Strategic Partnerships Lead

About the role

Vercel is hiring a Strategic Partnerships Lead to develop first-of-a-kind partnerships that inflect the company's growth. Done well, these partnerships open distribution for our products, create new pipeline for our field teams, and/or add new capabilities to our platform. This is a highly cross-functional and technical role: you will spend as much time with product and engineering leaders as with commercial ones, both with partners and with Vercelians.

You will report to the Head of Strategic Partnerships and own a named set of partners that includes hyperscalers, frontier AI labs, silicon vendors, and commerce and enterprise software platforms. The work takes a different shape with each one, but the common thread is that these partnerships live close to the product: embedding Vercel inside a partner's platform, co-building new products, taking a joint offering to enterprises that neither company could sell alone. Structuring a deal means both understanding the technical components well enough to know what a partnership makes possible and understanding what the business impact could be if done successfully.

We expect candidates to demonstrate significant experience delivering complex deal work, creating and driving strategy, working with cross-functional teams to launch new initiatives, and initiating first-of-a-kind partnerships. We are looking for someone with a strong sense of ownership who performs at a senior level and does their best work with limited direction.

This is a hybrid position, requiring 3 days per week in one of our San Francisco, Austin, or New York City offices. 

What you will do

• Own a named set of strategic partners end to end, from first conversation through signed agreement to launch and growth
• Identify and develop new partnerships with the companies that matter most to Vercel's strategy across AI, cloud, commerce, and enterprise software
• Build the business case: size the opportunity, scope the product and engineering investment it requires, and give leadership a clear recommendation, including when the recommendation is to pass
• Lead negotiations end to end, structuring commercial agreements that are new to Vercel and often new to the partner: revenue share, embedded pricing, co-sell commitments, marketplace terms
• Develop senior relationships on the partner side and bring Vercel executives in where the relationship calls for it
• Lead cross-functional teams across Product, Engineering, Sales, Marketing, Finance, and Legal to take a signed agreement to launch
• Advise Vercel leadership on where the ecosystem is moving and what it means for our roadmap
• Run deals with structure: clear milestones, agreed measures of success on both sides, and the judgment to stop the ones that are not working

About you

• 8+ years developing, negotiating, and executing complex commercial agreements, ideally at a platform, infrastructure, cloud, or developer tools company
• A track record of initiating partnerships that had no precedent, with companies significantly larger than your own. You can walk through the terms you won and the ones you gave up
• Experience structuring deals with significant technical surface area: platform integrations, embedded or whitelabeled product, licensing, infrastructure and compute commitments. You can hold a credible conversation with a partner's product and engineering teams about agents, inference, model routing, and cloud infrastructure
• Experience creating and driving strategy, and getting an organization to fund it
• Comfortable leading cross-functional teams you do not manage, through Product, Engineering, Legal, Finance, and Sales
• Strong agency and comfort with ambiguity. You decide what to work on and can defend the choice
• Speed. You move quickly and decisively, and you keep large deals from stalling
• Excellent written and verbal communication with executives on both sides of the table

Bonus if you

• Have done partnerships at or with a hyperscaler, a frontier AI lab, or a large commerce or enterprise software platform
• Have structured technology licensing, OEM, or embedded distribution agreements
• Started in a technical role (engineering, solutions architecture, or technical product) before moving into commercial work

Benefits:

• Competitive compensation package, including equity.
• Inclusive Healthcare Package.
• Learn and Grow - we provide mentorship and send you to events that help you build your network and skills.
• Flexible Time Off.
• We will provide you the gear you need to do your role, and a WFH budget for you to outfit your space as needed.

The San Francisco, CA base pay range for this role is $XXX,XXX.XX - $XXX,XXX.XX. Actual salary will be based on job-related skills, experience, and location. Compensation outside of San Francisco may be adjusted based on employee location. The total compensation package may include benefits, equity-based compensation, and eligibility for a company bonus or variable pay program depending on the role. Your recruiter can share more details during the hiring process. 

Vercel is committed to fostering and empowering an inclusive community within our organization. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, gender expression or identity, sexual orientation, national origin, citizenship, age, marital status, veteran status, disability status, or any other characteristic protected by law. Vercel encourages everyone to apply for our available positions, even if they don't necessarily check every box on the job description.