Partnerships Manager Jobs in Arizona

Contract Type: Independent Contractor

Location: Arizona-based preferred; significant in-state travel required

Focus Area: Tribal Nations, urban Native communities, nonprofit partners, and culturally responsive behavioral-health referral relationships

About Us

We are building a mission-driven continuum of care designed to help individuals stabilize, heal, develop practical skills, and return to their communities with a path toward long-term independence.

Through our nonprofit and community partnerships, we support a full continuum that may include:

• Residential treatment
• Outpatient and step-down services
• Care coordination and case management
• Vocational training and employment readiness
• Job-placement support
• Transportation and "white-glove" navigation services to help people access care, benefits, housing resources, employment, and other essential supports

Our approach is centered on dignity, cultural respect, clinical integrity, and durable outcomes—not volume-driven admissions.

The Opportunity

We are seeking an experienced, highly ethical Contract Business Development Manager with established, trusted relationships across Arizona Tribal Nations, Native-serving organizations, urban Indian health networks, and community-based nonprofits.

This individual will help us develop respectful, community-led partnerships that connect eligible individuals to appropriate services while ensuring our organization operates with complete transparency and compliance. The role is not a sales role in the conventional sense. It is a relationship-development, partnership-building, and community-stewardship role.

The ideal candidate understands that tribal communities are sovereign communities with unique cultures, histories, health systems, leadership structures, and priorities. They know that trust must be earned over time and that services must be shaped with—not imposed upon—the communities they are intended to support.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain respectful relationships with tribal health departments and behavioral-health programs; tribal leaders and community stakeholders; Indian Health Service and tribally operated health programs; urban Indian health organizations; Native-serving nonprofits and community-based organizations; and tribal courts, reentry programs, family-service organizations, and other appropriate referral partners.
• Help identify unmet service needs and potential collaboration opportunities across Arizona, including rural, reservation-based, and urban Native communities.
• Represent our organization accurately, professionally, and with cultural humility in community meetings, partner discussions, and outreach activities.
• Coordinate introductions and partnership discussions with our leadership, clinical, compliance, and operations teams.
• Help establish ethical referral pathways, memoranda of understanding, and communication processes that are appropriate for each partner organization and community.
• Support the development of culturally responsive outreach materials and partnership strategies.
• Provide practical guidance on transportation barriers, community resource navigation, continuity of care, family engagement, and post-treatment support.
• Help ensure that clients who are appropriate for our services are connected to the right level of care and, when needed, to our broader nonprofit partner network for outpatient care, vocational training, employment support, and recovery resources.
• Maintain clear documentation of partnership activity, community feedback, and follow-up commitments.

Ethics, Compliance & Client Protection

We are explicitly committed to preventing the harmful and fraudulent practices that have affected behavioral-health services, including in Native American communities.

This contractor must share and uphold the following principles:

• No patient brokering. We do not pay or accept compensation tied to patient referrals, admissions, length of stay, utilization, or insurance reimbursement.
• No misleading outreach. Services, eligibility, benefits, transportation, housing assistance, and employment support must be described truthfully and clearly.
• No coercion or inducement. We do not use cash, gifts, inappropriate incentives, or misleading promises to influence a person's treatment decision.
• Clinical appropriateness first. Referrals must be based on individual need, informed consent, and the appropriate level of care—not payer source or revenue potential.
• Respect for tribal sovereignty. We engage tribal governments and tribal entities through proper channels and honor their policies, leadership, and decision-making authority.
• Privacy and confidentiality. All activities must comply with applicable privacy, consent, and health-information requirements.
• Transparent contracting. Compensation is structured around legitimate business-development and partnership work—not referrals or admissions—and is subject to compliance review.
• Accountability. Any concern involving suspected fraud, exploitation, improper recruitment, unethical referral conduct, or client harm must be reported immediately through our compliance process.

Required Qualifications

• Demonstrated experience developing relationships with Tribal Nations, Native-serving organizations, tribal health systems, or urban Indian health organizations in Arizona.
• Established professional network among relevant Arizona community, nonprofit, tribal health, behavioral-health, or social-service stakeholders.
• Strong understanding of cultural humility, tribal sovereignty, and the importance of community-guided partnership development.
• Experience in behavioral health, substance-use treatment, health care, social services, workforce development, housing, or related fields.
• Excellent interpersonal communication, follow-through, presentation, and relationship-management skills.
• Ability to travel throughout Arizona, including rural and remote communities.
• Strong ethical judgment and willingness to work within formal compliance, privacy, and documentation standards.
• Ability to work independently as a contractor while collaborating closely with organizational leadership.

Preferred Qualifications

• Lived experience in a Native community and/or demonstrated longstanding service to Native communities.
• Prior work with Indian Health Service, tribally operated health programs, tribal behavioral-health systems, or Arizona's American Indian Health Program.
• Experience building partnerships for residential treatment, outpatient behavioral health, recovery support, vocational training, employment services, or reentry programs.
• Familiarity with AHCCCS and behavioral-health referral systems.
• Experience with nonprofit partnerships, community outreach, or government-to-government engagement.

Compensation

This is a contract role with compensation based on scope of work, experience, geographic coverage, and measurable partnership-development deliverables. Compensation will never be tied to referrals, admissions, census, reimbursement, or length of stay.

How to Apply

Please submit:

• A résumé or professional biography
• A brief statement describing your experience building trusted partnerships with Tribal Nations, Native communities, Native-serving organizations, or related community organizations
• A description of the Arizona regions and professional relationships you are qualified to support
• Two to three professional references
• A short statement confirming your commitment to ethical, non-referral-based business-development practices

We welcome candidates who believe that effective care begins with trust, respect, accountability, and a genuine commitment to helping people rebuild stable, healthy, self-directed lives.

Pay: $1,500.00 - $5,000.00 per month

Application Question(s):

• Which Arizona Tribal Nations, tribal health programs, urban Indian health organizations, or Native-serving nonprofits have you worked with directly? Please name them and briefly describe your role with each.
• Which Arizona regions can you actively cover, and how often can you travel to rural or reservation communities?
• How have you been compensated in previous business-development or outreach roles — salary, commission, per-referral, or per-admission? Compensation in this role is never tied to referrals or admissions.
• Briefly describe one partnership you built in a Native community and how long it took to establish trust. Two or three sentences is enough.

Work Location: On the road