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Job Category
Sales
Job Details
About Salesforce
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Slack is the AI-powered platform for work. As agents, automations, and third-party integrations become central to how teams operate, Slack’s ecosystem is scaling rapidly—and the partnerships function needs to scale with it. We’re looking for a Director of Business Development to set ecosystem strategy, build and lead a growing team, and drive the operating rhythms that keep the partnership function performing at the pace the platform demands.
This is a leadership role with immediate strategic weight. You’ll define the KPIs and strategy for Slack’s ecosystem partnerships, own the operating cadences, and represent the function in executive and cross-functional forums. You’ll also engage directly on high-stakes partner negotiations when the deal complexity or relationship warrants it. The right person combines deep ecosystem experience with the judgment to operate independently at the executive level and the instinct to build durable teams and systems, not just close deals.
Your Impact
Strategic Partnership Leadership
- Set the partnership strategy and commercial framework for Slack’s AI, agent, and ISV ecosystems—including the approach to tier-one partner relationships across LLM providers, agent platforms, and infrastructure partners.
- Lead the commercial strategy for Slack’s API monetization efforts, including partner pricing architecture, contract structures, and capacity-based models for the MCP ecosystem.
- Engage directly on complex, high-visibility partner negotiations that require executive-level judgment, sophisticated stakeholder management, or creative deal structuring.
- Represent the ecosystem function in executive rooms, cross-functional leadership forums, and partner-facing settings with authority and precision.
Platform Ecosystem Strategy
- Shape the strategy for how third-party MCP servers become discoverable to Slackbot, working with product and engineering to define the partner connectivity model.
- Drive the ISV-to-Slackbot strategy: define which partners light up in the orchestration layer, how they get there, and what the partnership and commercial terms look like.
- Lead the go-to-market and partner strategy for “Add Agent to Slack” as a new deployment and distribution surface for the ecosystem.
- Identify structural gaps in the platform and craft partner-driven solutions—balancing near-term launch execution with longer-term ecosystem architecture.
Operating Cadence & Metrics
- Own the ecosystem team’s operating rhythm: pipeline reviews, partner health tracking, launch readiness, and executive reporting.
- Define and maintain the metrics framework for ecosystem performance—distinguishing platform adoption signals from commercial traction and communicating each clearly to leadership.
- Build the analytical rigor to support investment cases, headcount planning, and resource allocation as the team scales.
Team Building & Leadership
- Manage and develop a growing BD team, starting with senior individual contributors driving platform and partner execution.
- Build the leadership bench for the ecosystem function—hiring, developing talent, and creating the structure to support expanded scope.
- Set the quality bar for partner engagement, deal craftsmanship, and cross-functional collaboration across the team.
- Serve as a force multiplier: the person who can carry strategic context, make decisions, and move work forward when the team lead is not in the room.
Cross-Functional Influence
- Partner with stakeholders across Slack product, platform engineering, AppExchange, AgentExchange, and GTM teams to align on roadmap priorities and ecosystem leverage points.
- Act as a thought leader on the AI partner landscape, competitive ecosystem dynamics, and what they mean for Slack’s platform strategy.
- Contribute to and drive strategy sessions, internal readouts, and investment cases with insight, clarity, and a point of view.
Requirements
- 10+ years in business development, strategic partnerships, or platform strategy, with at least 3 years in a leadership or senior leadership capacity.
- Experience in SaaS, AI, developer platforms, or cloud ecosystems. Background in marketplace or platform-centric business models strongly preferred.
- Track record of leading complex, high-stakes deal cycles and building new commercial models (e.g., rev shares, embedded experiences, ecosystem monetization, API pricing).
- Demonstrated ability to operate independently at the executive level—representing a function, making judgment calls, and influencing outcomes in senior forums.
- Strong product sensibility and comfort navigating technical conversations around APIs, agent frameworks, MCP, and platform architecture.
- Familiarity with the generative AI landscape: LLM providers, agent orchestration, and the infrastructure layer that supports them.
- Experience building, managing, and developing high-performing BD or partnerships teams.
- Exceptional communication skills—able to build business cases, tell partner stories, and distill complexity for executive audiences.
- Ability to structure and analyze the quantitative impact of partnerships on the business, and to translate that analysis into investment rationale.
- In-depth experience leading cross-functional initiatives across product, engineering, legal, finance, and marketing.
Nice to Have
- Direct experience with platform monetization strategy or API pricing at scale.
- Background in sales, customer support, or developer tool ecosystems.
- Prior work building a BD or partnerships function from early stage through scaling.
- Experience working within or alongside a marketplace organization (AppExchange, AWS Marketplace, Shopify, etc.)
Unleash Your Potential
When you join Salesforce, you’ll be limitless in all areas of your life. Our benefits and resources support you to find balance and be your best, and our AI agents accelerate your impact so you can do your best. Together, we’ll bring the power of Agentforce to organizations of all sizes and deliver amazing experiences that customers love. Apply today to not only shape the future — but to redefine what’s possible — for yourself, for AI, and the world.
Accommodations
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In the United States, compensation offered will be determined by factors such as location, job level, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. Certain roles may be eligible for incentive compensation, equity, and benefits. Salesforce offers a variety of benefits to help you live well including: time off programs, medical, dental, vision, mental health support, paid parental leave, life and disability insurance, 401(k), and an employee stock purchasing program. More details about company benefits can be found at the following link: https://www.salesforcebenefits.com.Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance and the Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring, Salesforce will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.
At Salesforce, we believe in equitable compensation practices that reflect the dynamic nature of labor markets across various regions. The typical base salary range for this position is $197,300 - $313,700 annually. In select cities within the San Francisco and New York City metropolitan area, the base salary range for this role is $237,700 - $344,700 annually. The range represents base salary only, and does not include company bonus, incentive for sales roles, equity or benefits, as applicable.