Business Development Director, Channel & Engagement Technology

Role Overview

CORA Loyalty seeks a seasoned Business Development Director to spearhead new business growth across North America, focusing on channel and engagement technology solutions. This role emphasizes building a qualified sales pipeline, advancing opportunities, and establishing a repeatable commercial sales process throughout the U.S. and Canada. It demands meaningful new customer acquisition responsibility rather than generic outbound or channel coordination duties.

Key Responsibilities

• Manage and grow a portfolio of target prospects across North America, accountable for pipeline generation, opportunity advancement, proposal quality, and winning new clients in the channel and engagement technology space.
• Serve as the commercial lead for assigned prospects, forging trusted relationships with diverse stakeholders including sales, channel management, HR, employee engagement, marketing, finance, procurement, and digital teams.
• Create and execute detailed opportunity plans encompassing client needs, use case specification, stakeholder analysis, competitive positioning, commercial strategies, pilot structures, proposals, negotiation pathways, and closing tactics.
• Drive disciplined performance in new business development with clear goals for pipeline qualification, forecasting accuracy, commercial advancement, and closures.
• Lead discovery sessions and commercial negotiations, positioning CORA Loyalty as a credible partner in employee rewards, channel incentives, and partner engagement technologies.
• Align closely with cross-functional teams such as product, delivery, client services, analytics, finance, and leadership to craft commercially viable and operationally realistic solutions.
• Identify and convert partner-supported or referral-based opportunities while maintaining a direct focus on North American new business growth.
• Contribute to market-building activities including sector targeting, strategic partnerships, use case refinement, and development of scalable sales assets and processes in North America.
• Support commercial negotiations and contract strategies in collaboration with leadership and relevant teams.
• Maintain rigorous CRM discipline documenting every live opportunity’s stage, ownership, next steps, commercial value, and timing.
• Ensure seamless transition from deal closure to onboarding with Client Services, preserving clear account leadership roles.
• Provide market feedback to enhance the company's offerings, packaging, pricing, and go-to-market strategies based on North American market insights.

Success Indicators

• North America maintains a robust, well-managed pipeline for channel and engagement technology with clear qualification and forecasting.
• Expanded stakeholder relationships across key prospects, especially large employers and channel-focused businesses in the U.S. and Canada.
• Opportunities are handled with commercial rigor, clear use cases, and defined closing plans.
• Consistent conversion of new clients supported by strong alignment and high-quality handoff to post-sale functions.
• Additional growth through partner, referral, and introduction leads enhances opportunity access without distracting from core development efforts.
• North American sales activities become more structured, commercially focused, and scalable over time.

Required Experience and Skills

• 7–10+ years in business development, commercial growth, consulting, or related functions within loyalty, rewards, incentives, HR tech, employee engagement, SaaS, MarTech, payments, commerce, or related tech-enabled services.
• Proven success in originating and closing deals involving multi-stakeholder buying groups in North America, or significant exposure to both U.S. and Canadian markets.
• Experienced in selling or shaping solutions related to employee engagement, channel incentives, partner engagement, sales performance, or B2B rewards.
• Capability to engage senior decision-makers and lead complex commercial discussions with strong judgment and presence.
• Demonstrated leadership in opportunity strategies coordinating across product, delivery, finance, legal, support, and leadership teams.
• Familiarity with commercial contracts, including MSAs, SOWs, pilots, pricing negotiations, procurement, security reviews, and contract discussions.
• Exposure to partner, reseller, channel, and alliance growth models with strategic discernment.
• High commercial acumen, excellent communication skills, and executive presence for demanding North American markets.
• Ability to operate independently, manage ambiguity, and prioritize across a broad territory with a lean team.
• Strong skills in CRM, pipeline management, forecasting, and reporting.
• Willingness to travel as needed across the U.S. and Canada.

Preferred Experience

• Background in channel incentives, employee rewards, partner engagement, sales performance, customer engagement, or loyalty technology.
• Industry experience with large employers in sectors like financial services, retail, travel, hospitality, telecoms, manufacturing, distribution, and automotive.
• Experience in an environment combining platform and services where both tech and strategic support drive value.
• Previous North American role, ideally with exposure to both U.S. and Canadian clients.
• French language skills are a plus but not mandatory.

Personal Characteristics

• Commercially astute without being reckless.
• Strategic thinker with attention to detail.
• Composed under pressure with sound commercial judgment.
• Respected by executives, delivery teams, and clients.
• Collaborative yet able to take ownership and decisive action.
• Ambitious to build new frameworks rather than just follow existing ones.

Additional Information

Business Unit: Carlson Marketing Solutions - Canada
Scheduled Weekly Hours: 37.5 hours/week
Number of Openings: 1
Worker Type: Regular, full-time, onsite position

About Jonas Software: Jonas Software delivers enterprise management solutions across a variety of verticals including hospitality, healthcare, construction, education, personal care, fitness, leisure, moving, and legal services. The company operates over 65 brands globally, serving more than 60,000 customers in 30+ countries with a workforce exceeding 6,000 professionals. Headquartered in Canada and wholly owned by Constellation Software Inc., Jonas emphasizes innovation, quality, and exceptional customer service.