Why This Job is Featured on The SaaS Jobs
This Partner Manager role stands out in the SaaS ecosystem because it sits at the intersection of platform partnerships, cloud alliances, and public sector deployment. With OpenAI working alongside major providers such as AWS and other strategic partners, the position reflects a common SaaS pattern where distribution and delivery are increasingly shaped by ecosystems rather than standalone sales motions, particularly for AI products that depend on infrastructure, integrators, and shared go to market execution.
From a SaaS career standpoint, the work builds durable operating skills that travel well across enterprise software companies: establishing governance, creating partner cadences, managing dependencies, and translating executive alignment into coordinated execution. The emphasis on cross functional orchestration across product, legal, security, policy, and delivery mirrors how modern SaaS organizations scale partnerships from relationship management into repeatable operating models.
The role is best suited to professionals who prefer structured, programmatic work and are comfortable being the connective layer across many stakeholders, internally and externally. It will fit someone who enjoys ambiguity without relying on ad hoc problem solving, and who wants their partnership craft to be measured through operational follow through as much as commercial outcomes.
The section above is editorial commentary from The SaaS Jobs, provided to help SaaS professionals understand the role in a broader industry context.
Job Description
About the team
OpenAI’s mission is to build safe artificial general intelligence (AGI) which benefits all of humanity. This long-term undertaking brings the world’s best scientists, engineers, and business professionals into one lab together to accomplish this.
About the Role
We are seeking a Partner Manager to join OpenAI for Government’s Partnerships team to help lead and scale OpenAI’s most important partner relationships.
This role sits at the center of partner management, cross-functional execution, and internal governance. You will help shape how OpenAI works with major platform, cloud, systems integration, and go-to-market partners to unlock durable commercial outcomes, strengthen delivery readiness, and improve coordination across internal and external teams.
The right candidate will be able to manage a high-level of activity across a portfolio of high-priority strategic relationships, drive operational rigor, and serve as a connective layer across business, technical, legal, product, policy, and delivery stakeholders.
This position is ideal for someone who combines strong partner instincts with exceptionally strong program management discipline and can translate executive alignment into tangible execution across complex, fast-moving relationships.
In this role, you'll:
Own day-to-day management of a portfolio of key strategic partners, including Amazon Web Services (AWS) and other high-priority AI ecosystem relationships.
Serve as a central point of coordination for joint planning, governance, escalation management, and cross-functional execution.
Build and run partner operating cadences across leadership reviews, working teams, business development, technical alignment, and delivery stakeholders.
Help drive commercial outcomes by supporting co-sell motions, opportunity coordination, and execution against shared objectives.
Track partnership performance, milestones, dependencies, and risks across multiple workstreams and internal teams.
Coordinate internal resources across Go-to-Market, partnerships, product, legal, security, communications, policy, finance, and operations to support partner success.
Support implementation and operationalization of partnership agreements, statements of work, enablement plans, and governance structures.
Identify and resolve blockers across joint initiatives, including issues related to prioritization, delivery readiness, technical engagement, or executive alignment.
Help define the model for how OpenAI engages with partners such as cloud providers, strategic platforms, and other major partners over time.
Develop clear internal reporting on partner health, strategic priorities, and progress against business goals.
Drive consistency in how OpenAI manages partner communications, commitments, and cross-functional follow-through.
Contribute to long-term expansion strategies for strategic relationships, including identifying new areas for product, Go-to-Market, or delivery collaboration.
We're seeking someone with experience including:
Bachelor’s degree in Business, Technology, Public Policy, or a related field; equivalent practical experience welcomed.
8–12+ years of experience in business development, program management, or cross-functional strategic operations.
Experience managing large, complex external relationships with meaningful commercial, operational, or technical scope.
Strong program management capabilities, including operating cadence design, dependency tracking, stakeholder coordination, and executive communications.
Experience working across technical, commercial, legal, and policy teams to move partnerships from concept through execution.
Proven ability to manage multiple strategic priorities simultaneously and operate effectively in ambiguous environments.
Strong executive presence and comfort engaging senior leaders both internally and externally.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to synthesize complex issues into clear recommendations and action plans.
Experience supporting cloud, AI, enterprise software, or platform partnerships.
Familiarity with enterprise go-to-market motions, delivery models, and partner ecosystems.
Experience working with AWS specifically is a plus, particularly in program management, operations, cloud go-to-market, or ecosystem development.
Nice to have experience:
Experience at a major cloud provider or managing strategic relationships with one is a strong plus.
Familiarity with mission domains such as AI/ML, data platforms, cybersecurity, or defense systems.
Prior experience in both technology companies and government-facing organizations.
Active security clearance or eligibility to obtain one.
Engineering degree or prior technical experience.
You might thrive in this role if you:
Are an exceptional program manager. You bring structure, discipline, and momentum to complex strategic partnerships. You know how to establish operating cadences, manage dependencies, track commitments, and ensure follow-through across multiple workstreams.
Are highly organized and execution-oriented. You excel at turning high-level partnership goals into clear plans, governance mechanisms, and repeatable processes that drive results.
Can align diverse stakeholders. You are skilled at coordinating across business, technical, legal, product, and operations teams to keep priorities clear and execution on track both internally and externally.
Operate well in complexity. You are comfortable managing ambiguity, resolving blockers, balancing competing priorities, and maintaining alignment in fast-moving environments.
Have strong partnership judgment. You build trust, communicate clearly, and help ensure key strategic relationships are managed with rigor, consistency, and long-term focus.
Are energized by AI and cloud ecosystems. You are excited by the opportunity to help shape how OpenAI works with major strategic partners to support meaningful growth and high-impact collaboration.
About OpenAI
OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company dedicated to ensuring that general-purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. We push the boundaries of the capabilities of AI systems and seek to safely deploy them to the world through our products. AI is an extremely powerful tool that must be created with safety and human needs at its core, and to achieve our mission, we must encompass and value the many different perspectives, voices, and experiences that form the full spectrum of humanity.
We are an equal opportunity employer, and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, disability, genetic information, or other applicable legally protected characteristic.
For additional information, please see OpenAI’s Affirmative Action and Equal Employment Opportunity Policy Statement.
Background checks for applicants will be administered in accordance with applicable law, and qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment consistent with those laws, including the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, and the California Fair Chance Act, for US-based candidates. For unincorporated Los Angeles County workers: we reasonably believe that criminal history may have a direct, adverse and negative relationship with the following job duties, potentially resulting in the withdrawal of a conditional offer of employment: protect computer hardware entrusted to you from theft, loss or damage; return all computer hardware in your possession (including the data contained therein) upon termination of employment or end of assignment; and maintain the confidentiality of proprietary, confidential, and non-public information. In addition, job duties require access to secure and protected information technology systems and related data security obligations.
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