How to hire an associate partner

How to hire an associate partner, step by step

Here's a step-by-step associate partner hiring guide:

• Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
• Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
• Step 3: Make a budget
• Step 4: Write an associate partner job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new associate partner
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

What does an associate partner do?

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   Before you post your associate partner job, you should take the time to determine what type of worker your business needs. While certain jobs definitely require a full-time employee, it's sometimes better to find an associate partner for hire on a part-time basis or as a contractor.

   Determine employee vs contractor status

   Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

   Yes

   No

   An associate partner's background is also an important factor in determining whether they'll be a good fit for the position. For example, associate partners from different industries or fields will have radically different experiences and will bring different viewpoints to the role. You also need to consider the candidate's previous level of experience to make sure they'll be comfortable with the job's level of seniority.

   This list presents associate partner salaries for various positions.

   Type of Associate Partner	Description	Hourly rate
   Associate Partner	Lawyers advise and represent individuals, businesses, and government agencies on legal issues and disputes.	$40-120
   Legal Counsel	A Legal Counsel supervises the legal aspects of a business. They give accurate and timely counsel to executives on a variety of legal topics, such as labor law, partnerships, or international ventures.	$38-103
   Legal Consultant	A legal consultant uses legal practice knowledge to enhance a law company's efficiency and profitability. Besides advising on the right solutions for customer productivity, marketing and development strategies, legal consultants also actively manage risks by consulting on program and legal-related issues... Show more	$19-66

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • Digital Transformation
   • Analytics
   • Cloud
   • Portfolio
   • Account Management
   • Client Relationships
   • Project Management
   • Business Development
   • Business Process
   • HR
   • Client Satisfaction
   • Healthcare
   • Pre Sales
   • Digital Marketing

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Lead services solution design for a medical image cloud computing solution to manage volume and improve disaster recovery.
   • Plan and manage the logistics around bi weekly team meetings, and bi annual team retreats.
   • Work closely with the CIO and business leads on timelines, documentation standards, and rollout processes.
   • Manage portfolio of projects for a financial institution, including archive messaging, cloud migration, reference data, compliance appl.
   • Lead development of security architecture policies and procedures for IBM security practice.
   • Develop a state-of-the-art content management architecture to manage and share content across multiple departments.

   More associate partner duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in your associate partner job description is a great way to entice the best and brightest candidates. An associate partner salary can vary based on several factors:

   • Location. For example, associate partners' average salary in hawaii is 54% less than in massachusetts.
   • Seniority. Entry-level associate partners earn 66% less than senior-level associate partners.
   • Certifications. An associate partner with a few certifications under their belt will likely demand a higher salary.
   • Company. Working for a prestigious company or an exciting start-up can make a huge difference in an associate partner's salary.

   Average associate partner salary

   $145,385yearly

   $69.90 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level associate partner salary

   $84,000 yearly salary

   Updated December 18, 2025

   Average associate partner salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	Massachusetts	$177,578	$85
   2	District of Columbia	$171,400	$82
   3	New Jersey	$170,731	$82
   4	New York	$170,689	$82
   5	California	$161,217	$78
   6	Connecticut	$157,026	$75
   7	Illinois	$149,937	$72
   8	Michigan	$143,996	$69
   9	Washington	$143,749	$69
   10	Florida	$140,096	$67
   11	Pennsylvania	$139,524	$67
   12	Ohio	$139,201	$67
   13	Minnesota	$133,219	$64
   14	Texas	$130,890	$63
   15	North Carolina	$129,345	$62
   16	Arizona	$128,111	$62
   17	Georgia	$126,337	$61
   18	Colorado	$121,347	$58
   19	Indiana	$120,850	$58
   20	Missouri	$117,707	$57

   Average associate partner salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	McKinsey & Company Inc	$237,590	$114.23	2
   2	A.T. Kearney	$224,020	$107.70
   3	Oliver Wyman	$220,567	$106.04
   4	Bain & Company	$215,070	$103.40
   5	King & Spalding	$199,818	$96.07
   6	Merck	$174,307	$83.80
   7	PayPal	$171,285	$82.35	2
   8	Uber Technologies	$170,871	$82.15
   9	Deutsche Bank	$170,057	$81.76	2
   10	IBM	$169,561	$81.52	349
   11	Hitachi Vantara	$163,849	$78.77
   12	Google	$163,258	$78.49	62
   13	Vista Equity Partners	$159,215	$76.55	2
   14	United Natural Foods	$158,943	$76.41	6
   15	CGN Global	$157,359	$75.65
   16	Applied Value Group	$156,773	$75.37
   17	Handy	$154,611	$74.33
   18	ORIX USA	$153,436	$73.77	1
   19	Goldman Sachs	$153,423	$73.76	4
   20	Tesla	$151,633	$72.90	10

4. Writing an associate partner job description

   A good associate partner job description should include a few things:

   • Summary of the role
   • List of responsibilities
   • Required skills and experience

   Including a salary range and the first name of the hiring manager is also appreciated by candidates. Here's an example of an associate partner job description:

   Associate partner job description example

   Schmidt Futures is a philanthropic initiative, founded by Eric and Wendy Schmidt, that bets early on exceptional people making the world better. We knit talent into networks, bet on the most promising ideas through diverse forms of competition and support, and equip people to scale through partners and modern tools. To realize this vision, Schmidt Futures uses a broad set of tools - including gifts, grants, investments, and startup activity - for charitable, educational, and commercial efforts with a public purpose. Our initiative brings together the efforts of various charitable and non-charitable entities to improve our potential impact by making diverse types of capital available to the efforts we support.
   
