Partner Sales Director - IHV Alliances

Hardware brands - Dell, HPE, IBM, Lenovo, Cisco, Ericsson and many more - are major partners for Canonical. These companies often build software-defined solutions which they take to market and Ubuntu is a key ingredient in cloud-native and edge or IoT solutions. More and more of those solutions depend on open source. Canonical Ubuntu is the best platform for rapid open source innovation.

The IHV Alliance Sales Director is responsible for IHV partner success - we want them to thrive and grow their business with Canonical software, solutions and services. This is a leadership and management role, responsible for a team who cover all IHV Alliances worldwide.

Reporting to the VP Global Alliances & Channels, our IHV Alliance Sales Director will work closely with strategic partners across their complex organizations to engage with their innovation teams and ensure that they consider and integrate Ubuntu stacks and solutions. For example, private clouds, container solutions, and vertical solutions for industries like telco and automotive, are increasingly built on open source and Ubuntu. We are the challenger platform, but we are growing quickly in the industry.

The Director is responsible to build trusted relationships with IHV partners, increase Canonical market share and attach rate, evangelize the partnership and lead all business interactions from engineer to CxO. They will often run customer workshops focused on particular initiatives at that customer, attend sales events, give public presentations and lead executive engagements.

As an IHV Alliance Sales Director you will:

• Build strategic relationships with IHV partners at levels
• Grow their awareness of open source capabilities on Canonical Ubuntu
• Demonstrate a deep understanding of the Linux and cloud software ecosystem
• Negotiate contracts and commercial business terms
• Demonstrate a deep understanding of large and complex organizations
• Lead partnerships in APAC with companies like Lenovo, Huawei, Quanta, Fujitsu, Inspur, H3C,  NEC, Asus etc.
• Lead partnerships in EMEA with companies like Ericsson, Nokia, Bull, Siemens
• Lead partnerships in the Americas with companies like Dell, HPE, IBM, Supermicro
• Work closely with marketing, sales engineering and product management
• Deliver on targets, objectives and provide a voice of the partner
• Lead executive interlocks between IHV and Canonical leadership
• Travel regularly - sometimes internationally - to drive partnerships in person

Valued skills and experience

• Experience in alliance or indirect sales management roles
• 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 measurable goals
• Experience with Linux, virtualization, containers, and other cloud technologies.
• 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.

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