Distribution Channel Manager

About the Role

The Distribution Channel Manager is the primary relationship owner and business driver for a dedicated portfolio of third-party distributors in the EMEA region, working with partners to execute our indirect sales strategy and achieving high-volume growth.

The role is responsible for transforming assigned distributors into a motivated, skilled, and self-sufficient sales engine. This includes day-to-day partner engagement, joint business planning, sales enablement and training, pipeline development and monitoring, and ensuring partners are fully equipped to succeed. This is a hands-on, commercially driven role that relies on strong relationship-building and influence to deliver results.

The role focuses on managing strategic partnerships and driving business growth through effective planning and execution. This includes overseeing the commercial relationship with assigned distributors, ensuring revenue targets are met, and implementing joint business plans with clear sales and adoption goals. Regular performance reviews, pipeline calls, and quarterly business reviews help track progress and identify new opportunities. Acting as the voice of the partner within the organization, the role ensures issues are resolved promptly and compliance with ethical standards is maintained.

Additionally, the position emphasizes enabling partner sales teams through training, motivation, and incentive programs to prioritize company solutions. It involves managing accurate sales pipelines and forecasts, collaborating on demand and supply planning, and supporting pricing and contract renewals. The role also coordinates marketing campaigns with partners to maximize ROI and serves as the first point of escalation for post-sales issues, ensuring smooth operations and customer satisfaction.

We operate a hybrid working policy that requires a minimum of 2 days per week in the Oxford office.

About You

To be successful in this role, you will ideally have/be:

Essential:

• Significant experience in channel sales, distribution management, or business development, preferably within the publishing, EdTech or IT sectors.
• Proven experience managing third-party distributors and a quantifiable track record of meeting or exceeding sales targets.
• Strong commercial acumen with a clear understanding of channel economics, partner margins, and incentive structures.
• Confident and compelling presenter and trainer.

Desirable:

• Experience working in a high-volume, transactional sales environment.
• Proficiency with CRM systems (e.g., Salesforce) for pipeline and forecast management.
• Experience in the local education market with pre-existing relationships.

Benefits

We care about work/life balance here at OUP. With this in mind we offer 25 days’ holiday that rises with service, plus bank holidays and Christmas closure (3-days) and a 35-hour working week. We are open to discussing flexibility in respect to working patterns, dependent on role. We also have a great variety of active employee networks and societies.

We help make your money go further by contributing to your pension up to 12%, offering loans and savings schemes through our partnership with Salary Finance, in addition to travel to work schemes and access to a wide range of local discounts.

This role comes with the added benefit of a discretionary annual payment.

Please see our Rewards and Recognition page for more information.

We are committed to supporting diversity in our workforce, and ensuring an inclusive environment where all individuals can thrive. We seek to employ a workforce representative of the markets that we serve and encourage applications from all.