   The Partnerships function at Schmidt Futures focuses on equipping our programs, grantees, and network with the scaling capital to deliver on their ambitious goals. The function achieves this through three key activities: developing new communities of funders, including high-net-worth individuals, foundations, corporations, and family offices aligned to our work in science and society; brokering high-quality and long-term relationships and shared resources within these communities; and supporting grantees and programs to create and cultivate high-impact partnership strategies.
   The Role
   The Associate, Partnerships will be responsible for critical operations of the Partnerships team. In this role you will report to the Manager, Partnerships, and be tasked with building systems and processes that enable us to manage and cultivate a larger number of partnerships. In addition to this, you will source new partners and support grantees and programs to tackle priority partnership needs. The Associate, Partnership's role, will include:
   - Building systems, processes, and tools to surface partnership's needs and to manage existing partnerships.
   - Liaising with grantees and programs to surface and tackle priority partnership needs.
   - Mapping existing funders in our network and identifying clusters of potential partners.
   
   Key Responsibilities
   Create and maintain a systematic, process-driven approach to partner management Develop databases and systems to track engagement with existing partners and new leads.Launch initiatives to create regular touch points between existing partners and programs. Identify and source partnership opportunities through inbound lead follow-up and outbound outreach.
   Liaise with grantees and program leads to surface and solve live partnership needs Liaise with grantees and program leads to identify and track live partnership needs.Perform landscape analyses to identify potential opportunities for partnership as well as lessons learned from existing efforts in the field. Support the Manager, Partnerships to prioritize and solve partnership needs across the organization.
   Identify and map existing funders in our network and identify clusters of potential partners Engage with grantees to map existing co-funders in our network.Identify funder groups aligned to our programs.Map networks of potential partners and clusters of funding partners such as family offices and foundations.
   Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities Entrepreneurial ability to develop and execute self-designed initiatives. Ability to coordinate and triage numerous efforts across multiple stakeholders, partners, and portfolio teams.Demonstrated leadership ability and proven record of impact in high-intensity, team-based environments.Excellent verbal and written communication, with the ability to tailor communication to a wide range of stakeholders, and reasonable ability to use common software tools for word processing, presentation, and spreadsheets (especially Google Docs and Sheets).Strong relationship management skills.Exceptional problem-solving skills, for both conceptual and analytical problems.Values-based, collaborative working style with demonstrated commitment to the highest standards of ethics and confidentiality.
   Requirements Have 4 or more years of experience in business, government, consulting, project management, philanthropy, graduate school, or the military.Have a bachelor's degree or equivalent from an accredited institution.Be based at the Schmidt Futures offices in New York and be able to travel within the U.S. and internationally on a regular basis as needed following company policy and permitting circumstances.
   Futures Action Network, LLC, which operates Schmidt Futures, is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer that proudly pursues and hires a diverse workforce. We do not make hiring or employment decisions on the basis of race, color, religion or religious belief, ethnic or national origin, nationality, sex, gender, gender-identity, sexual orientation, disability, age, military or veteran status, or any other basis protected by applicable local, state, or federal laws or prohibited by Company policy. We strive for a healthy and safe workplace and strictly prohibit harassment of any kind.

   Copy this example

   

5. Post your job

   To find the right associate partner for your business, consider trying out a few different recruiting strategies:

   • Consider internal talent. One of the most important sources of talent for any company is its existing workforce.
   • Ask for referrals. Reach out to friends, family members, and current employees and ask if they know or have worked with associate partners they would recommend.
   • Recruit at local colleges. Attend job fairs at local colleges to recruit associate partners who meet your education requirements.
   • Social media platforms. LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter now have more than 3.5 billion users, and you can use social media to reach potential job candidates.

   Post your job online:

   • Post your associate partner job on Zippia to find and recruit associate partner candidates who meet your exact specifications.
   • Use field-specific websites.
   • Post a job on free websites.

6. Interview candidates

   Recruiting associate partners requires you to bring your A-game to the interview process. The first interview should introduce the company and the role to the candidate as much as they present their background experience and reasons for applying for the job. During later interviews, you can go into more detail about the technical details of the job and ask behavioral questions to gauge how they'd fit into your current company culture.

   You should also ask about candidates' unique skills and talents to see if they match the ideal candidate profile you developed earlier. Candidates good enough for the next step can complete the technical interview.

   The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.

7. Send a job offer and onboard your new associate partner

   Once you've decided on a perfect associate partner candidate, it's time to write an offer letter. In addition to salary, it should include benefits and perks available to the employee. Qualified candidates may be considered for other positions, so make sure your offer is competitive. Candidates may wish to negotiate. Once you've settled on the details, formalize your agreement with a contract.

   It's equally important to follow up with applicants who don't get the job with an email letting them know that the position has been filled.

   To prepare for the new employee's start date, you can create an onboarding schedule and complete any necessary paperwork, such as employee action forms and onboarding documents like I-9 forms, benefits enrollment, and federal and state tax forms. Human Resources should also ensure that a new employee file is created.

8. Go through the hiring process checklist

   • Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
   • Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
   • Define job responsibilities and requirements
   • Establish budget and timeline
   • Determine hiring decision makers for the role
   • Write job description
   • Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
   • Promote the job internally
   • Process applications through applicant tracking system
   • Review resumes and cover letters
   • Shortlist candidates for screening
   • Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
   • Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
   • Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
   • Conduct background checks on top candidates
   • Check references of top candidates
   • Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
   • Extend offer to top candidate(s)
   • Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
   • Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
   • Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
   • Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)

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