Partner Sales Director (Strategic Alliances, North America)

Quick Facts

• Role: Partner Sales Director for IBM co-sell initiatives across North America

• Focus: Strategic partnership GTM, joint business planning, co-selling execution, and production adoption

Description

Own IBM’s North America co-sell execution and measurable contribution to partnership growth by translating global alliance strategy into a prioritized regional business plan and repeatable field execution. Drive qualified pipeline, closed business, and sustained production adoption in partnership with sales, technical, and delivery leaders—especially across complex and regulated enterprises. Establish governance, engagement models, enablement, and cross-functional alignment to remove technical, contractual, compliance, and operational blockers.

Responsibilities

• Own North America partner sales and GTM with IBM: regional strategy, executive alignment, joint planning, pipeline growth, customer outcomes, delivery-readiness coordination, escalation, and long-term expansion

• Develop and execute a North America joint business plan with account/industry priorities, investments, decision rights, milestones, and measures of success

• Build trusted relationships across IBM consulting/technology, industry and regional leadership, alliance teams, client leaders, sales organizations, architects, and delivery leaders

• Translate executive priorities into repeatable field execution: account mapping, opportunity qualification, co-selling, solution development, technical engagement, delivery handoffs, and escalation

• Shape joint solutions and industry plays combining OpenAI capabilities with IBM consulting, technology, hybrid cloud, data, security, governance, and delivery strengths

• Lead joint account planning and strategic customer pursuits with IBM and OpenAI field teams across North America, with particular focus on complex and regulated enterprises

• Create an engagement model for OpenAI sellers and technical teams, including when to involve IBM, how opportunities are qualified, who owns each step, and how channel conflict is resolved

• Partner with Product, Engineering, Solutions, Security, Legal, Finance, and Commercial teams to support complex customer engagements and remove blockers

• Build IBM North America field and delivery readiness via executive sponsorship, sales enablement, technical training, reusable solution patterns, and disciplined delivery handoffs

• Establish regional governance: executive business reviews, pipeline inspection, forecasting, milestone tracking, performance reporting, and escalation

• Own and track agreed North America commercial targets across qualified partner-sourced and co-sell pipeline, conversion to closed business, OpenAI revenue/consumption, and production adoption (with clear attribution and no double counting)

• Align resource priorities with OpenAI sales and technical leaders for North America opportunities with the greatest strategic value, commercial potential, customer impact, delivery readiness, and repeatability

• Represent OpenAI in senior partner, customer, and industry engagements with executive presence and sound judgment

• Build the regional operating model and identify team capacity needed to scale the IBM partnership across North America

Requirements

• Significant experience leading strategic alliances, GSI, or advisory partnerships, ecosystem sales, business development, or enterprise go-to-market programs in AI, cloud, data, SaaS, or enterprise technology

• Direct experience working with IBM and deep familiarity with IBM’s North America organization, consulting and technology businesses, incentives, decision-making networks, commercial model, and enterprise delivery motions

• Proven record converting strategic partnerships into qualified pipeline, closed business, and production adoption with evidence of personal contribution

• Experience designing and scaling joint operating models across large, matrixed organizations (governance, account planning, incentives, staffing, delivery handoffs, escalation)

• Demonstrated success advancing complex C-suite enterprise transformation opportunities from strategy through production deployment

• Strong executive presence and credibility with senior IBM and customer leaders while staying close to operating details

• Commercial judgment: investment prioritization, opportunity qualification, and forecast management

• Technical fluency across enterprise AI, cloud and hybrid environments, data platforms, integration, security, governance, risk, and modern application architectures

• Strong cross-functional leadership ability to align Sales, Solutions, Product, Engineering, Security, Legal, Finance, Marketing, and Operations without direct authority

• Experience building partner enablement, joint solutions, industry plays, and scalable field engagement models across North America

• Comfort operating in ambiguity and creating structure, accountability, and momentum in a rapidly evolving market

• Excellent written and verbal communication, negotiation, and executive presentation skills

Benefits

• Strategic, hands-on leadership owning measurable partnership outcomes across North America

• Build repeatable co-sell and delivery motions with executive governance, enablement, and scalable solution patterns

• Focus on customer value and responsible enterprise AI adoption