Members’ best interests, forever seeking to empower their financial success.

• Possibilities Reimagined: We are inspired to courageously experiment, learn, and iterate in pursuit of positive impact for our Members, UFCU, and coworkers. We challenge assumptions, embrace diverse perspectives, and make use of data and insights.

• Performance Excellence Rooted in Unwavering Integrity: We do the right thing, always. We champion teamwork, accountability, continuous improvement, and celebrate successful outcomes of others, fostering an inclusive environment of excellence and collaboration.

Essential Functions

Strategic Partnership Leadership, Growth, & Success

• Identify, cultivate, and advance new strategic partnership opportunities that support UFCU’s long-term growth priorities, member expansion, and community impact

• Lead expansion into targeted growth markets, with emphasis on higher education, the Houston Medical District, healthcare ecosystems, employer groups, and other priority community or institutional segments

• Develop and execute market-specific growth strategies to increase UFCU’s visibility, relevance, and partnership opportunities within assigned markets

• Build, manage, and maintain a robust pipeline of prospective strategic partnerships using defined qualification criteria, relationship stages, opportunity tracking, and forecasting practices

• Research, identify, and prioritize prospective partners based on strategic fit, growth potential, member opportunity, community impact, and alignment with UFCU’s mission and values

• Develop relationships with executive leaders, decision-makers, centers of influence, and key stakeholders within prospective partner organizations

• Create innovative partnership strategies, value propositions, and engagement models that align prospective partner needs with UFCU’s products, services, capabilities, and community impact priorities

• Lead discovery conversations, needs assessments, business case development, proposal strategy, presentations, and negotiation support for prospective strategic partnerships

• Represent UFCU at industry events, market engagements, higher education forums, healthcare ecosystem events, community convenings, networking opportunities, and prospective partner meetings

• Provide market intelligence, competitive insights, and partner feedback to inform UFCU’s business development strategy, product positioning, community engagement, and growth priorities

• Partner with the Director, Partnership Success & Strategic Engagement to ensure a smooth transition from new partnership development to ongoing relationship stewardship and partner success

• Establish and monitor success measures related to new partnership development, market expansion, pipeline growth, strategic initiative execution, and partnership conversion outcomes

Team Leadership and Development

• Lead, inspire, motivate, and develop team members by providing guidance and training to attain departmental and individual development goals and support organizational needs

• Serve as a role model in transparent communication, two-way dialogue, and proactive communication to the team

• Build a successful team to operate according to UFCU guiding principles, providing guidance and resources and removing obstacles as needed

• Provide team leadership based on servant leadership principles, caring for the whole person

• Plan, monitor, and appraise job results with an emphasis on coaching and developing employees to achieve desired performance results

• Help teams achieve their career goals. Ensure team members understand how to have an impact and are aware of that impact when they've made it

Strategic Business Partner

• Cultivate positive, strong, lasting, and meaningful relationships and connections with leaders, peers, prospective partners, and community stakeholders

• Collaborate with departments across the business, including Retail, Marketing, Lending, Wealth Management, Commercial Services, Operations, Legal, Compliance, Risk, and Finance, to support new partnership evaluation and execution

• Facilitate joint brainstorming and team collaboration to create market growth strategies, prospective partner solutions, and cross-functional execution plans

• Collaborate with business partners to determine future needs, operational readiness, and support required to successfully launch and scale new partnerships

• Serve as a strategic connector between external market opportunities and internal business capabilities to ensure new partnership strategies are both market-responsive and operationally executable

Strategy Development/Strategic Planning

• Collaborate with senior leaders and actively participate in UFCU's strategic planning process

• Develop strategic growth and new partnership strategies in partnership with executive leadership to drive achievement of Credit Union and department goals

• Translate UFCU’s growth priorities into actionable market-entry plans, partner prospecting strategies, relationship development plans, and measurable execution milestones

• Monitor and evaluate progress toward new partnership development, pipeline growth, market expansion, and strategic initiative goals, making adjustments as needed based on business and market needs

• Develop tools, processes, reporting mechanisms, and decision frameworks to support consistent partnership evaluation, pipeline management, and executive visibility

• Facilitate procurement or implementation of tools and resources necessary to support market development, prospect tracking, partnership analytics, and strategic growth initiatives

Budgetary Oversight/Expense Management

• Establish and manage the annual budget for strategic growth and new partnership development activities, including market development, prospect engagement, conferences, events, sponsorships, travel, tools, and related initiatives

• Ensure effective control of results and take action to achieve departmental objectives within designated budgets

• Monitor expenses on a monthly basis, evaluate performance against budget, and make adjustments based on organizational and department priorities

• Collaborate with senior leaders on development of the organizational annual budget in alignment with strategic objectives, market expansion priorities, and partnership development needs

