Sr Dir Business Development - 90397545 - Washington/Philadelphia/Wilmington/New York

Your success is a train ride away!

As we move America’s workforce toward the future, Amtrak connects businesses and communities across the country. We employ more than 20,000 diverse, energetic professionals in a variety of career fields throughout the United States. The safety of our passengers, our employees, the public and our operating environment is our priority, and the success of our railroad is due to our employees.

Are you ready to join our team?

Our values of ‘Do the Right Thing, Excel Together and Put Customers First’ are at the heart of what matters most to us, and our Core Capabilities, ‘Building Trust, Accountability, Effective Communication, Customer Focus, and Proactive Safety & Security’ are what every employee needs to know and do to be most impactful at Amtrak. By living the Amtrak values, focusing on our capabilities, and actively embracing and fostering diverse ideas, backgrounds, and perspectives, together we will honor our past and make Amtrak a company of the future.

This position can be located in either Washington DC, Philadelphia PA, Wilmington DE, or New York NY.

SUMMARY OF DUTIES:

The Sr Director and Head of the Business Development Office will spearhead Amtrak’s Business Development (BD) Office, proactively identifying, structuring, and executing private partnership opportunities that unlock non-core revenue, reduce operating costs, or enable flexible capital funding. 

This role will be responsible for delivering a partnership portfolio that targets at least $10M in incremental revenue in Year One, with a goal of scaling significantly to accelerate Amtrak’s progress towards operational profitability.

This role involves leading the deal-making process from initial market engagement through contract execution, managing relationships with prospective private partners, coordinating across internal functions, briefing the executive team, and engaging external stakeholders. Ongoing operational management of finalized partnerships is owned by relevant functional teams and falls outside the scope of this role.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS:

The Sr Director , Head of the BD Office is responsible for leading end-to-end oversight of the deal-making process, including:
• Pipeline management and team resourcing
      o    Owns and actively manages full partnership pipeline, filtering hundreds of early-stage ideas through a structured process (diligence, partner engagement, internal approvals) to yield 5-20 high-impact signed partnerships annually. 
      o    Prioritizes and shortlists pipeline of partnership opportunities, allocating team capacity to maximize impact and delivery. 
      o    Integrates Amtrak’s Five Year Plan and additional strategic objectives into prioritization of partnerships
• Opportunity identification:
      o    Oversees identification of hundreds of potential partnership opportunities that unlock non-core revenue, reduce operating costs, or enable flexible capital funding, including constant market scanning and collecting ideas across the Amtrak organization.
      o    Performs preliminary assessment of potential impact, strategic fit, and market viability.
• Deal structuring:
      o    Along with team, develops potential deal structures, including outlining desired partner capabilities and identifying potential risks.
      o    Oversees comprehensive financial modeling of analyst team, including rigorous sensitivity analyses and scenario planning, to assess both estimated financial impact and risk exposure.
• Go-to-market strategy and execution:

      o     Leads the development and execution of go-to-market strategies
      o    Oversees the development of compelling engagement and pitch materials to communicate partnership opportunities effectively.
      o    Conducts market reachouts and integrates market feedback to refine partnership strategies.
      o    Manages the end-to-end Requests for Information (RFIs) process, including development of materials, coordination across internal functions, and timely responses.
      o    Manages the end-to-end Request for Proposal (RFP) process, including development of materials, selection of evaluation criteria, coordination across internal function, and timely engagement with prospective partners.
      o    Drives direct deal negotiations with prospective partners, aligning on value propositions, pricing, and contract terms.
• Partnership evaluation and partner selection:
      o    Defines evaluation criteria for external proposals and partners.
      o    Leads evaluation of external proposals and partners.
      o    Owns final partner recommendation and selection.
      o    Facilitates finalization of partnerships up to contra