Senior Director, Business Development & Global Strategic Technology Partnerships

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Job Category

Development & Strategy

Job Details

About Salesforce

We’re Salesforce, the Customer Company, inspiring the future of business with AI+ Data +CRM. Leading with our core values, we help companies across every industry blaze new trails and connect with customers in a whole new way. And, we empower you to be a Trailblazer, too — driving your performance and career growth, charting new paths, and improving the state of the world. If you believe in business as the greatest platform for change and in companies doing well and doing good – you’ve come to the right place.

Role Description

As Senior Director of Business Development, you will be a people-leader in the Global Technology Partnerships organization, with the primary mission of enabling growth for Salesforce through new technology partnerships. You’ll collaborate closely with cross-functional teams to identify, negotiate, and close strategic partnerships that enhance our product offerings and/or GTM capabilities. In addition, you’ll lead and inspire a team of high-performing business development professionals who will each be accountable for 1-2 new partnership opportunities at any given time. 

This is a unique opportunity to join the central team that develops and drives strategic partnership initiatives aligned to the full Salesforce product portfolio and top corporate priorities. The work you and your team deliver will drive revenue, increase customer success, accelerate our product roadmaps, differentiate our offerings and elevate our brand. 

Your Impact

Team Leadership:

• Manage and mentor a team of business development professionals.

• Set clear goals, provide guidance on prioritization, and foster a collaborative and results-driven culture.

• Empower team members to excel in their roles and achieve both individual and overall organizational targets.

Strategic Product Partnerships:

• Identify and evaluate potential partners whose products align with our strategic vision and needs. 

• Develop, with your team, a robust pipeline of product partnership opportunities.

• Lead and coach team through complex negotiations, ensuring win-win outcomes for both parties.

• Collaborate with product, engineering, finance, legal, PR and Ops teams to ensure deal approval and launch success.

Market Insights and Trends:

• Stay on top of industry trends, competitive landscapes, and emerging technologies.

• Leverage market insights / competitive intelligence to identify gaps and areas for new partnership opportunities.

• Drive product innovation with Salesforce product GMs by prioritizing and delivering partnerships that maximize impact to Salesforce. 

Relationship Building:

• Cultivate strong relationships with new and existing partners - both inside their partnership org, as well as their product teams. 

• Operate as a key leadership point of contact with internal cross-functional stakeholders 

• Represent Salesforce as a product SME at conferences, events, and customer executive briefings. 

• Collaborate with legal and finance teams to structure and execute partnership agreements that scale for long-term success.

Metrics and Performance:

• Define and manage to key performance indicators (KPIs) for all new product partnerships. 

• Drive team focus and balance workload against evolving product / company priorities. 

Minimum Requirements

• Minimum 10 years of business development experience, with a focus on technology partnerships.

• History of leading teams and effectively developing individual contributors from hiring to promotion. 

• Proven track record of successfully closing complex and durable partnership deals.  

• Strong professional network of contacts at current / prospective partnership companies. 

• Experience with SaaS or Public Cloud companies preferred.

• Strong knowledge of Salesforce products and services OR equivalent technologies in the market.

• Excellent communication and presentation skills.

• Analytical mindset with the ability to deliver a data-driven business case as well as teach others to build financial models that justify partnership investments.

• Strong negotiation skills with experience driving to deal consensus at the CxO  level.

• Ability to operate as a player/coach and lead teams in fast-paced environments.