Partner Manager, Cloud Service Provider Partnerships

OpenAI OpenAI · AI Frontier · San Francisco, CA · Product Partnerships

This role focuses on managing and scaling strategic partnerships with major cloud service providers to increase the availability and adoption of OpenAI's models. The Partner Manager will lead day-to-day partnership execution, develop business plans, facilitate customer access to OpenAI models through cloud providers, and manage senior-level relationships. The role requires strong cross-functional leadership, commercial judgment, and a deep understanding of cloud provider ecosystems.

What you'd actually do

  1. Lead OpenAI’s work with major cloud providers, setting priorities with product, engineering, sales, finance, legal, policy, and marketing and driving the work to measurable results.
  2. Own the business plan for each cloud provider relationship: where we should show up, which customers and use cases matter most, and how the partnership should grow usage, revenue, and reach.
  3. Make it easier for customers to use OpenAI models through their cloud provider by coordinating work across APIs, model serving, security, compliance, identity, billing, reliability, and support.
  4. Build practical sales and launch plans with cloud providers, including marketplace listings, private offers, field training, customer targets, joint marketing, and clear paths for teams to work together.
  5. Bring customer and partner feedback back to OpenAI so product, engineering, and leadership understand what is needed to make cloud distribution successful.

Skills

Required

  • 12+ years of experience in business development, partnerships, product, sales strategy, or similar roles in cloud infrastructure, AI platforms, developer platforms, or enterprise software.
  • Experience owning important relationships with major cloud providers, cloud marketplaces, platform partners, or other complex enterprise technology partners.
  • Clear understanding of how cloud providers sell and operate, including marketplaces, private offers, consumption-based revenue, sales incentives, partner programs, cloud commitments, and enterprise procurement.
  • Enough technical fluency to work credibly with product and engineering teams on APIs, model serving, security, compliance, identity, networking, reliability, and support.
  • Strong cross-functional leadership; able to translate between executives, product and engineering teams, enterprise sales, legal, finance, policy, marketing, and partner teams.
  • Strong commercial judgment and comfort making decisions with incomplete information.
  • Excellent communication and relationship-building skills, with the presence to work with senior leaders inside OpenAI and at cloud providers.

Nice to have

  • Experience working inside or closely with a major cloud provider, AI infrastructure company, developer platform, or high-growth enterprise technology company is strongly preferred.

What the JD emphasized

  • major cloud service providers
  • scale our models' availability and use
  • partnerships that accelerate adoption
  • unlock new capabilities
  • extend OpenAI’s platform
  • customer and business impact
  • broader model access
  • faster launches
  • clearer buying paths
  • stronger adoption by enterprises and developers
  • owning prominent external relationships
  • closing high-quality partnerships
  • turning agreements into reliable launches
  • strong user experiences
  • sustained impact
  • product-focused, high judgment senior operator
  • record of getting complex partnerships over the line
  • know how cloud providers work
  • how their sales and marketplace channels reach customers
  • how technical and commercial decisions affect adoption
  • move fast
  • can context-switch easily
  • can motivate both external executives and internal teams
  • set clear priorities
  • run tight execution
  • deliver results
  • Lead OpenAI’s work with major cloud providers
  • setting priorities with product, engineering, sales, finance, legal, policy, and marketing
  • driving the work to measurable results
  • Own the business plan for each cloud provider relationship
  • where we should show up
  • which customers and use cases matter most
  • how the partnership should grow usage, revenue, and reach
  • Make it easier for customers to use OpenAI models through their cloud provider
  • coordinating work across APIs, model serving, security, compliance, identity, billing, reliability, and support
  • Build practical sales and launch plans with cloud providers
  • including marketplace listings, private offers, field training, customer targets, joint marketing, and clear paths for teams to work together
  • Bring customer and partner feedback back to OpenAI
  • so product, engineering, and leadership understand what is needed to make cloud distribution successful
  • Run senior partner meetings and operating reviews
  • including roadmap reviews, business updates, joint planning, escalations, and follow-through on decisions
  • Build simple playbooks and metrics that help OpenAI manage cloud partnerships well as the work scales
  • 12+ years of experience in business development, partnerships, product, sales strategy, or similar roles in cloud infrastructure, AI platforms, developer platforms, or enterprise software
  • Experience owning important relationships with major cloud providers, cloud marketplaces, platform partners, or other complex enterprise technology partners
  • Clear understanding of how cloud providers sell and operate
  • including marketplaces, private offers, consumption-based revenue, sales incentives, partner programs, cloud commitments, and enterprise procurement
  • Enough technical fluency to work credibly with product and engineering teams on APIs, model serving, security, compliance, identity, networking, reliability, and support
  • Strong cross-functional leadership
  • able to translate between executives, product and engineering teams, enterprise sales, legal, finance, policy, marketing, and partner teams
  • Strong commercial judgment and comfort making decisions with incomplete information
  • Excellent communication and relationship-building skills
  • with the presence to work with senior leaders inside OpenAI and at cloud providers
  • Experience working inside or closely with a major cloud provider, AI infrastructure company, developer platform, or high-growth enterprise technology company is strongly preferred