Alliance Manager

Be part of a growing, successful company in an exciting and challenging field. Border States is 100% employee-owned, which means you’re empowered to make decisions, find solutions and receive rewards for your hard work.

This position will be located in: Pewaukee, WI ,or Fargo, ND

Application Deadline: September 3, 2026

Please note that the position may be filled before or after the listed application deadline. Applications will only be accepted while the posting remains active.

Job Summary

The Alliance Manager provides vision and strategic direction while working closely with the company’s alliance customers. This role oversees and coordinates activities that drive innovation, continuous improvement, and customer satisfaction. It aligns and leverages both branch and corporate resources to support customer development, project implementation, integration, and long-term retention.
The Alliance Manager also formulates and communicates plans to improve customer business processes in key areas such as procurement, logistics, operations, technology, and finance. The role is responsible for building and maintaining strong, long-term relationships with alliance customers, while ensuring sales growth, profitability, and a strong return on investment.

Responsibilities

Essential Functions

• Collaborates with regional and branch leadership with emphasis on building a strong team in the spirit of the company values and culture including coaching, communicating and delegating responsibilities. 
• Leads the development and implementation of annual plans and establishes long-term goals and direction with the regional management for assigned alliance accounts.
• Collaborates with company sourcing, engineering and customer standards to ensure lowest total cost and supply chain continuity for the alliance customer.
• Leads local involvement of supplier diversity efforts.
• Leads, advises, and actively participates in the proposal process which includes, strategizing, planning, resource and financial budgeting, implementation and management for new and existing alliance customers.
• Develops high level management relationships with existing and prospective alliance accounts.
• Communicates with company management on overall relationship with alliance customer, stays abreast of market trends, and monitors competitive situations.
• Actively participates in the analysis and decision-making for problem resolution. 
• Identifies and removes barriers between corporate and branch to meet alliance customer requirements.
• Ensures there is agreement compliance, customer satisfaction, relationship and process integration, core team communication and follow through for assigned alliance customers.
• Seeks out and identifies performance and internal relationship concerns and reports those concerns to executive management and develops issue resolution.
• Facilitates executive meetings, negotiations, contract renewals and addendums.
• Prepares and implements short-term objectives and action plans to support overall satisfaction and retention of alliance customers, company and customer strategies, sales development, demand forecasting, proposal coordination, presentations, financial projections, cross market strategies, and measurement tools for assigned alliance customers.
• Drives and promotes the development of new supply chain solutions, systems, technology, methods, ideas, innovations and procedures that ensure retention and overall effectiveness and efficiency in serving alliance customers.
• Provides projected revenue input to the Regional Management to assist with formulation of branch Fiscal Year budget and monitors actual performance for assigned alliance customers. 

Non-essential Functions

• Drives customer alliance meetings, sales meetings and trade shows and acts as a coordinator for major events.
• Acts as a corporate customer advocate and performs the duties of the corporate representative for alliance core teams as assigned. 
• Adheres to FY budgetary objectives, and provides accurate, timely documentation of expenses, and other information as requested.
• Performs other duties as assigned by supervisor or designate.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or the equivalent in work experience, required.
• Prior management or supervisory experience preferred
• 5 years of prior marketing, business development, supply chain, operations or sales experience preferred.
• 5 years of prior distribution experience preferred. 
• Strong knowledge of electrical distribution experience preferred. 
• Ability to read, write and speak in English required.
• Strong working knowledge of PC for Windows, Microsoft Office (Excel, Word and PowerPoint), internet, and email. 
• Working knowledge of SAP software. 

Skills and Abilities

• Technical ability to understand electrical systems 
• Excellent interpersonal, written and verbal communication, and reading. 
• Ability to effectively plan and organize.
• Excellent customer service skills include being competent, accurate, responsive and engaged.

Physical Requirements

Frequency at which you would carry/lift in a typical day:
Occasionally 0 – 33% Frequently 34 – 66% Continuously: 67 – 100%

• Lift from Waist:
  • < than 10 lbs. - Not at all
  • 10 to 25 lbs. - Not at all
  • 26 to 50 lbs. - Not at all
  • 51 to 75 lbs. - Not at all
  • 75 to 100 lbs. - Not at all
  • 100+ lbs. - Not at all
• Lift from Floor:
  • < than 10 lbs. - Frequently
  • 10 to 25 lbs. - Frequently
  • 26 to 50 lbs. - Occasionally
  • 51 to 75 lbs. - Not at all
  • 75 to 100 lbs. - Not at all
  • 100+ lbs. - Not at all
• Carried for Distance:
  • < than 10 lbs. - Not at all
  • 10 to 25 lbs. - Not at all
  • 26 to 50 lbs. - Not at all
  • 51 to 75 lbs. - Not at all
  • 75 to 100 lbs. - Not at all
  • 100+ lbs. - Not at all

