Director, Strategic Alliances

OpenKrill; United States; Remote; USD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

CoLab is seeking a Director of Strategic Alliances to build and own our go-to-market partner ecosystem, focusing on global consultancies and advisory firms. You will craft win-win commercial models, drive partner-led pipeline, and coordinate with Sales, Solutions Engineering, Enablement, Marketing, and Customer Success to scale revenue.

You will design and lead a long-term partnerships strategy, ensuring alignment with product and delivery teams, while building a scalable function from the

Qualifications

• Experience in partnerships, alliances, channel, or enterprise sales.
• Real understanding of the consulting world: firm structure, partners, engagements, and vendor value.
• Exposure to enterprise software or SaaS go-to-market.
• Strong executive presence and business acumen.
• Comfort with ambiguity and willingness to roll up sleeves.
• Strong commercial instincts for live deal structuring.
• Ability to align cross-functional teams without direct authority.

Responsibilities

• Source and develop go-to-market partners across consultancies, SI, and VARs.
• Sell CoLab to partners and manage full-cycle partner acquisition from conversation to signed agreement.
• Design the commercial model for co-sell, referral, and delivery arrangements.
• Own partner relationships long term with joint business plans and reviews.
• Build champions inside partner firms and expand partnerships over time.
• Drive partner-sourced revenue and pipeline as core KPIs.
• Enable partners with training to speak credibly about CoLab.”
• Build the partnerships function, processes, and governance from scratch.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with Sales, Enablement, CS, Marketing, and Product to ensure pipeline alignment.

Skills

Partnerships

Enterprise sales

Consulting industry knowledge

SaaS go-to-market

Executive presence

Strategic deal-making

Cross-functional leadership

Job description

About CoLab

At CoLab, we help mechanical engineering teams bring life-changing products to market years sooner.

We build AI for engineers designing cars, medical devices, and jet engines. Products this complex aren't sketched and sent to production. Teams spend months on iterations, reviews, and tests, predicting how every part performs before anything is built. CoLab is where those reviews happen, and we capture the rationale behind every change. Other tools show what changed between versions. Only CoLab knows why. That's how our AI helps manufacturers like Bobcat, Triumph Motorcycles, and GE Appliances make better decisions, eliminate rework cycles, and get to market faster.

Proudly based in St. John's, Newfoundland, CoLab started with one customer in 2018. Since then we’ve raised a $72M Series C, been named the 57th fastest growing company in North America by Deloitte (Fast 500), signed multi-year AI partnerships with companies like Bombardier, and grown to a team of 250+.

About the Role:

As Director, Strategic Alliances, you'll build and own CoLab's go-to-market partner ecosystem, with a primary focus on the global consultancies that advise our customers on engineering and digital transformation. Your job is to earn a place in that room alongside them and keep it.

This is a sales role as much as a partnerships role. You'll be positioning CoLab to consultants: building the case for why putting our platform into their client work makes their engagements better and their business stronger. You'll design the commercial mechanics of how we work together, often inventing the win-win for both sides, then convert those relationships into sourced pipeline and closed revenue. Establishing the partnership is the start. You’ll own partnerships for the long term and coordinate with our Sales, Solutions Engineering, Enablement, Marketing and Customer Success teams so partners are supported at every stage.

This is a builder's seat. The function exists today as a side motion run by our team, and you'll be the first person to own it end to end. You'll report to our VP of Strategy, who will build alongside you for the first couple of quarters before handing you the keys.

What you’ll do:

• Source and develop go-to-market partners: Work inbound interest, source outbound relationships across consultancies, systems integrators, and value-added resellers, with the heaviest emphasis on consulting firms
• Sell CoLab to partners: Run full-cycle partner acquisition, from first conversation through signed agreement, positioning CoLab to our partner's commercial priorities
• Design the commercial model: Structure co-sell, referral, and delivery arrangements that work for both sides
• Own partner relationships long term: act as the single accountable owner for strategic partners after signing. Run joint business plans, regular business reviews and partner health tracking, growing each partnership’s scope over time.
• Build champions inside partner firms: Identify, develop, and multi-thread champions within new and existing partners so relationships survive individual turnover and translate into real activity.
• Drive partner-sourced revenue and pipeline: Own the number. Partner-sourced pipeline and partner-sourced revenue are your primary KPIs.
• Enable partners: Equip consultants and system integrator teams to speak credibly about CoLab, identify fit in their client base, and bring us into the right engagements at the right time.
• Build the function: Establish the process, reporting, and rhythm the partnership's motion runs on. You'll be defining how this works, not inheriting a playbook.
• Work cross-functionally: Partner with Sales, Enablement, Customer Success, Marketing, and Product to align partner activity with pipeline targets and ensure clean handoffs into delivery so that the right people show up at the right moment

What we're looking for:

• Experience in partnerships, alliances, channel, or enterprise sales
• Real understanding of the consulting world: how firms are structured, how partners are compensated, how engagements get scoped and sold, and what makes a software vendor useful rather than an inconvenience
• Exposure to enterprise software or SaaS go-to-market
• Strong executive presence
• Comfort with ambiguity and a genuine willingness to roll up your sleeves
• Strong commercial instincts. You can construct a deal structure in a live conversation and know which trade-offs are safe to make
• Skilled at aligning cross-functional teams to deliver for someone outside the company, without direct authority over those teams

Nice to have:

• Bonus points if you have an existing network inside the major consultancies or global consultancies, system integrators, or value added resellers
• Experience with engineering, manufacturing, or technical products (CAD, PLM, or similar)
• Familiarity with land-and-expand SaaS motions

Who thrive at CoLab if you:

• Are energized by building a function from scratch rather than optimizing an existing one
• Translate technical product capability into commercial value for a partner's business
• Operate with urgency and hold yourself to a number without being asked
• Collaborate well across Sales, CS, Marketing, and Product, even where the lines aren't drawn yet