Partner Development Manager - AI Partnerships

About the role

The Partner Development Manager – AI Partnerships is responsible for strengthening the overall health, growth, and market impact of the AI Partnerships (specifically AI Frontier labs). The role will develop and implement mechanisms that will own AI Partnership Strategy and execution to amplify and simplify engagement with across sales, solutioning, marketing, and executive alignment.

Responsibilities

• Meet goals and milestones associated with improving ZS’s standing and impact within the AI labs ecosystem, including but not limited to:
• Own alliance performance and governance: Track KPIs across pipeline, revenue, and engagement; define success metrics and establish operating rhythms to measure the impact of AI Partnership initiatives
• Develop and execute partner strategy: Define annual plans, priorities, and growth plays; lead QBRs and drive follow-through on joint initiatives focused on scaling generative AI adoption
• Drive co-sell pipeline and revenue: Partner with ZS teams and Partner sellers to identify, shape, and progress opportunities; support commercial alignment and deal execution across client engagements
• Expand joint solutions and GTM: Identify priority use cases (generative AI, LLM applications, automation, analytics); develop scalable joint offerings and repeatable client propositions
• Deepen partner engagement and account alignment: Build relationships across both organizations; lead account mapping, introductions, and whitespace identification to accelerate growth
• Strengthen credentials and visibility: Build ZS's reputation as a leader with our partners in AI powered solutions through case studies, thought leadership, and external visibility
• Enable internal teams: Coordinate training and ongoing enablement to build AI Partnership fluency across ZS sellers, delivery teams, and client-facing stakeholders
• Execute joint marketing: Partner with alliance marketing to deliver campaigns, events, and content that build market awareness and support pipeline generation

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree required, master’s degree preferred
• 8-10+ years of business development, partner development, sales or alliances management experience
• 5+ years of experience selling enterprise technology solutions or platforms, preferably with exposure to AI, data, or cloud ecosystems
• Experience building and scaling strategic alliances with technology partners, including co-sell motions, executive relationships, joint business planning, and partner marketing
• Enough technical fluency to be credible in architecture-level discussions — you don't need to write code, but you can follow the conversation and ask the right follow-up questions when a partner architect walks through how they are applying AI solutions to a customer problem
• Experience managing programs across cross-functional teams and building processes to drive joint initiatives forward
• Experience communicating across technical and non-technical audiences, including executive level stakeholders or clients
• Experience with hyperscaler or cloud ecosystem partnerships (e.g. GCP, AWS, Azure) considered in lieu of direct experience with AI Lab partnerships

Qualifications

• Fluency in English
• Intense work ethic
• Collaborative spirit and problem-solving approach

Skills

• Strategic thinking and execution
• Collaboration and partnership building
• Technical acumen and understanding of AI and related technologies
• Client relationship management
• Marketing and communications skills

Benefits

At ZS, your growth matters. We offer a comprehensive total rewards package that supports your health and well-being, financial future, time away, and professional development. With robust skills-building programs, multiple career progression paths, internal mobility, and a deeply collaborative culture, you’ll have the opportunity to do meaningful work, expand your capabilities, and thrive as part of a global community.

Pay

Details on pay are available upon request.

Schedule

Details on schedule are available upon request.