Physical Activity

Frequency at which you would do the following in a typical day:

• Sitting (a continuous period of being seated) - Continuously
• Standing (for sustained periods of time) - Frequently
• Walking (moving about on foot to accomplish tasks) - Frequently
• Bending/stooping (downward and forward) - Occasionally
• Crawling (moving about on hands and knees or hands and feet) - Not at all
• Climbing/Walking Stairs (ascending or descending) - Frequently
• Reaching (extending arms in any direction) - Frequently
• Crouching/squatting (bending the body downward and forward by bending leg and spine) - Occasionally
• Kneeling (bending legs at knee to come to rest on knee(s)) - Occasionally
• Balancing (maintaining body equilibrium to prevent falling) - Occasionally
• Repetitive motion (substantial movement (motions) or the wrists, hands, and/or fingers) - Continuously
• Pivoting (movement in any direction with one foot, keeping the other in contact with the floor) - Occasionally
• Pushing/Pulling (using upper extremities to press against or draw or tug) - Occasionally
• Grasping (Applying pressure to an object with the fingers and palm) - Continuously
• Fingering (picking, pinching, typing; working with primarily fingers and not whole hand) - Continuously
• Talking (expressing or exchanging ideas by means of the spoken word) - Continuously
• Driving (the control and operation of a motor vehicle) - Occasionally
• Desk work (work usually performed at a desk) - Continuously
• Use of a computer - Continuously
• Use of a telephone - Continuously
• Hearing (Perceiving the nature of sounds at normal speaking levels) - Continuously
• Exposure (to adverse weather & temperature conditions) - Occasionally
• Travel (travel needed to perform job duties) - Occasionally

Additional Information

This job description is a summary of the job duties and responsibilities and is not intended to cover all possible job duties and is subject to change at the employer’s discretion. Employees must be able to perform the essential job duties and satisfy job requirements either with or without a reasonable accommodation.

Our History

Border States is a leader in the electrical supply distribution industry with approximately 130 locations in 31 states. Our employee-owners are second to none in delivering top-notch customer service and in demonstrating extra-ordinary people skills. We are one of the largest independent electrical distributors in the United States providing products and services to the construction, industrial and utility industries. Border States has a competitive benefit package and is a 100 percent employee-owned company. Employee-ownership is a significant part of our culture and our success stems from the dedication of our employee-owners. We practice open-book management and our employee-owners are empowered with clearly defined levels of authority to be innovative and decisive, allowing us to respond quickly to the needs of customers. Employee-owners understand their roles in the success of the company and care about customers’ needs, which drives our focus on adding value to everything we do. We recognize that not all customers are the same and each has specific requirements. Our employee-owners understand these diverse needs and have the commitment, resourcefulness and flexibility to outperform all others.

Values
As a Border States employee-owner, you’re responsible for living our mission, service philosophy and service standards.

Our Purpose
We believe unstoppable businesses shouldn't go it alone. We are owners - of relationships, of outcomes, of every moment these unstoppable businesses need to deliver.

Service Philosophy
We earn customer loyalty and confidence by caring about their needs and adding value to everything we do.

Service Standards
Border States employee-owners are competent, accurate, responsive, and engaged .

Your career
Join an experienced team at one of the largest electrical distributors in the United States. What are you waiting for?

Border States has a competitive benefits package which includes but is not limited to:

Health, Dental and Vision Benefits
Accident, Critical Illness, Hospital Indemnity
FSA & HSA
Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP)
Disability Benefits
401(k) Retirement Plan
Life Insurance
Employee Assistance Program
Paid Holidays
Paid Volunteer Time
Personal Leave time and more!
Border States provides bonuses to their employee-owners upon the achievement of branch and company goals.

Equal Opportunity For All

It’s not just the law. It’s something we’ve believed in since our founding. We value the diversity of all of our employee-owners and will always be an equal opportunity employer.

Drug Free/Smoke Free workplace

Employment may be contingent on the offered candidate successfully passing one or more of the following pre-employment screenings:

• Criminal background check (required for all positions)
• Motor Vehicle Record (MVR) check (required for positions involving driving)
• Drug testing

The MVR check and drug testing vary by role and will be communicated to the offered candidate during the onboarding process and as applicable.