VP, Technology Partnerships & Partner Engineering

Napster; United States; Remote; USD 260,000 - 380,000; Full time

Job summary

Napster is seeking a senior Vice President of Technology Partnerships & Partner Engineering to lead the organization responsible for the technical success, activation, and scale of our strategic technology partner ecosystem. This executive role combines technical depth, commercial judgment, organizational leadership, and operational discipline.

The VP will collaborate across Partnerships, Channel, Sales, Product, and Engineering to move partnerships from discovery through validation, activation,

Qualifications

• 15+ years in partner tech roles or related fields.
• Experience leading senior technical or partner-facing teams.
• Proven experience with distributed teams.
• Strong track record with hyperscalers, GSIs, vendors, MSPs, VARs.
• Understanding of cloud infrastructure and modern platforms.
• Experience at intersection of tech strategy, product, and partnerships.
• Experience in headcount planning and resource allocation.
• Experience building dashboards and executive reporting.

Responsibilities

• Build and lead the Technology Partnerships & Partner Engineering organization.
• Serve as the senior technical counterpart to Partner Development and Sales leadership.
• Build executive relationships with hyperscalers, GSIs, and other partners.
• Own the technical partner lifecycle from discovery to scale.
• Ensure teams can lead architecture discussions, integrations, and enablement.
• Establish partner segmentation, criteria, milestones, governance.
• Oversee resource planning and allocation of technical resources.
• Build dashboards and executive reporting for partner progression.
• Create voice-of-the-partner into Product and Engineering.

Skills

Partner engineering

Solutions engineering

Pre-Sales

Solution architecture

Technology partnerships

Cloud

Enterprise partnerships

15+ years experience

Job description

VP, Technology Partnerships & Partner Engineering

Location: East Coast, United States or Europe

Function: Technology Partnerships & Partner Engineering

Reports to: SVP Partnerships, Ecosystem & GTM

About Napster

Founded on the principle of democratizing access, first to music in 1999, now to expertise in the AI era, Napster has consistently remained at the forefront of technological shifts that empower users. Today, the company builds embodied, multimodal AI agents that engage employees and customers where they already work: through video presence, voice, and text. Designed to work alongside people rather than replace them, Napster’s agents carry institutional knowledge into every interaction, elevating the user’s experience and improving business outcomes. For more information, visit napster.com.

Role Overview

We are looking for a senior Vice President of Technology Partnerships & Partner Engineering to lead the organization responsible for the technical success, activation, and scale of our strategic technology partner ecosystem.

This is an executive-level role combining technical depth, commercial judgment, organizational leadership, and operational discipline. The VP will work across Partnerships, Channel, Sales, Product, and Engineering to turn strategic relationships into technically validated, activated, and commercially productive partnerships.

The role sits at the intersection of partner strategy, partner engineering, pre-sales, product, and commercial execution. It is not a quota-carrying sales role and is not an engineering delivery function. Its mandate is to ensure strategic partners have the technical engagement, resources, solutions, integrations, and internal alignment needed to move from opportunity through validation, activation, and scale.

Key Responsibilities

• Build and lead the Technology Partnerships & Partner Engineering organization, including team structure, coverage model, operating rhythm, and talent development.
• Serve as the senior technical counterpart to Partner Development, Strategic Partnerships, Channel, and Sales leadership.
• Build executive relationships with hyperscalers, GSIs, technology vendors, MSPs, VARs, and other strategic ecosystem partners.
• Own the technical partner lifecycle from discovery and qualification through validation, onboarding, activation, joint solution development, and scale.
• Ensure teams can lead architecture discussions, technical workshops, integrations, solution design, and partner enablement.
• Establish clear partner segmentation, qualification criteria, milestones, governance, and escalation frameworks.
• Own resource planning, capacity management, and allocation of technical resources across strategic partner priorities.
• Build dashboards and executive reporting covering partner progression, resource utilization, technical blockers, activation, and commercial impact.
• Create a structured voice-of-the-partner mechanism into Product and Engineering.
• Translate partner feedback into clear product requirements, engineering asks, and roadmap considerations.
• Identify recurring technical barriers and work cross-functionally to remove them.
• Support partner-sourced and partner-influenced opportunities while maintaining the team as a strategic enablement function rather than a quota-carrying organization.
• Build scalable engagement and enablement models that increase partner self-sufficiency and productivity.

Key Performance Indicators

Success will be measured through:

• Progression of strategic partners from engagement to activation and scale.
• Growth in active and productive technology partnerships.
• Partner-sourced and partner-influenced pipeline and commercial impact.
• Time to technical validation and partner activation.
• Progression of integrations, joint solutions, and strategic technical initiatives.
• Reduction in technical blockers impacting partner opportunities.
• Effective allocation and utilization of partner engineering resources.
• Quality of partner planning, governance, forecasting, and executive reporting.
• Strength of the feedback loop between partners, Product, and Engineering.
• Team performance, development, engagement, and retention.

Required Experience

• 15+ years of experience across Partner Engineering, Solutions Engineering, Pre-Sales, Solution Architecture, Technology Partnerships, Technical Alliances, Cloud, or related functions.
• Significant experience leading senior technical, partner-facing, or pre-sales organizations.
• Proven experience managing leaders and geographically distributed teams.
• Strong track record working with hyperscalers, GSIs, technology vendors, MSPs, VARs, and enterprise partner ecosystems.
• Strong understanding of cloud infrastructure, enterprise architecture, workloads, APIs, integrations, and modern technology platforms.
• Experience operating at the intersection of technical strategy, product, and commercial partnership development.
• Strong experience in organizational design, headcount planning, capacity management, and resource allocation.
• Experience building dashboards, KPIs, operating rhythms, and executive reporting frameworks.
• Proven ability to translate partner and market feedback into structured input for Product and Engineering.
• Exceptional executive communication, stakeholder management, and prioritization skills.

Candidate Profile

The ideal candidate is an experienced technology partnerships and partner engineering executive who has built and scaled organizations connecting strategic partners, commercial teams, and Product and Engineering.

They may have developed through Partner Engineering, Solutions Engineering, Solution Architecture, Technical Alliances, Pre-Sales, or Field Engineering before moving into broader leadership roles.

They combine strong technical credibility with commercial judgment and can operate effectively with partner executives, CTOs, architects, product leaders, engineering teams, and commercial stakeholders.

They are also highly operational. They understand how to allocate scarce technical resources, measure partner progression, build effective dashboards and governance, and determine where the organization should invest time and capacity.

A critical part of the role is building a strong voice-of-the-partner into Product and Engineering—identifying recurring partner requirements, assessing their strategic value, and helping internal teams translate the right signals into product and engineering priorities.

Ultimately, this leader is accountable for building a scalable partner engineering organization that accelerates strategic partnerships, removes technical friction, improves internal decision-making, and converts ecosystem relationships into meaningful commercial impact.

Our Culture

• Impact: Play a crucial role in our growth journey.
• Culture: Join a vibrant team valuing creativity and collaboration.
• Growth: Thrive in a fast-paced, dynamic environment.
• Reward: Enjoy competitive compensation, equity opportunities, and comprehensive benefits.

Napster Corp embraces a diversity of backgrounds and experiences and provides equal opportunity for all applicants and employees. We strive to build a company that reflects a global audience.