Partner Sales Director - Global System Integrator (GSI)

Canonical Ltd.; Johannesburg; Remote; ZAR 1,800,000 - 2,400,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Twice-yearly team sprints in person

USD 2,000 learning budget per year

Annual compensation review

Recognition rewards

Annual holiday leave

Maternity and paternity leave

Wellness program

Travel to new locations

Priority Pass and travel upgrades

Job summary

Canonical Ltd. is seeking a Partner Sales Director to drive Ubuntu-based partnerships with Global System Integrators and other partners. You will manage strategy, partner programs, and executive-level engagements to accelerate growth and attach rate.

The role involves leading cross-functional collaboration with marketing, sales engineering and product teams, and occasional international travel up to 40% as needed.

Qualifications

• Extensive alliance or indirect sales management experience.
• Deep understanding of OpenStack, virtualization and cloud tech.
• Strong negotiation and executive stakeholder skills.

Responsibilities

• Build partnerships with Global System Integrators and other partners.
• Lead sell-to/sell-through/sell-with motions with partners.
• Coordinate with marketing, SE and product management to hit targets.
• Facilitate executive workshops and partner engagements.

Skills

Alliance sales

Indirect sales

OpenStack

Cloud technologies

Negotiation

Executive communication

Travel readiness

Tools

Virtualization

Containers

Job description

Canonical is a leading provider of open source software and operating systems to the global enterprise and technology markets. Our platform, Ubuntu, is very widely used in breakthrough enterprise initiatives such as public cloud, data science, AI, engineering innovation, and IoT. Our customers include the world's leading public cloud and silicon providers, and industry leaders in many sectors. The company is a pioneer of global distributed collaboration, with 1200+ colleagues in 75+ countries and very few office-based roles. Teams meet two to four times yearly in person, in interesting locations around the world, to align on strategy and execution.

The company is founder-led, profitable, and growing.

Global System Integrators (GSI) play a crucial role in Canonical growth plans in the coming 3 years. We are hiring a Partner Sales Director to work closely with Canonical GSI partners throughout their sales cycles and across their sales organizations to facilitate Ubuntu based solutions and opportunities, as well as help GSI build long term digital transformation platforms with Ubuntu stacks and services.

Reporting to the VP Global Alliances and Channels, the Partner Sales Director will be responsible for building trusted relationships with partners, increasing Canonical market share and attach rate, evangelizing about the partnership and leading all business interactions from engineers to CxO level. They will own the strategy, the sell-to, sell-through and sell-with motions with the GSI and will animate many customer workshops, sales events, public presentations and executive engagements.

The role entails

• Build strategic relationships with partners at levels, and stickiness with Ubuntu technology
• Deep understanding of Linux and cloud software ecosystem, and open source selling models
• Negotiate contracts and commercial business terms
• Deep understanding of partner organizations and sales models, in particular with Global System Integrators
• Work closely with marketing, sales engineering and product management to deliver on targets, objectives and provide a voice of the partner
• Lead executive interlocks between partners and Canonical leadership team
• Ability to travel - sometimes internationally - up to 40% of the time

What We Are Looking For In You

• Extensive experience in alliance or indirect sales management roles
• Extensive experience with OpenStack, virtualization, containers and other Cloud technologies.
• Autonomous, disciplined, hands-on, get-it-done mentality
• Ability to capture customer requirements, evaluate gaps, identify and create opportunities
• Passionate about Ubuntu products and mission
• Comfortable in fast-paced and high pressure environments with ambitious achievement goals
• Excellent communication and presentation skills

What We Offer Colleagues

We consider geographical location, experience, and performance in shaping compensation worldwide. We revisit compensation annually (and more often for graduates and associates) to ensure we recognize outstanding performance. In addition to base pay, we offer a performance-driven annual bonus or commission. We provide all team members with additional benefits which reflect our values and ideals. We balance our programs to meet local needs and ensure fairness globally.

• Distributed work environment with twice-yearly team sprints in person
• Personal learning and development budget of USD 2,000 per year
• Annual compensation review
• Recognition rewards
• Annual holiday leave
• Maternity and paternity leave
• Team Member Assistance Program & Wellness Platform
• Opportunity to travel to new locations to meet colleagues
• Priority Pass and travel upgrades for long-haul company events

About Canonical

Canonical is a pioneering tech firm at the forefront of the global move to open source. As the company that publishes Ubuntu, one of the most important open-source projects and the platform for AI, IoT, and the cloud, we are changing the world of software. We recruit on a global basis and set a very high standard for people joining the company. We expect excellence; in order to succeed, we need to be the best at what we do. Most colleagues at Canonical have worked from home since our inception in 2004. Working here is a step into the future and will challenge you to think differently, work smarter, learn new skills, and raise your game.

Canonical is an equal opportunity employer

We are proud to foster a workplace free from discrimination. Diversity of experience, perspectives, and background create a better work environment and better products. Whatever your identity, we will give your application fair consideration.