Director of Strategic Partnerships

🎯 Role Definition

The Director of Strategic Partnerships owns the strategy, execution, and lifecycle of high-impact alliances and channel relationships that drive top-line growth and strategic differentiation. This leader identifies, negotiates, and scales partnerships with technology vendors, channel partners, system integrators, enterprise customers, and strategic platforms; builds cross-functional go-to-market plans; manages contract and commercial terms; and measures partner contribution to business objectives. The role requires a mix of commercial rigor, strategic vision, operational discipline, and people leadership to turn partner ecosystems into predictable drivers of revenue and product adoption.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

Senior Manager / Head of Partnerships
Head of Business Development or Alliances
Senior Account Executive or Channel Sales Leader

Advancement To:

Vice President, Strategic Partnerships / Alliances
Head of Global Partnerships
Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) or Chief Revenue Officer (CRO)

Lateral Moves:

Head of Business Development
Product Partnerships / Platform Strategy Lead
Head of Channel Sales or Alliances Operations

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Develop and own the end-to-end strategic partnerships roadmap, including partner segmentation, GTM models, revenue targets, KPIs, and 12–36 month growth plans aligned to company objectives.
Identify, evaluate, and prioritize new strategic alliance opportunities (technology, channel, platform, OEM, reseller, ISV) using market research, competitive analysis, and customer insights to maximize ARR and strategic positioning.
Lead complex partner negotiations and commercial contracting, defining revenue share models, SLAs, joint marketing funding, co-sell motions, and legal/compliance guardrails to protect company interests and accelerate time-to-value.
Build and scale a high-performing partner management function: recruit, mentor, and lead partner managers, alliance leads, and enablement resources while establishing operating rhythms and performance incentives.
Design and implement repeatable go-to-market plays with partners (co-sell, co-market, referral, embedded integrations) including joint value propositions, pricing strategies, sales enablement, and pipeline acceleration tactics.
Serve as the executive sponsor for top-tier strategic partners, cultivating C-level relationships, facilitating quarterly business reviews, and ensuring mutual roadmap alignment to secure long-term commitments.
Drive joint demand generation programs with partners—co-branded campaigns, events, webinars, case studies, and account-based marketing—to generate qualified pipeline and measurable conversion metrics.
Establish and maintain partner performance measurement frameworks (revenue attribution, pipeline velocity, win rates, churn impact) and present actionable insights to executive leadership.
Lead cross-functional collaboration with Sales, Marketing, Product, Legal, Finance, and Customer Success to operationalize partnerships, resolve escalations, and optimize partner-led customer journeys.
Create partner enablement programs including certification tracks, sales playbooks, technical enablement, onboarding processes, and partner portals to minimize friction and maximize partner productivity.
Own partner onboarding and integration roadmaps for technical partnerships—define integration requirements, milestones, testing/QA processes, and post-launch support models to ensure a successful product experience.
Negotiate and manage reseller and distribution agreements, defining territory governance, discounting policies, performance tiers, and co-investment terms to scale channel coverage.
Translate partner feedback and market signals into product and roadmap recommendations; collaborate with Product and Engineering to prioritize integrations and features that unlock partner value.
Build financial models and business cases for partner investments, forecast partner-driven revenue, and manage P&L accountability for partnership programs and incentive budgets.
Design competitive partner tiering, benefits, and governance models that reward performance while protecting channel margins and company IP.
Lead renewal and upsell strategies within partner-influenced accounts to maximize lifetime value and reduce churn through coordinated joint account planning.
Manage partner-related risk, compliance, and contractual obligations, coordinating closely with Legal and Security teams to ensure data protection and contractual clarity.
Create executive-level reporting and narrative for the board and senior leadership on partner contributions, strategic risks, and investment priorities.
Pilot strategic alliance pilots and proof-of-value programs with minimal viable partnerships to validate business models and scale successful plays.
Represent the company externally at industry events, partner summits, and analyst meetings to raise brand awareness, recruit partners, and showcase joint customer successes.
Drive continuous process improvements across partner lifecycle management—SLA standardization, onboarding speed, deal registration, incentive disbursement, and reporting automation—to increase partner throughput and ROI.
Champion internal alignment and adoption of partner-first strategies within Sales, Support, and Product organizations to ensure partners are a predictable and primary GTM channel.

Secondary Functions

Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory data analysis.
Contribute to the organization's data strategy and roadmap.
Collaborate with business units to translate data needs into engineering requirements.
Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies within the data engineering team.
Maintain and optimize partner CRM workflows (e.g., Salesforce partner portals, PRM systems) to ensure accurate partner pipeline tracking and attribution.
Assist Legal and Finance with partner contract reviews, invoice reconciliation, and incentive payment processes.
Support partner marketing enablement by providing content briefs, success metrics, and case study coordination.
Facilitate cross-functional postmortems on partner deals and joint go-to-market initiatives to capture learnings and iterate on success patterns.
Coordinate partner training programs and onsite enablement sessions for field sales and technical teams.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

Partner strategy development and GTM planning
Contract negotiation and commercial structuring (revenue share, OEM, reseller agreements)
CRM and PRM mastery (Salesforce, HubSpot, PartnerStack or similar) and partner pipeline management
Financial modeling for partner economics, ROI analysis, and P&L ownership
Data-driven performance measurement (attribution, funnel analysis, partner KPIs) with experience in reporting tools (Tableau, Looker, Power BI)
SaaS metrics familiarity (ARR, ACV, CAC, LTV, churn, NRR)
Technical partner enablement skills (APIs, integrations, basic understanding of SSO, data flows, and integration testing)
Experience working with legal teams on commercial contracts, NDAs, and compliance requirements
Go-to-market orchestration across sales, marketing, product, and customer success
Experience designing partner enablement and certification programs

Soft Skills

Executive-level relationship building and stakeholder management
Strategic thinking with the ability to translate strategy into executable plans
Strong negotiation, persuasion, and influence skills
Cross-functional leadership and facilitation skills
Excellent written and verbal communication; comfortable presenting to C-suite and boards
Results-driven, metrics-oriented mindset with high attention to detail
Problem-solving aptitude and resilience in ambiguous environments
Coaching and people-development capabilities
Customer-centric orientation with the ability to advocate for partner and customer needs
Change management and organizational influence

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

Bachelor's degree in Business, Marketing, Finance, Computer Science, or related field (or equivalent professional experience).

Preferred Education:

MBA or advanced degree in Business, Strategy, or relevant discipline preferred.

Relevant Fields of Study:

Business Administration
Marketing
Finance / Economics
Computer Science / Engineering (for technical partnerships)
Strategic Management

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 8–15+ years of progressive experience in partnerships, alliances, business development, channel sales, or strategic account management.

Preferred:

10+ years in B2B technology partnerships (SaaS, cloud, enterprise software) with a proven track record of closing and scaling strategic alliances.
3+ years managing teams and leading cross-functional GTM programs.
Demonstrated success driving incremental revenue via partner channels, building partner ecosystems, and executing enterprise-level contracts.
Experience working with global partners, international GTM strategies, and complex stakeholder environments.