Director, Strategic Partnerships

About the role

The Director, Strategic Partnerships will own two of GitLab's most important external relationships. This is a single-threaded owner role within the Corporate Development & Strategic Partnerships team, reporting to the VP, Corporate Development & Strategic Partnerships.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the primary owner and point of contact for one hyperscaler and one major AI lab, personally accountable for the direction, operating rhythm, and outcomes of each partnership, including the tactical work of keeping things moving week to week.
• Develop and drive multi-year partnership strategies and joint plans that connect GitLab's business priorities, product roadmap, and AI strategy with concrete partner initiatives — and then own getting those plans executed.
• Build strong working relationships across partner organizations, including executives, product management, engineering, sales, and marketing stakeholders.
• Run a disciplined operating cadence across complex initiatives, with clear priorities, owners, timelines, coordination points, and follow-through you drive yourself.
• Cross-functional work inside GitLab to support partnership goals, aligning teams across product, engineering, sales, marketing, and the executive group.
• Translate partner opportunities and requests into actionable internal plans, including roadmap discussions, integration needs, commercial motions, and executive recommendations.
• Track and communicate measurable partnership outcomes such as pipeline influence, annual recurring revenue impact, integration progress, and joint go-to-market execution.
• Represent the partnerships at the executive level by preparing clear recommendations, briefing executives, and helping drive alignment on investments, trade-offs, and next steps.

Qualifications

• Significant experience building and managing strategic partnerships, business development relationships, or alliance programs in enterprise software, cloud, and/or AI — with a track record of being in the details, not just setting direction.
• Strong ownership mindset with the ability to operate as a single-threaded owner who is accountable for both strategy and execution, and comfortable doing the hands-on work personally rather than handing it off.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to distill complex partnership topics into clear recommendations for executives and cross-functional stakeholders.
• Strong project and program management skills, including the ability to organize complex workstreams, prioritize effectively, and keep multiple initiatives moving through direct, hands-on management.
• Technical fluency in software development, platform integrations, and the AI or machine learning landscape, with comfort engaging engineering and product counterparts in substantive conversations.
• Experience working with senior stakeholders on high-visibility initiatives, including preparing executive briefings, framing recommendations, and driving follow-through.
• Ability to influence without formal authority, build strong working relationships across internal and external teams, and navigate multiple priorities with sound judgment.
• Familiarity with the DevSecOps ecosystem and a results-oriented approach to measuring partnership impact through business and product outcomes.

Benefits

• Flexible Paid Time Off
• Team Member Resource Groups
• Equity Compensation & Employee Stock Purchase Plan
• Growth and Development Fund
• Parental Leave