Senior Director, AWS Strategic Alliance & Platform Partnerships
Job Description
Zendesk is seeking a high-impact strategic alliances leader to own and advance our global partnership with Amazon Web Services. AWS is Zendesk’s most established and comprehensive strategic platform alliance, spanning cloud infrastructure, artificial intelligence, contact center, product innovation, AWS Marketplace, co-sell strategy, industry solutions, partner marketing, and executive engagement.
Reporting to the Senior Director, Global Strategic Alliances, this leader will have primary responsibility for translating the Zendesk and AWS relationship into measurable product, go-to-market, and commercial outcomes. Approximately 80% of the role will focus on AWS. The remaining scope will include a broader leadership role for Technology Partnerships in San Francisco, driving local executive engagement with additional strategic partners and helping incubate and develop platform relationships such as Microsoft and Google.
This individual will directly manage the AWS Technology Alliances team and serve as the primary day-to-day leader of the AWS partnership. They will establish strategic priorities, align stakeholders across both companies, create operating discipline, and ensure strategic agreements and executive commitments translate into execution.
This leader will also work closely with Zendesk’s AWS go-to-market alliances team, which owns day-to-day co-sell execution, seller engagement, and opportunity management. This role will influence and help define the broader AWS go-to-market and co-sell strategy, connect it to the product and executive dimensions of the partnership, and help establish the operating models, investments, and cross-functional commitments required for effective execution.
The Senior Director, Strategic Alliances will remain the executive sponsor and escalation point for the relationship, while this leader will own the partnership’s operating strategy, technology alliance, cross-functional coordination, and delivery.
Based in San Francisco, this person will serve as a highly visible Technology Partnerships leader within Zendesk, strengthening local team connectivity, building relationships across Product, Engineering, Sales, Marketing, Finance, Operations, and executive leadership, and representing the broader partnerships organization with strategic partners in the Bay Area.
Defining Success
Success in this role will be measured by the ability to deepen the AWS partnership and convert strategic alignment into meaningful business results. Key outcomes include:
- AWS Partnership Strategy: Develop and execute a clear, multi-year strategy for the AWS relationship across product, AI, Amazon Connect, go-to-market, AWS Marketplace, industry, channel, and executive priorities.
- Strategic Agreement Execution: Establish strong governance and accountability for Strategic Collaboration Agreements and other joint commitments, ensuring milestones, investments, and commercial objectives are achieved.
- Executive Alignment: Build trusted, multi-threaded relationships across AWS and Zendesk leadership, supported by effective executive briefings, QBRs, escalation mechanisms, and clearly defined strategic asks.
- Co-Sell Strategy and Influence: Partner with the AWS go-to-market alliances team to shape Zendesk’s AWS co-sell strategy, improve alignment between product and field priorities, and establish the operating mechanisms, executive support, and cross-functional commitments required to accelerate joint pipeline. The AWS go-to-market alliances team will retain ownership of day-to-day co-sell execution, seller engagement, and opportunity management.
- AWS Marketplace Growth: Expand AWS Marketplace as a strategic procurement and growth channel for Zendesk, including private offers, enterprise agreements, product-led growth opportunities, and multi-product solution motions.
- Product and AI Alignment: Advance joint opportunities involving Zendesk AI, Amazon Bedrock, Amazon Bedrock AgentCore, Amazon Connect, and other relevant AWS capabilities, supported by clear product roadmaps and differentiated customer value propositions.
- Contact Center Growth: Strengthen the Amazon Connect relationship as a catalyst for Zendesk Contact Center growth, including deeper product alignment, field activation, executive engagement, and expansion across the broader Amazon Connect portfolio.
- Industry and Ecosystem Activation: Build repeatable industry solutions and multi-party partner motions that bring together Zendesk, AWS, channel partners, and complementary technology providers.
- Team Leadership: Lead a high-performing AWS Technology Alliances team with clear ownership, measurable goals, strong operating rhythms, and effective cross-functional influence.
- Platform Partner Leadership and Incubation: Build executive relationships and focused strategies for selected platform partners, particularly through the San Francisco ecosystem, creating the foundation for future product, commercial, and go-to-market relationships while maintaining disciplined execution against AWS priorities.
Key Responsibilities and Scope
AWS Partnership Leadership
- Own the global strategy, operating model, and day-to-day management of Zendesk’s AWS partnership.
- Serve as the primary Technology Alliances contact for AWS, coordinating activity across senior executives, product and engineering teams, Amazon Connect, AI services, AWS Marketplace, partner marketing, and industry leaders.
