VP – Partner Sales

The Opportunity

As the Vice President of Global Partner Sales, you will lead all aspects of the organization while driving expansion of our partner ecosystem. The VP of Partner Sales will be a key strategic partner within our organization, responsible for overseeing the growth through all partners to support customer adoption of Couchbase Enterprise and Capella DBaaS.

The ideal candidate will be passionate about driving partner growth and engagement, with a focus on consumption models, SaaS subscription, and CSP marketplaces. You will spearhead the development of strategic partnerships to drive new revenue streams, while also overseeing and evolving the partner model within the company. This role requires a strategic thinker with a proven ability to scale channel partnerships, coupled with deep experience in leading teams that focus on building and nurturing partner relationships.

The Team  

This role can be located anywhere in the US, with a preference for the Bay Area. Our Global Partner Sales organization is made up of 24 team members globally, distributed across the Americas, EMEA, and APAC.

The Role

Sales Leadership & Strategy: 

• Define the global partner strategy for Couchbase and augment with specific regional plans to achieve aggressive growth targets for partner-sourced revenue.
• Lead, mentor, and manage the Global Partner Sales team to align with the Couchbase sales motion.
• Collaborate with internal teams, including sales, marketing, product, and engineering, to ensure alignment on go-to-market strategies, so that the channel partners are fully enabled and engaged.

Partner Ecosystem Development: 

• Drive the acquisition and development of new Regional & Global Systems Integrator partners, with a focus on our Ideal Partner Profile (IPP).
• Foster strong relationships with key partners to identify co-selling and co-marketing opportunities.
• Lead the strategic evolution of the company’s partner model to keep up with industry changes, new technologies, and the competitive landscape.

Revenue Growth & Metrics: 

• Implement reporting tools and dashboards to track the performance of the channel sales team and measure partner-driven revenue, partner engagement, and other key metrics.
• Stay current with market trends, competitor activities, and emerging technologies in the database infrastructure space, especially with respect to open source and cloud service provider ecosystems.

What you’ll need (Capabilities)

Lead The Business: 

• 15+ years of experience in channel sales or partner management, with at least 5 years in a senior leadership role.
• Proven experience working with CSPs (AWS, Google Cloud, Azure) and SaaS-based go-to-market models.
• Leadership of other GTM & commercial orgs in sales & revenue operations
• Extensive experience developing, acquiring, and managing channel partners in the technology sector, particularly in infrastructure or database solutions.
• Experience with Regional and Global Systems Integrators and ISVs.
• An understanding of open-source business models, databases, and familiarity with software marketplaces is preferred.

Lead Yourself: 

• Demonstrate our company values, in particular an appetite for making tomorrow better than today, attacking hard problems, and leading with high levels of integrity and professionalism
• Ability to think strategically and develop long-term plans for growth, with a focus on innovation and adaptability.
• Ability to apply progressive practices with meeting key operational standards
• Demonstrated ability to meet and exceed revenue targets through partner-driven sales.

Lead The Team: 

• Attract, hire, develop, and lead a world-class team of Business Development professionals, driving them to achieve excellence while fostering an inclusive, collaborative, and innovative work environment
• Strong cross-functional collaboration skills, with experience working closely with sales, marketing, product, and engineering teams.