Senior Manager Slack Technical Business Development

Salesforce; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 172,500 - 260,100; Full time

Job summary

Salesforce, the trailblazer in AI-powered CRM, seeks a Senior Business Development Manager to recruit and manage strategic partners across Slack’s platform ecosystem. You will drive adoption of Slack’s platform with AI agents, MCP, and automation, while coordinating with product, partnerships, and commercial teams to execute GTM plans.

This high-visibility, individual contributor role requires strong commercial instincts and a track record of building partner relationships in fast-moving

Qualifications

• 7+ years in business development, strategic partnerships, or platform strategy—ideally in SaaS, AI, developer platforms, or cloud ecosystems.
• Proven experience recruiting partners into platform or ecosystem programs and managing those relationships through activation and scale.
• Strong product sensibility and comfort with the technical feasibility of partner integrations, including APIs, workflows, agents, and automation.
• Familiarity with generative AI, LLMs, MCP (Model Context Protocol), agent frameworks, and the broader AI infrastructure landscape.
• An entrepreneurial spirit with a record of sourcing, developing, and maintaining partner relationships in fast-moving markets.
• Strong commercial instincts combined with the ability to work effectively across technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Exceptional presentation and communication skills, including business case development and partner storytelling. Ability to structure and analyze the quantitative impact of partnerships on the business.
• In-depth experience operating within and leading cross-functional teams (product, engineering, customer success, legal, finance, marketing).
• Passion about Slack, our platform, and the role of AI in transforming how teams work.

Responsibilities

• Drive platform ecosystem growth by promoting Slack’s platform adoption among partner companies and emphasizing AI agent, MCP, and automation ecosystems.
• Recruit and onboard strategic partners that extend Slack via integrations, connectors, workflows, and data connectivity, aligning internal stakeholders.
• Identify whitespace gaps and develop partner-driven solutions enhancing intelligent agent workflows and in-context AI capabilities.
• Foster mutually beneficial, trusted relationships with partners and position Slack as a preferred partner.
• Recruit and manage partners across AI and data stack—LLM providers, agent platforms, analytics tools, and infrastructure enablers.
• Champion business models like capacity-based pricing, embedded experiences, and ecosystem monetization to unlock customer value.
• Support monetization and distribution models for Slack’s MCP ecosystem, AgentExchange, and Add to Slack deployment pathways.
• Collaborate with product, engineering, legal, and GTM teams to ensure partner solutions are secure, scalable, and aligned with priorities.
• Own the partner engagement lifecycle from identification to onboarding and GTM readiness, navigating ambiguity and moving quickly to onboard new partners.
• Develop and execute go-to-market plans demonstrating value for Slack and partners.
• Lead cross-functional influence, communicating market opportunities and competitor intelligence to stakeholders.
• Act as a thought leader on the AI partner landscape and influence Slack’s platform strategy.
• Contribute to strategy sessions, internal readouts, and investment cases with clarity.

Skills

Business development

Strategic partnerships

Platform ecosystems

Slack platform

Cross-functional collaboration

Job description

To get the best candidate experience, please consider applying for a maximum of 3 roles within 12 months to ensure you are not duplicating efforts.

Sales

About Salesforce

Salesforce is the #1 AI CRM, where humans with agents drive customer success together. Here, ambition meets action. Tech meets trust. And innovation isn’t a buzzword — it’s a way of life. The world of work as we know it is changing and we're looking for Trailblazers who are passionate about bettering business and the world through AI, driving innovation, and keeping Salesforce's core values at the heart of it all.

Ready to level‑up your career at the company leading workforce transformation in the agentic era? You’re in the right place! Agentforce is the future of AI, and you are the future of Salesforce. Slack is the AI‑powered platform for work, bringing every app, agent, and automation into a single interface where teams and digital teammates collaborate. We’re looking for an experienced Senior Business Development Manager to recruit, onboard, and manage strategic partners across Slack’s platform ecosystem. You’ll work at the intersection of product, partnerships, and commercial strategy—helping partners build on Slack while driving adoption against established partnership frameworks.

This is a high‑visibility, individual contributor role on a centralized team that develops partnership initiatives aligned to Slack’s top platform and product priorities. The right person has strong commercial instincts, genuine curiosity about how platforms create value, and a bias toward building new things over managing the status quo.