- Translate Zendesk’s corporate, product, and go-to-market priorities into a focused joint strategy with AWS.
- Establish clear ownership, governance, milestones, and performance measures across the partnership.
- Identify partnership gaps, resolve execution barriers, and escalate material risks or decisions to the Senior Director, Strategic Alliances.
- Ensure the AWS relationship is broad and resilient, with strong connections across technical, product, commercial, and executive stakeholders.
- Maintain a comprehensive view of the AWS partnership, connecting initiatives that might otherwise operate independently across Zendesk.
Strategic Agreements and Executive Engagement
- Lead the development, negotiation, governance, and execution of Strategic Collaboration Agreements and other high-value partnership frameworks with AWS.
- Translate strategic agreements into clear workstreams, milestones, owners, investments, and measurable outcomes.
- Create executive engagement strategies that produce tangible decisions, commitments, and follow-through.
- Lead the preparation and execution of executive briefings, QBRs, strategic planning sessions, and major AWS events.
- Build and maintain trusted relationships with senior AWS leaders across product, AI, Amazon Connect, AWS Marketplace, industries, and go-to-market organizations.
- Provide the Senior Director, Strategic Alliances and Zendesk executive leadership with clear recommendations, decision points, risks, and escalation paths.
- Maintain a consistent executive view of partnership performance, including progress, gaps, dependencies, and required interventions.
Product, AI, and Contact Center Strategy
- Partner closely with Product, Engineering, and CTO leadership to align AWS capabilities with Zendesk’s product and platform strategy.
- Advance the strategic relationship between Zendesk Contact Center and Amazon Connect, including joint roadmap alignment, solution development, field enablement, and go-to-market strategy.
- Develop joint opportunities involving Zendesk AI and AWS services such as Amazon Bedrock and Amazon Bedrock AgentCore.
- Help position Zendesk as the trusted service, knowledge, workflow, governance, and resolution layer within AWS-powered agentic enterprise solutions.
- Identify opportunities to expand Zendesk integrations and solutions across the broader AWS portfolio.
- Develop differentiated joint value propositions across Zendesk’s priority growth areas, including AI for service, employee service, and contact center.
- Ensure partnership initiatives are grounded in customer demand, differentiated value, technical feasibility, and viable paths to commercialization.
- Connect product and technical priorities to the go-to-market strategy so that joint innovation can be effectively activated with customers and sellers.
Go-to-Market, Co-Sell, and AWS Marketplace
- Partner closely with Zendesk’s AWS go-to-market alliances team to define and operationalize the broader AWS co-sell strategy.
- Connect AWS product, executive, industry, and Marketplace priorities to the field strategy led by the AWS go-to-market alliances team.
- Influence the operating mechanisms, investments, enablement, and cross-functional alignment required to support effective co-sell execution.
- Provide strategic context and executive support for priority opportunities and field initiatives without owning day-to-day pipeline management or seller execution.
- Work with the AWS go-to-market alliances team to identify and address systemic barriers affecting ACE execution, account alignment, opportunity progression, and shared accountability.
- Ensure Zendesk’s AWS product strategy and joint value propositions are translated into clear, repeatable field plays for activation by the go-to-market alliances team.
- Lead the strategic direction for AWS Marketplace as a route to market, procurement vehicle, and customer call to action, partnering with the appropriate go-to-market and operational teams on execution.
- Identify opportunities to expand AWS Marketplace across sales-assisted, product-led, enterprise, and multi-product purchasing motions.
- Partner with Marketing and the AWS go-to-market alliances team to inform cohesive joint campaigns, customer stories, executive events, and major AWS moments such as re.
- Develop multi-party solution strategies with AWS, channel partners, and complementary technology providers, with field activation led by the appropriate go-to-market owners.
- Support the development of industry-specific solutions and campaigns that combine Zendesk capabilities with AWS technology, infrastructure, field reach, and customer relationships.
Team and Cross-Functional Leadership
- Directly manage and develop the AWS Technology Alliances team, establishing clear roles, priorities, goals, and performance expectations.
- Create an operating cadence that connects partnership strategy, program execution, performance measurement, and executive governance.
- Provide the AWS team with the strategic direction, executive support, coaching, and organizational air cover required to execute effectively.
- Lead through influence across Product, Engineering, Sales, Marketing, Finance, Legal, Operations, and other functions.
