John Crane, a business of Smiths Group, is a global leader in mission-critical flow control solutions for energy and process industries that enable efficient and sustainable operations. Our products include mechanical seals and systems, couplings, bearings, filtration systems, and predictive digital monitoring technologies.
We have a global network of more than 200 sites in over 50 countries and employ more than 6,000 people worldwide. We partner with our customers to help them keep their operations safe, reduce downtime, improve efficiency, and meet the latest environmental standards.
John Crane is part of Smiths Group. For over 170 years, Smiths has been pioneering progress by engineering for a better future. We serve millions of people every year, helping to create a safer, more efficient, productive, and better-connected world across four global markets: energy, security & defence, space & aerospace, and general industrial. Listed on the London Stock Exchange, Smiths employs approximately 16,000 colleagues in over 50 countries
John Crane is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to crafting an inclusive environment for all employees.
Job Description
We are looking for an experienced and strategic leader to shape and deliver our global channel partner and sales enablement strategy. This is a high-impact role responsible for designing and implementing industry-leading programmes that accelerate partner performance, enhance seller productivity, and drive sustainable business growth across a global organisation.
Working closely with senior stakeholders across Sales, Marketing, Training, Product, Finance, Legal, Procurement and IT, you will lead the development of a world-class channel ecosystem, creating the frameworks, tools, governance and enablement required to maximise partner success. You will also lead a team responsible for channel programmes, enablement content and sales capability, ensuring a consistent and scalable approach across all regions.
The successful candidate will combine strategic thinking with strong execution skills, bringing expertise in channel programme development, sales enablement, partner engagement and cross-functional leadership.
Key Responsibilities
- Define and lead the global strategy for sales enablement and channel partner programmes, ensuring alignment with business objectives and industry best practice.
- Partner with the Global Channel Sales Director to develop a channel strategy that balances global consistency with regional market requirements.
- Design, launch and manage the global channel partner programme, including partner segmentation, tiering, accreditation criteria, measurement frameworks and reporting.
- Define partner value propositions, benefits and incentive structures that encourage the desired partner behaviours and growth outcomes.
- Establish governance frameworks for partner reward programmes and Market Development Fund (MDF) investments, including application, approval, claims management and ROI measurement.
- Lead the selection, implementation and ongoing roadmap of a global sales and channel enablement platform, managing vendor relationships and driving user adoption.
- Develop the global enablement strategy and content framework to improve seller productivity, partner engagement and win rates.
- Direct the creation of partner-facing playbooks, sales guides and industry-specific enablement materials focused on key growth sectors including Mining, Chemicals, Pharmaceuticals and New Energy.
- Partner with Training, Product and Service teams to build and deliver partner onboarding, capability development and certification programmes.
- Assess capability gaps across the partner ecosystem and define learning pathways to address development needs.
- Own the end-to-end channel programme lifecycle, from strategy development and business case creation through to global rollout, adoption and value realisation.
- Build strong cross-functional relationships across Sales, Marketing, Product Management, Pricing, Finance, Legal and IT to deliver a seamless global programme.
- Drive regional adoption of channel programmes and ensure partner feedback is incorporated into future programme development.
- Monitor programme effectiveness through defined KPIs, analysing partner engagement, programme performance and return on investment to identify improvement opportunities.
- Lead, coach and develop a high-performing team consisting of the Channel Programme Lead, Sales Enablement Manager and Enablement Content Lead.
- Extent experience in Channel
- Strong strategic thinking and planning skills with ability to plan over 5-year time span
- Extensive Senior stakeholder management experience
- Strong team management skills
- Ability to work cross-functionally in dynamic and flexible environment Bachelor's degree ideally in business/marketing
- Demonstrated track record of executing channel programmes, preferably in an industrial B2B environment, and be comfortable interfacing with internal/external partners
- Must have a high degree of written and verbal communication and presentation skills in English
- Must have the ability to work cross-functionally in a dynamic and flexible environment.
With colleagues stretching across the globe, we are proud of our diversity. To foster inclusivity, we run employee resource groups (ERGs) to provide a safe space for employees to connect and support each other. Our cross-business ERGs include Veterans, Pride Network, Black Employee Network, Women@Work Network, and Neurodiversity.
Across our company, we recognize excellence, culminating in the Smiths Excellence Awards, our annual celebration of the most extraordinary activities, people, and projects that best showcase our strengths and help drive our business forward. We announce these on our annual Smiths Day, a global celebration of Smiths around our network.
Join us for a great career with competitive compensation and benefits, while helping engineer a better future.
We believe that different perspectives and backgrounds are what make a company flourish. All qualified applicants will receive equal consideration for employment regardless of color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, economic status, disability, age, or any other legally protected characteristics. We are proud to be an inclusive company with values grounded in equality and ethics, where we celebrate, support, and embrace diversity.
At no time during the hiring process will Smiths Group, nor any of our recruitment partners ever request payment to enable participation – including, but not limited to, interviews or testing. Avoid fraudulent requests by applying jobs directly through our career’s website (Careers - Smiths Group plc)
Skills Required
- Extensive experience in channel management and channel programme development
- Strong strategic thinking and planning skills, including the ability to plan over a five-year period
- Extensive senior stakeholder management experience
- Strong team management skills
- Ability to work cross-functionally in a dynamic and flexible environment
- Bachelor's degree, ideally in business or marketing
- Demonstrated track record of executing channel programmes, preferably in an industrial B2B environment
- Experience interfacing with internal and external partners
- Strong written, verbal communication, and presentation skills in English
What We Do
For over 170 years, Smiths Group has been pioneering progress by engineering a better future. We serve millions of people every year, to help make the world safer, more energy efficient and productive, and better connected, across four global markets: Energy, General Industrial, Safety & Security, and Aerospace & Defence. Listed on the London Stock Exchange, Smiths employs more than 15,000 colleagues in over 50 countries. For more information visit www.smiths.com. We're looking for people with curious minds. Who want responsibility and relish a challenge. Whether you're an experienced professional or just starting out, our global scale and focus on growth means we have some great career opportunities for you. There's never been a better time to join Smiths.
