Strategic Partnerships Lead

Mill is all about answering a simple question: how can we prevent waste? Less waste can save time, money, energy, maybe even our planet. And there’s no better place to start than food. Food waste is one of the most solvable climate problems facing us today. Plus, our trash really stinks. It’s gross, heavy, and our least favorite chore. At Mill we are striving to build a better environment for all, as we take on climate and kitchen change.

As the newest member of our Corporate Business Development & Partnerships team, you will play a critical role in launching and scaling new business lines, products, and partnerships at Mill. You’ll bring a proven track record of building “first-of-their-kind” partnerships, scaling corporate partnerships and helping to commercialize innovative technologies. This is a highly strategic and externally facing role that requires exceptional judgment, creativity, and the ability to navigate ambiguity. You’ll work across industries—real estate, waste, sustainability, and beyond—to identify new revenue-generating opportunities and bring them to life.

You’ll join a top-tier team of professionals from Apple, Nest, Google, and other industry leaders, helping to shape the growth trajectory of a climate-forward company with strong mission alignment.

Key Responsibilities

• Strategic Partnerships: Identify, develop, and close innovative business and channel partnerships that unlock new lines of revenue and accelerate adoption of Mill’s food waste solution.
• Opportunity Origination: Build a robust pipeline of high-impact opportunities through research, networking, prospecting, and creative outbound initiatives.
• Deal Structuring & Execution: Drive complex negotiations and structure deals from concept to contract with a focus on long-term value creation.
• Partner Success: Create the partner success playbook for our highly strategic and curated partners to ensure deals from origination to launch are a success
• Cross-functional Collaboration: Partner closely with product, legal, policy, and operations teams to deliver creative solutions for prospective partners and customers.
• External Advocacy: Represent Mill at industry events and in strategic conversations with potential partners, regulators, or collaborators.
• Feedback Loop: Surface market feedback to inform product development, pricing models, and future roadmap priorities.

Who You Are

• Experienced Operator: 5 years in business development, strategic partnerships, or corporate development with a focus on launching new initiatives or entering new markets.
• Entrepreneurial Closer: You’ve built and closed complex partnerships or deals from the ground up—ideally for products or services in sustainability, climate tech, or B2B environments.
• Strategic Thinker: You’re deeply analytical, detail oriented, a creative problem solver, and comfortable navigating ambiguous, unstructured environments with sound judgment. 
• Connector: You have a strong network and a proven ability to open doors, build relationships, and influence senior stakeholders across industries like real estate, sustainability, waste, and operations.
• Collaborative Teammate: You thrive working cross-functionally in fast-moving teams, and you’re a clear communicator who can bring others along.
• Mission-Aligned: Passion for climate, sustainability, and waste reduction is core to your worldview and work.

Why You’ll Love It Here

• Opportunity to build market-defining products that solve one of the planet’s biggest environmental challenges.
• Work with a best-in-class, mission-driven team.
• High degree of ownership and scope for innovation.
• Competitive compensation and benefits.

This role is based out of our San Bruno location and in-office 3 days/week. 

The annual US salary range for this role is $135k - $185k. For sales roles, the range provided is the role’s On Target Earnings ("OTE") range, meaning that the range includes both the sales commissions/sales bonuses target and annual base salary for the role,which also does not include the value of benefits or a potential equity grant. A wide range of factors are considered in making compensation decisions, including but not limited to skill sets, market conditions, experience and training, licensure and certifications, and business and organizational needs.