- Establish clear accountability between the Technology Alliances team, the AWS go-to-market alliances team, and other cross-functional owners.
- Ensure cross-functional teams understand the partnership strategy, their responsibilities, and the business outcomes they are expected to support.
- Serve as a visible and accessible leader for the Technology Partnerships team in San Francisco, strengthening team connection, local operating cadence, cross-functional alignment, and executive engagement.
- Foster a culture of accountability, transparency, collaboration, and strong communication across the partnership.
San Francisco Leadership and Strategic Platform Partner Incubation
- Take a leadership role, in partnership with the Senior Director, Strategic Alliances, in evaluating, incubating, and developing selected relationships with Microsoft, Google, and other strategic platform partners.
- Develop partnership hypotheses, executive relationships, value propositions, and potential paths to product, commercial, or go-to-market collaboration.
- Use Zendesk’s San Francisco presence and proximity to the Bay Area technology ecosystem to deepen executive engagement, create connective tissue across organizations, and accelerate early partnership development.
- Work with Product, Engineering, and go-to-market leaders to evaluate partner capabilities, integration opportunities, commercial models, customer relevance, and the potential for differentiated joint solutions.
- Create clear incubation plans, success criteria, and recommendations for when an emerging relationship has sufficient strategic and commercial potential to warrant greater investment or dedicated ownership.
- Maintain appropriate focus and discipline so incubation work does not detract from the role’s primary responsibility for AWS.
Candidate Profile
Experience and Expertise
- 15+ years of relevant experience in strategic alliances, business development, cloud partnerships, enterprise technology, or related leadership roles.
- Deep experience managing a complex global partnership with AWS or another major hyperscaler.
- Demonstrated ability to lead partnerships spanning product, engineering, AI, contact center, AWS Marketplace, marketing, strategic agreements, and executive engagement.
- Proven experience partnering with go-to-market alliance leaders and influencing co-sell strategy without relying on direct ownership of sales execution.
- Demonstrated success converting strategic agreements and executive relationships into measurable product, pipeline, revenue, or customer outcomes.
- Strong knowledge of AWS organizational structures, partnership programs, co-sell motions, ACE, AWS Marketplace, and field operating models.
- Experience working across cloud, AI, contact center, customer experience, or enterprise SaaS ecosystems, including the ability to incubate emerging partner relationships alongside an established anchor alliance.
- Demonstrated success leading and developing high-performing teams while influencing complex cross-functional organizations.
- Strong commercial judgment, including experience negotiating strategic agreements, securing partner investment, and navigating competing organizational priorities.
- Ability to move comfortably between executive-level strategy and detailed operating execution.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to create clear narratives, executive recommendations, operating plans, and accountability across organizations.
Leadership Profile
- A strategic operator who can define a long-term vision while maintaining discipline around near-term execution.
- A collaborative and transparent leader who creates clarity across complex, distributed teams.
- A credible executive presence who can represent Zendesk with senior AWS leaders and other strategic platform partners, customers, and ecosystem stakeholders, including through in-person engagement in the San Francisco Bay Area.
- A decisive problem solver who identifies risks early, resolves ambiguity, and drives stakeholders toward clear commitments.
- A team leader who establishes high standards, develops talent, and creates an environment of trust and accountability.
- A skilled cross-functional influencer who understands the distinction between setting strategy, enabling execution, and owning operational delivery.
- A customer-focused thinker who connects partnership activity to differentiated solutions and measurable business value.
Education and Location
- Bachelor’s degree or equivalent practical experience required.
- MBA or other advanced business degree preferred.
- Technical, engineering, or computer science education is advantageous but not required.
- This role is based in San Francisco or the Bay Area and requires regular in-person presence in Zendesk’s San Francisco office, as well as travel to AWS locations, executive meetings, customer engagements, and industry events.
Hybrid: In this role, our hybrid experience is designed at the team level to give you a rich onsite experience packed with connection, collaboration, learning, and celebration - while also giving you flexibility to work remotely for part of the week. This role must attend our local office for part of the week. The specific in-office schedule is to be determined by the hiring manager.
The intelligent heart of customer experience
Zendesk software was built to bring a sense of calm to the chaotic world of customer service. Today we power billions of conversations with brands you know and love.
Zendesk believes in offering our people a fulfilling and inclusive experience. Our hybrid way of working, enables us to purposefully come together in person, at one of our many Zendesk offices around the world, to connect, collaborate and learn whilst also giving our people the flexibility to work remotely for part of the week.
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