Partner Executive

SUSE; Madrid; On-site; EUR 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

SUSE is seeking a Partner Executive for Iberia (Spain and Portugal) to own end‑to‑end partner channel growth and program rollout. You will recruit, onboard, and manage strategic partners across GSIs, RSIs, LSIs, Distributors, and MSPs, driving joint business plans and performance tracking.

Reporting to the Ecosystem Lead South Europe, you will collaborate with the Iberia Country Manager to translate global and regional strategy into local priorities, whilst travel across the Iberia region is

Qualifications

• Extensive experience in Partner Management, Channel Executive, or Ecosystem Lead roles.
• Deep understanding of the Spain and Portugal channel landscape.
• Fluent in English and Spanish; Portuguese is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Strategy & Business Planning: Develop Joint Business Plans with key partners across the Iberia region, establishing revenue targets, go‑to‑market strategies, and operational execution plans.
• Multi‑Channel Ecosystem Management: Apply a tailored approach to each partner category (GSI, RSI, LSI, Distributor, MSP), maximizing value from each model.
• Recruiting & Onboarding: Identify, engage, and recruit strategic new partners in the region, ensuring a seamless onboarding process.
• Performance & Growth Monitoring: Track growth metrics, joint sales pipelines, and partner performance against KPIs.
• Program Rollout: Lead ecosystem transition to the new SUSE Partner Program and enable partners with benefits and resources.
• Regional & European Alignment: Align channel strategy with local sales objectives and collaborate with the South Europe Ecosystem team.

Skills

Partner management

Channel management

Ecosystem leadership

Market knowledge

Language proficiency

Willingness to travel

Job description

SUSE is a global leader of enterprise open source software. By transforming community innovations into secure, sovereign and AI-ready solutions, SUSE empowers customers to escape vendor lock-in and regain control of their IT destiny. Through industry-leading Linux, Kubernetes, Edge and AI infrastructure solutions, SUSE delivers the flexibility to innovate everywhere—from the data center to multi-cloud and out to the edge. Only SUSE also manages many Linux and Kubernetes distributions. At SUSE, Choice Happens because we prioritize community, interoperability and relentless innovation. Discover how we power mission‑critical resilience at www.suse.com.

About the Role

At SUSE, we are looking for a Partner Executive for the Iberia region (Spain and Portugal) to fill a key backfill role within our European Ecosystem team. In this role, you will be the strategic and operational focal point for the entire partner channel in the region. You will hold end-to-end responsibility for ecosystem growth—from recruiting and onboarding to strategic planning and performance management. You will work closely with diverse partner types—Global System Integrators (GSIs), Regional System Integrators (RSIs), Local System Integrators (LSIs), Distributors, and Managed Service Providers (MSPs)—driving the adoption and execution of the new SUSE Partner Program. Reporting directly to the Ecosystem Lead South Europe and operating as part of a collaborative European team, you will work in close alignment with the acting Iberia Country Manager to translate global and regional channel strategy into local business priorities.

Key Responsibilities

• Strategy & Business Planning: Develop and execute Joint Business Plans with key partners across the Iberia region, establishing revenue targets, go-to-market strategies, and operational execution plans.
• Multi-Channel Ecosystem Management: Apply a tailored approach to each partner category (GSI, RSI, LSI, Distributor, MSP), maximizing the value generated by each business model.
• Recruiting & Onboarding: Identify, engage, and recruit strategic new partners in the region, ensuring a seamless and effective onboarding process to accelerate time‑to‑value.
• Performance & Growth Monitoring: Continuously track growth metrics, joint sales pipelines, and overall partner performance against established KPIs.
• Program Rollout: Lead and facilitate the ecosystem transition to the new SUSE Partner Program, ensuring partners understand and leverage program benefits, certification requirements, and enablement resources.
• Regional & European Alignment: Work in close synergy with the Iberia Country Manager to align channel strategy with local sales objectives while contributing actively to South Europe Ecosystem team initiatives.

Requirements & Experience

• Experience: Extensive experience in a Partner Management, Channel Executive, or Ecosystem Lead role within the Enterprise Software / Cloud / Open Source industry.
• Market Knowledge: Deep understanding of the channel landscape, System Integrators, and distribution channels across Spain and Portugal.
• Channel Expertise: Solid track record in managing various partnership models (GSI, RSI, LSI, Distri, MSP) and building Joint Business Plans.
• Languages: Fluent in English and Spanish (Portuguese is considered a plus).
• Mobility: Willingness to travel frequently across the Iberia region to meet partners and attend regional European team meetings/events.

Who You Are (Soft Skills & Cultural Fit)

• Energetic & Proactive: Highly driven with a bias for action and the ability to inspire and deliver value to partners.
• Tech-Curious: Passionate about innovation, Cloud, Open Source, and digital transformation, with a desire to understand how technology solves complex enterprise problems.
• Collaborative & Team Player: Thrives in a team environment, enjoys sharing best practices with European peers, and builds long‑term trust‑based relationships internally and externally.
• Strategic & Execution-Minded: Able to balance high‑level strategic vision with rigorous operational execution and performance tracking.

What We Offer

We empower you to be bold, driving your career to create the future you want. We celebrate and reward your achievements. SUSE is a dynamic environment that is evolving rapidly, thus requiring agility, strong entrepreneurship and an open mind. This is a compelling opportunity for the right person to join us as we continue to scale and prosper.

We give you the freedom to be yourself. You will work in a global community of unique individuals – like you – with different backgrounds, talents, skills and perspectives. A truly open community where everyone is welcome, has a voice and is encouraged to reach their full potential regardless of age, gender, race, nationality, disability, sexual orientation, religion, or any other characteristics.

SUSE Values

SUSE's culture is centered on four key values - Choice, Community, Trust, and Innovation - which are deeply integrated with our open source ethos. SUSE fosters a diverse and inclusive environment where our people are encouraged to be themselves.

Choice: We are continuously making choice happen We are accountable for our choices We never get complacent

Community: Nobody is smarter than everybody We embrace diversity of thought We are “open source first, upstream first” where collaboration benefits all

Trust: We are trusted to deliver with integrity We offer trust by default, and do not wait for it to be earned We foster an environment where everyone trusts each other

Innovation: We foster a culture of experimentation, and embrace change by challenging the norm We are committed to continuous improvement, creativity and adaptability