Founding Partnerships Lead

Sirius; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible healthcare

Lunch, coffee & snacks

Company events

Job summary

Sirius in San Francisco is hiring a Founding Partnerships Lead to own and scale all external relationships. You’ll negotiate and close deals, manage partner and vendor ecosystems, and build our partnerships framework.

You’ll report directly to the CEO and influence company strategy from day one. You’ll run events, sign sponsorships, handle merch programs, and work cross-functionally with product, finance, and legal to drive joint launches and revenue growth.

Qualifications

• 4+ years in partnerships, alliances, business development or vendor management.
• Experience at an early-stage startup, or clear evidence of thriving without a large support team.
• Strong negotiator with end-to-end deal sourcing, structuring and closing.

Responsibilities

• Own external relationships as the main contact for vendors and partners.
• Run events and manage sponsorships, venues, budgets, and logistics end to end.
• Build and close new partnerships including tech integrations and co-marketing.
• Manage vendors: evaluate, negotiate contracts, pricing and SLAs.
• Own branded merchandise and oversee sourcing, quality, inventory and delivery.
• Track vendor spend, renewals, savings, and mitigate dependencies on single vendors.
• Create the partnerships system and map, plus run quarterly business reviews.
• Collaborate with product, finance and legal on integrations and launches.
• Help shape Sirius' partnership strategy and grow into leading a team.

Skills

Partnerships

Alliances

Business development

Job description

Sirius is an a16z Speedrun-backed startup building a retention platform for consumer brands. We help companies keep the users they’ve worked hard to win, turning one-time signups into long-term customers.

We already work with some of the fastest-growing companies in AI and consumer tech, including Higgsfield and Headway , and our network of vendors and partner companies is growing just as quickly.

We’re a small team that moves fast. Everyone here owns real outcomes, and every early hire shapes how the company is built.

About the Role

The vendors and partner companies we work with are core to how we operate and grow, and right now the founders manage every one of those relationships themselves. That doesn’t scale at the speed we’re moving. We’re hiring our Founding Partnerships Lead to own them.

This is a hands-on, build-from-zero role. You’ll be the main point of contact for every outside company we do business with, from the vendors we rely on to the partners we build with. You’ll negotiate and close deals and set up the systems we use to manage partners as we scale. You’ll work directly with the CEO and have a real voice in company strategy.

What You’ll Do

• Own external relationships: Be the main contact for our vendors and partner companies, and keep those relationships healthy and productive.

• Run our events: Own our presence at industry conferences and own our hosted events, from dinners and meetups to partner happy hours. You’ll handle sponsorships, venues, budgets, vendors and logistics end to end, and make sure every event drives real relationships.

• Build new partnerships: Find, pitch and close new partners, such as technology integrations, co-marketing, channel and strategic alliances, across the tools consumer brands already use for growth and retention.

• Manage vendors: Source and evaluate vendors, negotiate contracts, pricing and SLAs, and hold vendors accountable to what they’ve promised.

• Own company merch: Take full responsibility for our branded merchandise, from sourcing and managing merch vendors to ordering, quality checks, inventory and delivery for the team, events and partner gifts.

• Control costs and risk: Track vendor spend and renewals, find savings, and flag dependencies on any single vendor early.

• Build the partnerships system: Create our partner and vendor map.

• Run partner reviews: Hold regular check-ins and quarterly business reviews with our most important partners and vendors.

• Work across the team: Partner with product, finance and legal on integrations, contracts and joint launches.

• Shape the future: Help decide what partnerships look like at Sirius, and grow into leading a team as we scale.

Who You Are

• 4+ years in partnerships, alliances, business development or vendor management

• Experience at an early-stage startup, or clear evidence that you thrive without a big support team

• A strong negotiator who has sourced, structured and closed deals end to end

• Excellent at building relationships, whether you’re talking to a founder, a vendor’s account team or a C-level executive

• Organized and self-directed: you can juggle many relationships and still keep follow-ups on track

• Comfortable with ambiguity: you’ll pitch a new partner one day and renegotiate a vendor contract the next

• Clear, confident communicator in writing and in person

Nice to Have

• Experience in AI, SaaS, martech or high-growth consumer tech

• Familiarity with the consumer growth and retention ecosystem (analytics, messaging, CRM, attribution and payments tools)

• An existing network of potential partners in our space

• Experience building a partner or channel program from scratch

• Familiarity with contract basics (MSAs, SLAs, NDAs, rev-share agreements)

• Experience running merch or swag programs, or working with print, apparel or promotional product suppliers

_ Our Values: _

Stewardship : We build for the long term. Every customer, partner, and teammate gets that same commitment from day one.

Trust : Earned through the integrity of our technology, the consistency of our commitments, and the honesty of our communication.

Customer Obsession: We win when our customers win. Every choice and conversation orbits around what makes them stronger.

Excellence: The same standard for the product we ship, the service we give, and the team we build. The bar is the bar.

Family: A constellation, not a single star. We back each other on hard days, celebrate the great ones, and protect the time teammates need to be parents, partners, and humans first.

_ Life at Sirius: _

In-person, in San Francisco: We work side by side, on-site in San Francisco. Proximity helps us move faster, solve harder problems, and build something we’re proud of together. Note: we’re not able to offer visa sponsorship at this time.

Flexible healthcare: We offer flexible spending to direct your benefits toward what matters most to you and your family.

Own what you build: We’re building something real, and we want you to own it.

Lunch, coffee & snacks: Daily lunch, plus coffee, tea, and snacks to keep you going.

Time off that’s actually off: Take the time you need to show up as your best self. We mean it.

Company Events: We work hard and celebrate our wins.