Director, Analyst Relations

Confidential Jobs; Palo Alto (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 250,000; Full time

Job summary

Confidential Jobs in Palo Alto, CA seeks a Director of Analyst Relations to build and steward relationships with Gartner, IDC, Forrester, shaping market view of Enterprise AI Platforms. This role owns analyst relationships end-to-end and drives multi-year plans, briefings, and proof points with a continuously AI-enabled AR function.

You will emphasize readiness, inclusion, and positioning across top reports, collaborating with sales, product marketing, and executives, while delivering measurable

Qualifications

• 7+ years in analyst relations, with direct experience managing relationships with Gartner, IDC, Forrester.
• Proven track record of moving a company into, or improving its position within, a major analyst report or quadrant.
• Deep understanding of how analyst evaluation criteria work and what internal readiness looks like.
• Demonstrated market, audience and platform understanding from past roles, with the ability to lead analyst conversations directly.
• Experience using AI to surface analyst insights, sentiment and points of view.
• Strong executive presence: comfortable prepping and accompanying E-suite in analyst conversations.
• Excellent cross-functional collaborator, able to align sales, marketing and product around a shared AR strategy.
• Track record of building repeatable processes and cadences from scratch.
• Experience in enterprise AI, data or automation categories.
• Existing relationships with key analysts covering the platform category space.

Responsibilities

• Identify future category analysts and our strategy to influence them, while continuing to build relationships and a briefing cadence with the existing category analysts and firms that matter most to our Enterprise buyers
• Serve as the primary point of contact and internal expert on analyst dynamics, priorities and expectations
• Build multi-year plans for each priority analyst relationship, not just report-cycle sprints
• Leverage AI to capture the latest research, sentiment and opinions from analysts, feeding our vision, our narrative and our approach to each individual firm and analyst
• Understand deeply how analysts evaluate vendors for inclusion and positioning in Magic Quadrants, Waves, MarketScapes and comparable reports
• Identify what's required to qualify for inclusion in new or emerging priority reports and drive the internal work to close those gaps
• Partner with sales and customer success to lead, build and maintain a pipeline of customers willing to serve as analyst references
• Establish and run a consistent cadence of briefings, updates and inquiry calls so analysts have current information on our category POV, roadmap and momentum
• Prepare executives and subject matter experts for analyst briefings and inquiries and lead development of materials required for these briefings
• Track analyst commentary and sentiment over time, and flag emerging risks or opportunities to leadership
• Build the AR function with market insights, processes and reporting close to category shifts
• Champion an AI-first approach across AR and ensure category ownership and leadership position in quadrants
• Partner cross-functionally with product marketing, comms and sales to align analyst-facing narratives
• Report on analyst standing, outcomes and ROI of the AR program, including AI-driven insights

Skills

Analyst relations

Executive presence

Cross-functional collaboration

AI-driven insights

Relationship management

Job description

We're looking for a Director of Analyst Relations to build and steward relationships with Industry analysts who define how the market sees and evaluates Enterprise AI Platforms - shaping their point of view on this emerging category with a credible, differentiated narrative that influences the Enterprise buyers who trust them most. This role owns our pivotal analyst relationships end-to-end - Gartner, IDC, Forrester - and goes well beyond simply knowing the analysts. It requires being strategic about who we choose to build relationships with, how we approach them with our category vision and ensuring we make real, sustained progress with each relationship far beyond briefings. This role needs to stay one step ahead of the analysts by understanding and actively influencing their opinions long before the RFI process.

This is a strategic, relationship-driven role. You'll need a real point of view on how the analyst world works: how quadrants and reports get built, what it takes to earn inclusion and improve positioning year over year and how to turn one-off inquiry calls into a sustained, trusted dialogue. You'll also build the internal muscle we currently need: a consistent cadence of briefings, updates and proof points that keep analysts current.

What You'll Own

Analyst Relationship Strategy

• Identify future category analysts and our strategy to influence them, while continuing to build relationships and a briefing cadence with the existing category analysts and firms that matter most to our Enterprise buyers
• Serve as the primary point of contact and internal expert on analyst dynamics, priorities and expectations
• Build multi-year plans for each priority analyst relationship, not just report-cycle sprints
• Leverage AI to capture the latest research, sentiment and opinions from analysts, feeding our vision, our narrative and our approach to each individual firm and analyst

Quadrant & Report Positioning

• Understand deeply how analysts evaluate vendors for inclusion and positioning in Magic Quadrants, Waves, MarketScapes and comparable reports, and own the strategy for how we approach each analyst, including leading the creation of briefing decks and supporting materials, not just an internal readiness checklist. This is a strategic ownership role, not a program management role.
• Identify what's required to qualify for inclusion in new or emerging priority reports where we have an opportunity to build eligibility over time (customer references, product coverage, briefing history) and drive the internal work to close those gaps
• Partner with sales and customer success to lead, build and maintain a pipeline of customers willing to serve as analyst references
• Establish and run a consistent cadence of briefings, updates and inquiry calls so analysts have current, accurate information on our Category point of view, roadmap and momentum year-round
• Prepare executives and subject matter experts for analyst briefings and inquiries and lead development of materials required for these briefings
• Track analyst commentary and sentiment over time, and flag emerging risks or opportunities to leadership

Elevating the AR Function

• Build the foundation for a proactive, measurable analyst relations function, with market insights, internal processes and reporting that keep the team close to category shifts, analyst priorities and emerging buyer themes
• Champion an AI-first approach across the AR function, ensuring category ownership and Leader podium position in all relevant quadrants. This includes being visible and cited in buyer relevance searches as a trusted platform resulting in market and brand awareness.
• Partner cross-functionally with product marketing, comms and sales to ensure analyst-facing narrative is consistent with how we position ourselves everywhere else
• Report to leadership on analyst standing, report outcomes and the ROI of the AR program, including how AI is used to surface analyst insights in real time

What You'll Need

• 7+ years in analyst relations, with direct experience managing relationships with Gartner, IDC, Forrester or similar firms
• Proven track record of moving a company into, or improving its position within, a major analyst report or quadrant
• Deep understanding of how analyst evaluation criteria work and what internal readiness looks like
• Demonstrated market, audience and platform understanding from past roles, with the ability to lead analyst conversations directly rather than relying on PMM or executives to carry the conversation
• Experience using AI to surface analyst insights, sentiment and points of view
• Strong executive presence: comfortable prepping and accompanying E-suite in analyst conversations
• Excellent cross-functional collaborator, able to align sales, marketing and product around a shared AR strategy
• Track record of building repeatable processes and cadences from scratch, not just running an existing program
• Experience in enterprise AI, data or automation categories
• Existing relationships with key analysts covering the platform category space

Success Metrics (First 12 Months)

• Established a documented readiness plan and improved standing (inclusion or positioning) in at least one priority analyst report (Gartner MQ, IDC MarketScape or equivalent)
• Built a qualified pipeline of 5+ reference-ready customers for Gartner-style engagements (20+ for Peer Insights-style programs)
• Established a recurring briefing cadence with all priority analysts, with documented touchpoints at least quarterly
• Built and operationalized an internal AR playbook adopted by product marketing, comms and sales
• Zero missed or lapsed analyst relationship obligations (e.g., subscription/billing issues affecting standing)
• Category Ownership – podium position in all top-tier analyst reports
• Cross-Functional Buyer Relevance support resulting in increase in AEO citations increase