Other

• Perform other duties as assigned

• Adhere to all organizational policies, procedures, and business ethics codes

• Complete required regulatory training as assigned

• Maintain strict adherence and compliance to all laws, rules, regulations, policies, procedures, and internal controls specific to the role, including but not limited to the Bank Secrecy Act, Anti-Money Laundering, USA Patriot Act, OFAC, and Fair Lending regulations

Knowledge/Skills/Abilities

Team Building and Leadership

• Proven ability to create a high-performance climate through talent identification, recruitment, and retention

• Strong and demonstrable leadership skills with the ability to inspire and motivate others

• Proven ability to build a team of diverse talents that complement one another

• Proven ability to hold themselves to the highest standard of integrity and personal behavior

Building Relationships and Using Influence

• Exceptional interpersonal skills with the proven ability to influence senior level management and key stakeholders

• Strong ability to recognize nuances in others and leveragethis understanding for a more influential impact on the tea

• Demonstrated ability to build credibility quickly with external executives, centers of influence, institutional leaders, and internal senior leaders

• Effective communicator, listener, and presenter, with the ability to work with various levels of the organization

• Adept at maintaining effective relationships with internal departments, external business and community partners, and others key stakeholders

Executing for Results

• Proven delivery track record and exceptional service orientation

• Demonstrated ability to identify, qualify, pursue, and advance new business or partnership opportunities through a structured pipeline

• Adept at translating UFCU’s mission and strategic priorities into actionable, quantitative growth plans

• Possesses high levels of energy, persistence, initiative, and ownership in developing new markets and strategic relationships

• Rigorously holds self and others accountable for achieving high levels of individual, departmental, and organizational performance

• Strong project management, opportunity management, negotiation support, and executive presentation skills

Business Acumen

• Expert knowledge of business development, strategic partnerships, market expansion, relationship development, and community engagement principles

• Strong understanding of financial services, credit union business models, member growth strategies, and community-based partnership opportunities

• Ability to evaluate decisions in terms of business impact, member value, market opportunity, operational feasibility, risk, and long-term strategic alignment

• Strong analytical capability with the ability to use market intelligence, CRM data, pipeline reporting, and performance metrics to inform decisions and communicate progress

• Combination of technical knowledge, business acumen, organizational leadership, and relationship-building skills

• Combination of business acumen, relationship expertise, and organizational leadership skills

Core Competencies

• Delivering Member Obsession

• Seeks to understand customers

• Identifies customer service issues

• Drives member-focused practices

• Assures member satisfaction

• Delivering Performance Excellence

• Maintains focus

• Measures progress and outcome

• Ensures accountability

• Delivering Innovation

• Inspires curiosity

• Challenges current thinking

• Supports experimentation

• Advances ideas to the next stage

• Delivering Empowered Leadership

• Develops direction

• Builds team trust

• Identifies opportunities to share responsibility

• Informs the team

• Supports the team

Experience

Minimum Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Marketing, Communications, Finance, Public Administration, Organizational Leadership, or a related field; Experience considered in lieu of degree

• Minimum of ten (10) years of related experience in business development, strategic partnerships, market development, relationship management, community engagement, financial services, or a related discipline

• Minimum of seven (7) years of management and supervisory leadership experience developing and leading teams with direct reporting relationships

• Demonstrated experience identifying, cultivating, and advancing new business, community, institutional, or strategic partnership opportunities

• Demonstrated experience building pipeline, managing prospects, developing market-entry strategies, and executing strategic growth initiatives

• Experience developing executive-level relationships and representing an organization with senior external stakeholders, community leaders, or institutional decision-makers

• Must be bondable

Preferred Requirements

• Master's degree in Business Administration, Organizational Leadership, Marketing, Finance, Public Administration, or related field

• Minimum of five (5) years of demonstrated strategic leadership experience

• Experience working in a credit union or financial services organization

• Experience developing partnerships with higher education, healthcare, employer groups, nonprofit organizations, public sector entities or community-based institutions

• Experience developing relationships within the higher education ecosystem or healthcare/medical district environments

• Experience with CRM platforms, pipeline management, market analytics, partnership performance reporting, proposal development, or strategic account planning

Physical Demands

The physical demands described are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Frequent

• While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to sit; use hands to finger, handle or feel; reach with hands and arms; and talk or hear.  

• Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, peripheral vision, and ability to adjust focus.  

• Employee will make extensive use of the telephone and virtual communications requiring the ability to explain complex information effectively and accurately. 

• Frequent travel to prospective partner locations, community events, business meetings, conferences, and UFCU facilities may be required.

Work Environment

The work environment characteristics described are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job.

• This position is required to frequently work at UFCU Plaza in Austin, Texas, as well as UFCU facilities, prospective partner locations, community events, and market-facing engagements throughout UFCU’s service areas.

• This position may involve periodic stressful conditions.

• May occasionally require an adjusted work schedule, overtime, and evening/weekend hours to support events, market development activities, and prospective partner engagements.

• Will frequently involve public contact, requiring appropriate professional appearance and executive-level communication.

• Frequent computer use at a workstation for multiple hours at a time.

• The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate.