Director, Analyst Relations

Kestra Technologies•New York, NY

2d•Remote

About The Position

Kestra is seeking a Director, Analyst Relations to build and lead our analyst relations program as the company scales into the enterprise. This is the senior-most analyst relations role at Kestra: you own the function, the firm relationships, and the budget behind them. You will shape how the analysts who influence enterprise orchestration decisions understand and position Kestra, across Gartner, Forrester, IDC, GigaOm, Omdia, and the firms enterprise buyers consult before they shortlist. You report to the Head of Marketing and work directly with the CEO and founders on how the company is perceived in the market. This is a senior individual-contributor role with no direct reports at the outset and the opportunity to build a team as the program matures. At this stage, the analyst narrative and the company narrative are one and the same. Universal orchestration is an emerging category, and the way analysts frame it is still taking shape. You will help define it and establish Kestra at its center, while protecting the developer credibility on which Kestra is built: the enterprise narrative must reach the economic buyer without compromising the trust of the open-source community.

Requirements

A proven track record of owning an analyst relations program end to end, including multiple Gartner Magic Quadrant and/or Forrester Wave cycles managed from submission through placement. Typically 7+ years in analyst relations or product marketing.
Established relationships with the analysts and firms that shape this market, including Gartner and Forrester.
Fluency in the enterprise infrastructure and data landscape — orchestration, automation, DevOps, or IT operations — and the analysts who cover it.
Exceptional writing: you turn technical depth into a narrative that holds up with both an economic buyer and a senior engineer.
Executive presence and sound judgment in preparing senior leaders for high-stakes analyst engagements, with the discipline to manage detailed evaluation processes directly.

Responsibilities

Lead analyst engagement
Own and develop relationships with the analysts and firms covering orchestration, data, infrastructure and IT automation, and AIOps.
Manage analyst briefings, inquiries, and advisory sessions on a consistent cadence.
Own analyst firm contracts and budget, and direct how that investment is allocated.
Serve as the internal authority on each covering analyst's focus areas, perceptions, and engagement history.
Shape the narrative
Develop Kestra's analyst-facing narrative, aligned to company strategy, product direction, and go-to-market priorities.
Drive the category framing in analyst research, ensuring Kestra is represented in the evaluations most relevant to enterprise buyers.
Translate the product roadmap into a narrative that is credible to the economic buyer and respected by the technical practitioner.
Synthesize analyst conversations into intelligence on market shifts and competitive dynamics, and share it with the positioning, go-to-market, and product teams.
Manage evaluations and reports
Lead Kestra's participation in Gartner Magic Quadrants, Forrester Waves, Market Guides, MarketScapes, and analyst Radars.
Own submissions, demonstrations, proof points, customer references, timelines, and cross-functional coordination.
Incorporate the feedback from each evaluation into stronger positioning for the next.
Enable executives and sales
Prepare executives for analyst interactions with briefing materials, anticipated questions, positioning guidance, and follow-up summaries.
Equip the sales organization with analyst validation — quotes, rankings, and proof points — for use in active enterprise opportunities.