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vCluster Labs is hiring a Director, Global Alliance Leader to build a zero-to-one channel program for AI infrastructure resellers and VARs (Value-Added Resellers). This is a founding role with no inherited team or existing channel—success is measured by partner-sourced bookings, transacting partners, and registered deals that close.
You will own the complete channel lifecycle: recruiting and activating high-performing VARs (WWT, Computacenter, SHI, CDW, and regional partners) who can actually source AI infrastructure deals; designing and managing the reseller commercial model (tier discounts, deal registration, renewal margin, volume incentives); running deal registration and Partner of Record governance; and ensuring field alignment so internal sellers and partner sellers collaborate without conflict.
Key responsibilities include:
• Recruitment and activation: Filter for quality over coverage. Own the path from first conversation to first transaction (agreement, enablement, first registered deal, first close). Retire non-performing partners cleanly. Time-to-first-dollar is your headline metric.
• Transaction mechanics: Design tier discounts, deal-registration uplift, renewal margin, volume incentives, and named-account bonuses. Run deal registration and Partner of Record (regional PoR, active-engagement standards, renewal rights, conflict resolution). Build distribution that scales without routing around your quoting and order path.
• Field alignment: Make co-sell comp-neutral so internal sellers get full quota credit. Build named-account maps between vCluster and partner sellers. Give partner sellers reasons to lead with vCluster: margin they can count on, services attach, and a technical story their SEs can carry.
• Ecosystem plays: Connect reseller opportunities to NVIDIA alliance wins and OEM/ISV design wins so partners can quote validated stacks with vCluster embedded. Bring in GSIs, ISVs, and distributors where they accelerate reseller deals.
• Enablement and marketing: Own sales and technical certification for partners and tier requirements. Run joint marketing with pipeline objectives (field events, webinars, named-account campaigns, customer stories). Approve MDF against pipeline outcomes with proof of performance enforced.
• Channel metrics and rigor: MEDDPICC on every partner-attached opportunity. Weekly pipeline inspection. Partner attribution queryable from day one. Fixed-cadence QBRs covering bookings vs. plan, named-account inspection, certification status, marketing execution, renewal health, and forward-quarter plan. Report KPIs without being asked: transacting partners, sourced and attached pipeline/bookings, registration volume and win rate, certified resources, MDF return.
vCluster Labs is the #1 platform for AI infrastructure, trusted by the world's fastest-growing AI cloud builders. The company is venture-backed (raised $28M+ from Khosla Ventures and others), headquartered in San Francisco, and operates with a remote-first culture. The platform powers 100,000+ GPUs and 1M+ CPUs across 50+ AI clouds and Fortune 500 companies. vCluster is the open-source technology behind tenant isolation on Kubernetes (11,000+ GitHub stars, 40M+ tenant clusters created since 2021).
REQUIREMENTS:
• 8+ years in channel, reseller, or partner sales in infrastructure software, AI infrastructure, or cloud, with a demonstrable record of building a reseller channel from early stage to producing revenue. You can name the partners you activated and the revenue they produced.
• Deep VAR ecosystem experience: Direct, current relationships across national and regional VARs and infrastructure resellers (WWT, Computacenter, SHI, CDW, Insight, Presidio, AHEAD, ePlus, Connection, Softcat, Mark III, Pacific Teck). Know which ones actually sell AI infrastructure, how a VAR makes money, how their sellers get paid, where services attach sits, and what has to be true for a rep to lead with your product. Know the distributors and when to use them.
• Channel mechanics: Working command of tier and discount structures, deal registration, Partner of Record, renewal rights, distribution, and MDF governance. Can defend a discount structure, resolve channel conflicts without losing either partner, and tell a VAR no.
• AI infrastructure fluency: Working understanding of Kubernetes, cloud-native architecture, and GPU and AI infrastructure. Enough depth to earn credibility with a partner SE and enough range to translate it into margin and services opportunity for their leadership.
• Influence without authority: Proven ability to mobilize sales, marketing, legal, and enablement teams on both sides of a partnership without direct organizational control. You write program terms; you do not forward the ask.
• Operating rigor and builder's instinct: Disciplined qualification (MEDDPICC or equivalent), forecast hygiene, and reporting discipline, paired with comfort in an ambiguous, high-velocity environment with no inherited program and no inherited team. You compress timelines rather than manage them. This is a build role, not a caretaker role.
Bonus: NVIDIA partner ecosystem experience (NCP and reseller-facing programs); distribution experience with Arrow, TD SYNNEX, Ingram Micro, or regional equivalents; public sector, sovereign, or regulated-industry channel experience; open-source commercial model experience.
