Partner Director - French Speaking

About CitySwift

CitySwift is the world’s leading intelligent data platform for public transport, supporting data-driven decision-making for some of the largest transport operators and authorities globally. Our platform helps cities and operators optimise performance, improve reliability, and deliver better outcomes for passengers.

We are in a strong growth phase, backed by over €15m in venture funding, with customers including National Express, Go-Ahead Group, Transport for London and other major operators worldwide. CitySwift currently supports over 3 billion passenger journeys annually, with a mission to increase sustainable public transport usage across cities globally.

The Role

We are hiring a Partner Director to anchor CitySwift’s presence in Mainland Europe and support our first French operator partnerships.

This is a foundational, operator-facing leadership role. You will work closely with transport operators and organising authorities to shape early partnerships, build trust, guide adoption of CitySwift’s platform and ensure early customers achieve clear operational and strategic value.

You will partner closely with a small local sales presence, CitySwift’s product, solutions and delivery teams, and senior leadership. As our footprint in France grows, this role is expected to evolve in scope and responsibility.

What You’ll Do

Operator & Authority Partnerships

• Act as the senior CitySwift representative for French transport operators and authorities
• Build trusted, peer-level relationships with executive, commercial, strategy and performance leaders
• Lead early partnership discussions, shaping engagement models aligned to operator realities and priorities
  
  

Early Account Leadership

• Support the development of CitySwift’s first French customer accounts, from initial engagement through onboarding value delivery
• Help define success criteria with customers, grounded in performance, reliability, cost, and service quality outcomes
• Act as an escalation point for early partnerships, ensuring issues are addressed quickly and constructively
  
  

Insight-Led Engagement

• Bring deep understanding of public transport operations, performance regimes, contracts, and incentives into customer conversations
• Translate operator challenges into clear use cases for CitySwift’s platform
• Provide structured feedback from operators into product and solution development
  
  

Cross-Functional Coordination

• Work closely with Sales to support deal shaping, credibility-led selling, and early reference building
• Partner with Product, Solutions and Delivery teams to ensure implementations are realistic, effective, and aligned with operator needs
• Help de-risk early deployments through pragmatic planning and operator-informed decision-making
  
  

Foundational Market Building

• Help position CitySwift as a credible, long-term partner in the French public transport ecosystem
• Contribute to shaping CitySwift’s long-term go-to-market approach for France and similar operator-led markets
• Support early forecasting, opportunity qualification, and partnership prioritisation as the market develops

Post-deal customer success & partnership growth

• Define and align clear success criteria with operators, grounded in measurable performance, reliability, cost and service-quality outcomes
• Support onboarding and early adoption, ensuring customers realise tangible value quickly and build confidence in CitySwift as a long-term partner
• Monitor usage, impact metrics and customer health indicators to proactively identify risks, improvement opportunities and value realisation
• Collaborate with Sales and Solutions to support renewals and strategic growth discussions, helping early partnerships expand over time
• Act as a senior escalation point for French customers, ensuring issues are resolved constructively and relationships remain strong
• Represent the voice of the French operator within CitySwift, feeding structured insights into product, delivery and go-to-market evolution

 

What We’re Looking For

Essential

• Significant experience working inside or closely with public transport operators or authorities
• Strong understanding of public transport operations, performance management, and commercial frameworks
• Proven ability to engage confidently with senior stakeholders in complex, regulated environments
• Fluent French and English
• Comfortable operating in an early-stage, ambiguous environment with evolving structure
  
  

Highly Desirable

• Experience in operator commercial, strategy, performance, or transformation roles
• Exposure to transport data, analytics, planning, or performance optimisation tools
• Experience supporting or shaping bids, tenders, or strategic partnerships
• Familiarity with SaaS or data platforms (direct or indirect)