Alliances & Channels Leader

Canonical publishes Ubuntu and has been remote-first since 2004, with 1,200+ colleagues across 75+ countries and very few office-based roles.

The opportunity

These are new senior leadership openings in Canonical's Global Alliances and Channels organisations, leading business development and partnership with major players across the technology sector.

Canonical works across a broad partner ecosystem: global system integrators, value-added resellers, regional distributors, independent software and hardware vendors, silicon companies, public clouds and other strategic technology brands. Those partners shape the platforms, marketplaces and delivery motions through which enterprises adopt open source at scale.

Depending on your background and Canonical's priorities, your focus might be Channels, GSI, ISV, IHV/OEM, Silicon, Cloud or cross-ecosystem partnerships.

Open to two different career shapes

Worth noting: opportunities exist for both people leaders and senior individual contributors. You would either manage a team or personally drive high-impact partner initiatives. That flexibility is unusual at this level, and means the listing suits someone who wants senior scope without necessarily taking on headcount.

The role entails

• Owning partner strategy, forecast, bookings and revenue across one or more indirect routes to market
• Leading and evolving a team or strategic partner portfolio toward accelerated revenue growth
• Building executive-level relationships with global and regional partners
• Designing and executing joint go-to-market plans with partners, sales, product management, product marketing and engineering
• Developing partner capability through sales engagement, technical enablement, joint marketing and business planning
• Guiding Canonical's offering from product management through product marketing, and scaling it via the global sales organisation
• Establishing operating cadence, pipeline governance and data-driven accountability across complex partner relationships

What they are looking for

• 10+ years in alliance, channel, partner, ecosystem or indirect sales management
• Experience across one or more of GSIs, VARs, distributors, ISVs, IHVs/OEMs, silicon, public cloud, marketplaces or strategic alliances
• Deep commercial grounding in revenue, margins, pipeline, forecasting and partner economics
• Leadership and presentation skills that work from engineer through to CxO level
• Ability to build trusted executive relationships while aligning product, sales, marketing, engineering and operations
• Insight into open source, Ubuntu, enterprise infrastructure, cloud, AI and security
• A track record of data-driven decision-making across complex global relationships
• An autonomous, hands-on, get-it-done mentality
• An exceptional academic record from high school and university
• International travel two to four times a year for company events of up to two weeks

Benefits

• Distributed work with twice-yearly in-person team sprints
• USD 2,000 personal learning and development budget per year
• Annual compensation review, plus performance-driven annual bonus or commission
• Recognition rewards, annual holiday leave, maternity and paternity leave
• Team Member Assistance Program and wellness platform
• Priority Pass and travel upgrades for long-haul company events

No salary figures are published on this listing.

Location

The header lists three options — Americas, EMEA and Worldwide — and the body states plainly: "These are globally remote positions." Filed as Worldwide, since that is the broadest of the three and matches the body text.

Before applying

AI use disqualifies your application. You must confirm you used only your own words.

This is among the most demanding applications on the board. Beyond Canonical's usual academic screening, there are five substantial written answers:

• Which partner ecosystems you have the most relevant experience in, and where your strongest fit lies
• The most senior alliance, channel or partner relationships you have personally developed, including stakeholders, functions and geographies
• The scale of revenue or bookings you have delivered through partners in a typical year, with partner type, scope and results
• Which role type suits your strengths — commercial partner growth, route-to-market scale, strategic alliance development, or technical and solution alliances
• Why Canonical, and what motivates you about scaling enterprise open source adoption through partners

A LinkedIn profile is also mandatory rather than optional here. Set aside real time before starting.