Strategic Partnerships Lead - Cloud

Applied Compute; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 160,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive compensation and equity

Employer-paid health insurance for you

Unlimited PTO

Paid parental leave

Daily lunches and dinners

Transportation and relocation support

5% 401(k) match

Job summary

Applied Compute is hiring a Strategic Partnerships Lead - Cloud in San Francisco. You will build and run the partner ecosystem, sourcing, structuring, negotiating, and operating partnerships with cloud providers and large counterparties.

You’ll collaborate with sales, product, and leadership to decide which partners matter, bring them in, and turn each relationship into pipeline, capacity, and revenue as the company grows.

Qualifications

• Prior professional experience in strategic partnerships, alliances, or business development with a track record of closed partnerships producing revenue.
• Experience structuring and negotiating complex commercial agreements (co-sell, resale, referral, marketplace, capacity).
• Existing relationships with partner, alliances, and BD teams at hyperscalers.

Responsibilities

• Source, structure, and close partnerships with hyperscalers and other strategic counterparties; negotiate terms and marketplace participation.
• Run co-selling, co-marketing, and account-mapping motions to convert partnerships into opportunities for the sales team.
• Own the partner operating system: agreements, enablement, and tracking; manage executive sponsor relationships.
• Measure and optimize partner-sourced and partner-influenced pipeline, revenue, and capacity.

Skills

Strategic partnerships

Business development

Negotiation

Technical depth: AI/ML infra

Tools

Contract negotiation

Partner management tools

Job description

As the Strategic Partnerships Lead - Cloud at Applied Compute, you’ll build and run the partner ecosystem that extends how we win. This is a hands‑on role dedicated to partnerships. You’ll spend your time sourcing, structuring, negotiating, and operating partnerships with cloud providers and other large counterparties. You’ll own each partnership from first conversation through signed agreement and ongoing results, with responsibility for its structure, economics, and business impact.

You’ll work closely with our sales, product, and leadership teams to decide which partners matter, bring them in, and turn each relationship into pipeline, capacity, and revenue as the company grows.

What you’ll do

• Build strategic partnerships. Source, structure, and close partnerships with hyperscalers and other large strategic counterparties. Negotiate the commercial terms, co‑sell motions, marketplace listings, and capacity arrangements that give Applied Compute distribution and leverage.

• Turn partnerships into pipeline. Run the co‑selling, co‑marketing, and account‑mapping motions that convert partner relationships into qualified opportunities for our sales team, and work those opportunities alongside our account executives.

• Own the partner operating system. Build the agreements, enablement materials, and tracking that make partnerships repeatable as the ecosystem grows. Manage ongoing relationships with executive sponsors and day‑to‑day counterparts at each partner.

• Measure and improve results. Instrument partner‑sourced and partner‑influenced pipeline, revenue, and capacity. Use those results to decide where to invest more, where to pull back, and which new partnerships to pursue.

What we’re looking for

• Prior professional experience in strategic partnerships, alliances, or business development at an AI lab, cloud provider, infrastructure company, or enterprise software company, with a track record of closed partnerships that produced measurable revenue.

• Experience structuring and negotiating complex commercial agreements, including co‑sell, resale, referral, marketplace, and capacity arrangements.

• Existing relationships with partner, alliances, and business development teams at hyperscalers

• Enough technical depth to engage confidently in conversations about model training, inference, and infrastructure, and to work directly with engineers on integrations.

• Strong commercial judgment: you can tell which partnerships will move the business, say no to the rest, and structure deals that work for both sides.

Nice to have

• Experience building a partner or channel program from scratch at an early‑stage company.

• Familiarity with hyperscaler marketplace programs, co‑sell incentives, and partner‑funded programs.

• Experience working with systems integrators on enterprise AI deployments.

Benefits & Logistics

This role is based in San Francisco. We work from our office in the Mission. We offer:

• Competitive compensation and equity

• 100% employer‑paid health insurance coverage for you and your family

• Unlimited PTO

• Paid parental leave

• Daily lunches and dinners

• Transportation and relocation support

• 5% 401(k) match

We sponsor visas. While we can’t guarantee success for every candidate or role, if you’re the right fit, we’re committed to working through the process with you. We encourage you to apply even if you do not believe you meet every single qualification. As set forth in Applied Compute’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy, we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.