Platform Ecosystem Growth

• Drive adoption of Slack’s platform among companies offering software products and services to businesses, with a focus on the AI agent, MCP, and automation ecosystems.
• Recruit and onboard strategic partners that extend Slack through integrations, connectors, workflows, and data connectivity—managing internal alignment and partner readiness throughout.
• Identify whitespace where platform gaps exist and develop partner‑driven solutions to address them, including partnerships that enhance intelligent agent workflows and in‑context AI capabilities.
• Develop mutually beneficial, trusting relationships with partners. Make Slack a favored company with which to partner.

AI & Agent Ecosystem Partnerships

• Recruit and manage partners across the AI and data stack—including LLM providers, agent platforms, analytics tools, and infrastructure enablers—into Slack’s ecosystem programs.
• Champion creative business models (capacity‑based pricing, embedded experiences, ecosystem monetization) that unlock value for customers while ensuring mutual success for partners.
• Support the development of monetization and distribution models tailored for Slack’s MCP ecosystem, AgentExchange, and “Add to Slack” deployment pathways.
• Work cross‑functionally with product, engineering, and legal teams to ensure partner solutions are technically sound, secure, and aligned to strategic priorities.

Partner Execution & Go‑to‑Market

• Own the partner engagement lifecycle: from opportunity identification and initial outreach through onboarding, activation, and GTM readiness.
• Navigate ambiguity, prioritize thoughtfully, and move quickly to bring new partners onto the platform in a rapidly evolving AI landscape.
• Execute go‑to‑market plans that demonstrate a compelling value proposition for both Slack and its partners.
• Ensure partner engagements are scalable and built for long‑term success—your focus is on recruiting new partners and driving activation, not maintaining legacy relationships.

Cross‑Functional Influence

• Partner with stakeholders across Slack product, platform engineering, AI, AppExchange, AgentExchange, and GTM teams to align on roadmap gaps and ecosystem leverage points.
• Understand and communicate market opportunities, trends, partner feedback, and competitive intelligence to cross‑functional teams.
• Act as a thought leader on the AI partner landscape and what it means for Slack’s platform strategy.
• Contribute to strategy sessions, internal readouts, and investment cases with insight and clarity.

Requirements

• 7+ years in business development, strategic partnerships, or platform strategy—ideally in SaaS, AI, developer platforms, or cloud ecosystems.
• Proven experience recruiting partners into platform or ecosystem programs and managing those relationships through activation and scale.
• Strong product sensibility and comfort with the technical feasibility of partner integrations, including APIs, workflows, agents, and automation.
• Familiarity with generative AI, LLMs, MCP (Model Context Protocol), agent frameworks, and the broader AI infrastructure landscape.
• An entrepreneurial spirit with a record of sourcing, developing, and maintaining partner relationships in fast‑moving markets.
• Strong commercial instincts combined with the ability to work effectively across technical and non‑technical stakeholders.
• Exceptional presentation and communication skills, including business case development and partner storytelling.Ability to structure and analyze the quantitative impact of partnerships on the business.
• In‑depth experience operating within and leading cross‑functional teams (product, engineering, customer success, legal, finance, marketing).
• Passion about Slack, our platform, and the role of AI in transforming how teams work.

Nice to Have

• Background in product, customer support, or developer tool software partnerships.
• Experience with marketplace or app store business models.
• Prior work at a platform company or in a platform‑adjacent BD role.

Accommodations

If you need a reasonable accommodation during the application or the recruiting process, please submit a request via this Accommodations Request Form.

Posting Statement

Salesforce is an equal opportunity employer and maintains a policy of non‑discrimination with all employees and applicants for employment. What does that mean exactly? It means that at Salesforce, we believe in equality for all. And we believe we can lead the path to equality in part by creating a workplace that’s inclusive, and free from discrimination. Know your rights: workplace discrimination is illegal. Any employee or potential employee will be assessed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications – without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender expression or identity, transgender status, age, disability, veteran or marital status, political viewpoint, or other classifications protected by law. This policy applies to current and prospective employees, no matter where they are in their Salesforce employment journey. It also applies to recruiting, hiring, job assignment, compensation, promotion, benefits, training, assessment of job performance, discipline, termination, and everything in between. Recruiting, hiring, and promotion decisions at Salesforce are fair and based on merit. The same goes for compensation, benefits, promotions, transfers, reduction in workforce, recall, training, and education.

Compensation

The typical base salary range for this position is $172,500 - $260,100 annually. In select cities within the San Francisco and New York City metropolitan area, the base salary range for this role is $207,800 - $285,800 annually. The range represents base salary only, and does not include company bonus, incentive for sales roles, equity or benefits, as applicable.