Director of OEM Relations

AutoZone•Elk Grove, CA

11h•Hybrid

About The Position

The Director, Global OEM Relations is a senior, highly strategic leadership role responsible for developing, negotiating, and managing ALLDATA’s global relationships with automotive OEMs. This position owns OEM engagement strategy worldwide, including commercial negotiations, long-term contract management, and partnership evolution aligned to ALLDATA’s business objectives. The Director serves as the primary executive interface to OEM partners, building trusted, long-standing relationships across functional areas within OEM organizations, including product, engineering, legal, licensing, and strategy teams. The role requires deep industry insight, strong negotiation capabilities, and the ability to influence internal and external stakeholders based on competitive intelligence, legislative and regulatory understanding, and financial analysis. This leader plays a critical role in shaping ALLDATA’s product and data strategy by translating OEM dynamics, market conditions, regulatory changes, and competitive pressures into actionable business and product guidance. The Director collaborates closely with Product, Legal, Finance, Sales, Marketing, and Executive Leadership to ensure OEM strategies support long-term growth, profitability, and market leadership.

Requirements

Master of Business Administration (MBA) preferred.
Minimum of ten to fifteen years of experience in OEM relations, strategic partnerships, licensing, or related automotive/technology roles.
Demonstrated success in global OEM negotiation, contract management, and strategic relationship leadership.
Strong capability in executive-level negotiation, influence, and long-term partnership development.
Proven ability to assess competitive dynamics and regulatory environments and translate insights into strategy.
Experience influencing product and business decisions based on external market and OEM intelligence.
Exceptional financial acumen, including contract economics, business case development, and long-term planning.
Outstanding communication, relationship-building, and executive presentation skills.
Ability to operate effectively across functions and levels, both internally and with external OEM partners.
Highly self-motivated, strategic, and comfortable operating in a complex, fast-paced, global environment.
Automotive industry experience is strongly preferred.

Responsibilities

Develop and execute ALLDATA’s global OEM engagement and partnership strategy in alignment with company objectives.
Establish, manage, and expand strategic relationships with OEMs worldwide, serving as the senior point of contact.
Build trusted networks across multiple functional groups within OEM organizations, including executive, legal, technical, and commercial teams.
Represent ALLDATA in strategic OEM discussions, industry forums, and collaborative initiatives.
Lead commercial negotiations and renewals of global OEM agreements, including licensing, data usage, and long-term partnership terms.
Oversee contract administration, compliance, and performance to ensure favorable financial and operational outcomes.
Partner closely with Legal and Finance to structure agreements that balance risk, cost, access, and long-term strategic value.
Continuously evaluate and improve contractual frameworks based on market shifts and regulatory developments.
Monitor global automotive and technology trends, including OEM strategies, competitive offerings, and emerging market dynamics.
Maintain a strong understanding of legislative and regulatory environments impacting OEM data access, use, and distribution.
Translate competitive and regulatory insights into executive-level recommendations that influence business strategy and product direction.
Provide clear, actionable market intelligence to leadership teams to inform long-range planning.
Influence product strategy and roadmap decisions based on OEM capabilities, constraints, and competitive positioning.
Work cross-functionally with Product, Engineering, Sales, Marketing, Finance, Legal, and Operations to ensure OEM considerations are integrated into planning and execution.
Align internal stakeholders around OEM priorities, risks, opportunities, and financial implications.
Support go-to-market strategies where OEM relationships materially impact product positioning or customer value.
Conduct financial analysis related to OEM agreements, including cost structures, ROI, and long-term value creation.
Support multi-year planning by assessing OEM partnership trajectories and potential impacts to margins and growth.
Identify opportunities to optimize OEM-related costs while preserving strategic access and competitive advantage.
Initially, the position has 1 in-direct report, the OEM contract Administrator. Vertically oriented Business Development Managers will be added as vertical opportunities, products and potential customers are quantified.