Director of Strategic Partnerships & Alliances

vCluster Labs • San Francisco, CA

80d • $280,000 - $320,000 • Remote

About The Position

As a Director of Strategic Partnerships & Alliances at vCluster, you aren’t just managing relationships; you are architecting our ecosystem’s gravity. Sitting at the high-stakes intersection of Sales, Product, and the emerging neo-cloud landscape, you will be a key contributor to our market dominance by building a world-class partner motion that scales as we define the Kubernetes virtualization category.

Your Role and Impact:
Neo-Cloud Ecosystem Engineering: Own the ultimate outcome: partner-sourced revenue and measurable consumption. You will transform our opportunistic touchpoints into a disciplined, high-performance engine, focusing on next-gen platforms like CoreWeave, Lambda, Crusoe, and Nebius.
Strategic Alliance Mastery: Lead executive-level engagement with emerging cloud platforms and managed Kubernetes providers. You will focus on building sophisticated joint GTM plans that ensure vCluster is the foundational standard for AI-native infrastructure.
AI Literacy & Augmentation: Naturally integrate AI-native workflows to automate routine partner management tasks, brainstorm co-marketing at scale, and accelerate GTM delivery. You will demonstrate the ability to structure complex queries for LLMs to extract high-value market intelligence while maintaining a "human-in-the-loop" approach to ensure brand alignment.
The Revenue-Partner Bridge: Lead the alignment between "ecosystem interest" and "closed-won deals." You will collaborate closely with Sales, SEs, and Marketing to identify high-leverage distribution opportunities that drive high-impact pipeline and consumption.
Disciplined Execution: Manage diverse partnership tasks—from establishing lightweight tracking and reporting to identifying whitespace opportunities across next-gen providers—with a "value over volume" mentality.

Requirements

• 8+ years in Partnerships, Alliances, or Ecosystem roles within cloud, infrastructure, or developer platforms.
• Experience scaling partner motions from zero-to-one during periods of rapid growth.
• Direct experience working with or within neo-cloud providers and managed Kubernetes platforms.
• Proven track record of driving actual revenue (not just relationship management).
• Willingness to abandon legacy "hyperscaler-only" partnership models in favor of a modern, scrappy, and builder-oriented approach that prioritizes alternative cloud ecosystems.
• Ability to anticipate future trends in AI-native infrastructure and identify complex co-sell entry points with innovative solutions.

Nice To Haves

• Background in using data and analytics to track ecosystem health, marketplace motions, and partner-sourced pipeline velocity.
• Familiarity with the CNCF landscape.
• Experience working alongside industry leaders like VAST Data, Weka, or platform specialists.
• Thrive in environments that reject "manual" relationship management and prefer a modern stack where you can solve the partnership puzzle through automation, continuous AI discovery, and executive-level alignment.

Responsibilities

• Own the ultimate outcome: partner-sourced revenue and measurable consumption.
• Transform opportunistic touchpoints into a disciplined, high-performance engine, focusing on next-gen platforms like CoreWeave, Lambda, Crusoe, and Nebius.
• Lead executive-level engagement with emerging cloud platforms and managed Kubernetes providers.
• Build sophisticated joint GTM plans that ensure vCluster is the foundational standard for AI-native infrastructure.
• Integrate AI-native workflows to automate routine partner management tasks, brainstorm co-marketing at scale, and accelerate GTM delivery.
• Structure complex queries for LLMs to extract high-value market intelligence while maintaining a "human-in-the-loop" approach to ensure brand alignment.
• Lead the alignment between "ecosystem interest" and "closed-won deals."
• Collaborate closely with Sales, SEs, and Marketing to identify high-leverage distribution opportunities that drive high-impact pipeline and consumption.
• Manage diverse partnership tasks—from establishing lightweight tracking and reporting to identifying whitespace opportunities across next-gen providers—with a "value over volume" mentality.

Benefits

• Competitive compensation package, including equity.
• Health, dental, vision, and life Insurance, including plans for you and eligible dependents (benefits vary depending on country).
• Flexible Working Schedule.
• Workplace Flexibility.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director
• Education Level: No Education Listed