Senior Autonomous Vehicle Partnership Manager

Lyft Lyft · Consumer · New York, NY +1 · AV & Fleet Operations

This role focuses on managing and growing partnerships within the autonomous vehicle (AV) sector for Lyft. The Senior Autonomous Vehicle Partnership Manager will be responsible for end-to-end commercial relationships, negotiating terms, identifying growth opportunities, and ensuring partner success. The role requires strong communication, cross-functional collaboration, and a deep understanding of commercial deal structures within the mobility and technology industries.

What you'd actually do

  1. Be the person partners trust to get things done — owning the commercial relationship for 1–2 active AV partnerships end-to-end as Lyft's primary external point of contact
  2. Maximize the value of each partnership by steering commercial terms, negotiating amendments, and proactively identifying opportunities to expand scope and scale over time
  3. Drive commercial momentum by running partner working sessions that negotiate and clarify terms, ensuring the right people are in the room, the agenda drives decisions, and follow-through is clear
  4. Keep a relentless grip on commercial milestones and contractual commitments, flagging risks early and resolving issues before they become problems
  5. Protect Lyft's contractual position by managing commercial reporting obligations under active partnership agreements, ensuring commitments are met on time and to a high standard

Skills

Required

  • 7+ years of experience in strategic partnerships, business development, or account management, ideally in mobility, automotive, or technology
  • Demonstrated track record of owning senior-level commercial relationships with complex, multi-party stakeholders
  • Strong commercial instincts — able to understand complex deal structures, identify risks, and negotiate effectively
  • Excellent cross-functional collaboration skills; comfortable driving alignment across legal, finance, product, and operations teams without direct authority
  • Executive-level written and verbal communication skills; able to represent Lyft professionally in high-stakes partner settings
  • Highly organised with the ability to manage multiple active partnerships simultaneously without losing precision on the details
  • Genuine curiosity about the AV industry and appetite to develop deep expertise in a fast-moving space

Nice to have

  • Experience with master framework agreements, technology deployment agreements, or similar long-form commercial structures is a plus
  • Existing relationships in the AV, OEM, or mobility ecosystem are a plus

What the JD emphasized

  • owning complex, multi-stakeholder commercial relationships end-to-end
  • strong communicator who can operate confidently at the executive level both internally and externally
  • coordinate across a wide range of internal teams — legal, finance, product, operations — without formal authority
  • uphold a high quality bar
  • strong appreciation for the commercial details that make or break a partnership
  • builder who takes genuine pride in the quality of your partner relationships and the outcomes they deliver