Corporate Development & Alliances Director

Fortinet•Sunnyvale, CA

About The Position

Fortinet is seeking a highly strategic and execution-oriented Director, Corporate Development & Alliances to help drive the company’s strategic growth agenda across strategic alliances and M&A. This role will be responsible for identifying and developing high-value strategic relationships, building relationships with the venture capital, investment banking and corporate communities and understanding the networking and cybersecurity landscape, to build a “pipeline” of both strategic alliance and M&A opportunities, evaluating opportunities, shaping strategy, and helping drive complex strategic initiatives from concept through execution with a focus on contributions to growth. The Director will work closely with executive leadership and cross-functional teams including Product, Engineering, Sales, Finance, Legal, and HR to identify opportunities that strengthen our competitive position, accelerate innovation, and create long-term business value.

Requirements

Proven ability to drive trackable meaningful contributions to growth from both strategic alliances and corporate development initiatives.
Significant experience in corporate development, strategic alliances, corporate development, strategy, technology partnerships, investment banking, private equity, venture capital, or a related field.
Demonstrated experience building and managing strategic relationships with technology companies, partners, founders, venture capitalists, investors, and senior executives.
Experience evaluating and executing M&A transactions, including target identification, diligence, valuation, and transaction execution.
Strong understanding of enterprise technology markets; experience in cybersecurity, networking, cloud, infrastructure, or AI is strongly preferred.
Strong strategic, financial, and commercial acumen.
Excellent analytical, negotiation, communication, and executive presentation skills.
Ability to work effectively across Product, Engineering, Sales, Finance, Legal, HR, and executive leadership.
Comfortable operating as a senior individual contributor who can independently lead complex initiatives and relationships.
Strong bias for action and ability to move seamlessly between strategy, relationship building, analysis, and execution.

Responsibilities

Identify and develop strategic relationships with leading and emerging technology companies across AI, cloud, cybersecurity, networking, infrastructure, and adjacent markets.
Build and manage relationships with strategic alliance partners such as ServiceNow, OpenAI, NVIDIA, AI companies, hyperscalers, key GSIs, and other key ecosystem players.
Coordinate as appropriate WW efforts related to top strategic alliance partners
Develop opportunities for technology integrations, co-innovation, joint solutions, go-to-market initiatives, strategic investments, and other forms of collaboration.
Drive trackable growth contributions from top strategic alliance partners
Identify and evaluate new markets, technologies, partnerships, business models, and other strategic growth opportunities.
Partner closely with Product and Engineering teams to identify external technologies and companies that could accelerate the product roadmap or create differentiated customer value.
Identify opportunities for joint solutions, new routes to market, co-innovation, and broader strategic collaboration.
Work closely with Sales and Channel leadership to ensure strategic partnerships translate into measurable business outcomes.
Support the development and execution of the company’s M&A strategy based on business priorities, technology trends, competitive dynamics, and capability gaps.
Proactively identify, assess, and cultivate potential acquisition targets.
Build relationships with founders, executives, venture capitalists, investors, bankers, and other participants across the technology ecosystem.
Lead strategic and financial analysis of potential acquisitions, including business case development, valuation, market assessment, and strategic fit.
Coordinate cross-functional diligence and work closely with Finance, Legal, Product, Engineering, HR, and other stakeholders throughout the transaction process.
Support deal structuring, negotiation, and preparation of materials for executive leadership and the Board.
Help drive post-acquisition execution, including integration planning, governance, organizational alignment, synergy tracking, and performance against the original acquisition thesis.