Technical Alliances Lead

Technical Alliances Lead Operant AI | Full-Time | Hybrid Set-up in the SF Bay Area About Operant AI Operant AI is the industry's most comprehensive real-time security platform for AI, Agents, and MCP. Recognized across six Gartner critical AI security reports - including AI TRiSM, MCP Gateways, API Protection, and Securing Custom-Built AI Agents - Operant is the category-defining company protecting the agentic AI era. Our platform delivers real-time discovery, detection, and defense across the full AI stack: LLM APIs, MCP servers and clients, autonomous agents, and the APIs they depend on. Founded by former Apple, VMware, and Google executives and backed by Felicis and SineWave Ventures, we're a fast-moving team on a mission to make AI innovation safe at scale. The Role We're looking for a Director of Technical Alliances to own and scale our strategic partnerships with leading AI infrastructure providers - including Cerebras, Nutanix, Tenstorrent, and others we'll build together. This is a senior, high-impact role sitting at the intersection of technical depth and business development, designed for someone who can walk into a partner's engineering team in the morning and present a joint go-to-market strategy to their VP of Partnerships in the afternoon. You'll be the primary relationship owner and technical authority for our most important infrastructure partnerships - driving integration strategy, enabling joint customer success, and building the connective tissue between Operant AI and the ecosystems we depend on and strengthen. What You'll Do Partnership Strategy & Executive EngagementOwn the end-to-end relationship with key AI infrastructure partners, including executive alignment, business planning, and QBRsDevelop and execute joint go-to-market strategies that drive measurable pipeline and revenue for both Operant AI and our partnersEstablish Operant AI as the preferred security and observability partner across AI compute and cloud infrastructure ecosystemsIdentify and prioritize new strategic alliance opportunities as the AI infrastructure landscape evolves Technical Leadership & Integration OversightDefine the technical integration vision and roadmap for each partner relationship, working closely with Operant AI's engineering and product teamsServe as a hands-on technical authority in partner conversations - capable of diving deep into AI inference infrastructure, runtime environments, orchestration layers, and security integration pointsOversee the end-to-end execution of joint integrations from architecture through production readiness, ensuring quality, reliability, and mutual valueTranslate complex technical requirements between partner engineering teams and Operant AI's internal stakeholders Joint Customer & Revenue DevelopmentDrive co-sell and co-solution motions with partner field and sales teams to source and close shared customer opportunitiesAct as a trusted technical advisor to joint customers evaluating or deploying Operant AI on partner infrastructureBuild joint solution briefs, reference architectures, and enablement materials that equip partner teams to position Operant AI effectivelyTrack and report on partner-influenced pipeline, integration adoption, and customer outcomes Ecosystem BuildingRepresent Operant AI at partner events, technical summits, and industry conferencesChampion partner needs internally - providing feedback loops to product and engineering that shape Operant AI's roadmapBuild and maintain strong relationships across partner organizations at the technical, field, and executive levels What We're Looking For Experience8+ years in technical alliances, partner engineering, sales engineering, or a combination thereof - ideally within AI, cloud infrastructure, or enterprise softwareDemonstrated experience managing strategic technology partnerships with hardware or infrastructure providers (AI accelerators, cloud platforms, hyperconverged infrastructure, or similar)Track record of driving partner-sourced or partner-influenced revenue and building scalable co-sell motionsExperience working with or alongside AI infrastructure platforms (e.g., AI compute, inference serving, data center fabric) strongly preferred Technical DepthStrong working knowledge of AI/ML infrastructure - including inference hardware, distributed compute, containerized workloads, and Kubernetes-based orchestrationAbility to engage credibly with partner engineering teams on integration design, API architecture, and security considerationsExperience with enterprise security, observability, or runtime platforms is a significant plusComfort reading and discussing technical documentation, architecture diagrams, and integration specs Business & Leadership SkillsExceptional executive presence - able to build trust and drive alignment with C-suite and VP-level contacts at partner organizationsStrong commercial instincts with the ability to structure joint business plans, negotiate partnership terms, and align incentives across organizationsHighly collaborative - skilled at influencing without authority across internal engineering, product, marketing, and sales teamsExcellent written and verbal communication; able to distill complex technical and business concepts for any audience Why This RoleOwn a greenfield: You'll shape how Operant AI builds its partner ecosystem from the ground up, with room to define the playbookWork with the best: Cerebras, Nutanix, and Tenstorrent are building the compute infrastructure that will power the next decade of AI - you'll be at that tableReal technical weight: This isn't a badge-collecting alliance role - you'll drive integration strategy and have the technical credibility to back it upMission that matters: AI security and observability is one of the most important unsolved problems in enterprise AI. Operant AI is solving it. Operant AI is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to building an inclusive environment for all employees.