Senior Partner Programs Manager
- You excel at rallying cross-functional teams and building consensus, which is crucial for driving alignment across Partnerships, Sales, and Marketing.
- Your interpersonal skills make you a natural communicator and motivator for partner communities, summits, and advisory boards.
- You can translate partner feedback into meaningful program improvements that strengthen relationships and outcomes.
- The need for deep data analysis and program metrics may feel less natural, as you prefer focusing on people over numbers.
- You might overcommit to pleasing everyone, which can hinder making tough, data-driven decisions about retiring underperforming programs.
About Vercel:
Vercel is the agentic infrastructure company. We free people and agents to ship what’s next.
For more than a decade, Vercel has shaped how the web is built. As the team behind Next.js, v0, and AI SDK, we create products that help builders move from idea to production with speed, security, and exceptional developer experience.
Now, software is entering a new era, and the next generation of products will not just be used by people. They will be built, extended, and operated by agents.
We are building the platform for that future, trusted by companies like OpenAI, PayPal, Ramp, Supreme, and millions of developers worldwide. Whether you’re building our products, supporting our customers, growing our community, or shaping our story, you’ll help define what comes next.
About the role
The Partner Team at Vercel is charged with creating mutual success for Vercel, our partners, and our customers. We are seeking a Sr Manager, Partner Programs to build and scale the programs, infrastructure, and operating model that turn Vercel's partner strategy into repeatable, high-leverage execution across our entire partner ecosystem, including SIs, GSIs, ISV co-sell, and product partners.
Reporting to the VP of Partnerships, this person owns how partner strategy gets operationalized: designing the shared systems, journeys, and enablement that every partner type moves through, so partner leadership and partner managers can focus on strategy, relationships, and growth rather than rebuilding infrastructure partner-by-partner.
This is an hybrid position, with a required 3 days per week in one of our San Francisco, Austin, or New York City offices.
What you will do
- Own the Partner Journey Framework: Design and continuously improve the shared journey every partner moves through, from Acquisition to Onboarding to Activation to Acceleration, including eligibility criteria, intake paths, incentives, tiering, and agreements.
- Lead Partner Enablement & Certification: Own the roadmap and delivery model for partner onboarding, training, certification, and badging programs, partnering with PSE and GTM Enablement on technical training content.
- Establish Governance & Standards: Define tiering, KPIs, and rules of engagement across partner types, and drive consistent standards across Partnerships, Sales, Marketing, Product, and Customer Success.
- Design Repeatable GTM Plays: Build co-sell, pipeline-generation, and joint go-to-market motions that scale successful partner plays rather than reinventing them per relationship.
- Run Partner Communications & Community: Own ongoing partner comms, news, meetups, summits, self-serve co-marketing kits, and the Partner Advisory Board with its feedback loops.
- Use Data to Evolve Programs: Evaluate program and partner performance using data and partner feedback, and recommend where programs should expand, simplify, or retire.
- Act as the Execution Arm of Partner Strategy: Translate partner leadership's priorities (Enterprise, Agentic Pipeline, Scale) into clear, resourced programs and roadmaps.
About you
- 8+ years in partnerships, partner programs, ecosystem enablement, or GTM strategy roles, ideally in SaaS or developer tooling.
- Proven experience building and scaling partner programs, not just managing individual partner relationships, in a B2B technology company.
- Strong understanding of the developer, modern web, and AI agent ecosystem.
- Experience with PRM systems, marketplaces, or partner ecosystem tooling.
- Ability to translate ambiguous strategy into concrete, scalable programs and measurable execution.
- Strong cross-functional leadership; comfortable driving alignment across Partnerships, Sales, Marketing, Product, and Customer Success without direct authority.
- Data-driven approach to evaluating program performance and partner feedback.
- Clear, confident communicator capable of building tools, content, and playbooks that other people can execute consistently.
Bonus if you have
- Experience designing governance, tiering, or certification frameworks for multiple partner types simultaneously (SIs, ISVs, GSIs, resellers).
- Exposure to AI/ML, devtools, cloud, or SaaS startup ecosystems.
- Experience standing up or migrating PRM/marketplace infrastructure.
Benefits:
- Competitive compensation package, including equity.
- Inclusive Healthcare Package.
- Learn and Grow - we provide mentorship and send you to events that help you build your network and skills.
- Flexible Time Off.
- We will provide you the gear you need to do your role, and a WFH budget for you to outfit your space as needed.
The San Francisco, CA on-target earnings (OTE) range for this role is $175,000 - $230,000. Actual salary will be based on job-related skills, experience, and location. Compensation outside of San Francisco may be adjusted based on employee location. The total compensation package may include benefits, equity-based compensation, and eligibility for a company bonus or variable pay program depending on the role. Your recruiter can share more details during the hiring process.
Vercel is committed to fostering and empowering an inclusive community within our organization. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, gender expression or identity, sexual orientation, national origin, citizenship, age, marital status, veteran status, disability status, or any other characteristic protected by law. Vercel encourages everyone to apply for our available positions, even if they don't necessarily check every box on the job description.
Best personality fits for this role
You're a natural leader who thrives on turning ambiguous strategy into concrete, executable programs and driving alignment across teams.
Read the ENTJ career guide →Strategic planning is your strength: you'll thrive designing partner journey frameworks and scalable programs from scratch.
Read the INTJ career guide →Your natural organizational skills and love for structure make you excel at building tiering systems, governance, and operating models.
Read the ESTJ career guide →