Partner Marketing Director

Canonical is a leading provider of open source software and operating systems to the global enterprise and technology markets. Our platform, Ubuntu, is very widely used in breakthrough enterprise initiatives such as public cloud, data science, AI, engineering innovation and IoT. Our customers include the world's leading public cloud and silicon providers, and industry leaders in many sectors. The company is a pioneer of global distributed collaboration, with 1200+ colleagues in 75+ countries and very few office based roles. Teams meet two to four times yearly in person, in interesting locations around the world, to align on strategy and execution.

The company is founder led, profitable and growing.

We have created a new leadership role, Partner Marketing Director, to drive our Go-To-Market strategy across our partner ecosystem, from silicon to public cloud, through channel and hardware manufacturers. As the publisher of Ubuntu and the leading provider of open source to major technology firms globally, we play a unique role in a variety of innovative value chains (Public Cloud, Cybersecurity, AI, IoT) supporting our partners both technically and commercially.

Reporting to the VP of Marketing you will lead a team of marketing managers running partner programs. You will work closely with our partners to make Canonical their trusted partner to deliver open source based products and solutions. In this role you will ultimately be responsible for maximising the overall ROI of our campaigns supporting our partners motions whether sell-to, sell-through or sell-with.

The partner marketing team is formed of multi-talented marketing professionals, as comfortable formulating joint value propositions as they are about running lead generation campaigns. They have an eye for creating remarkable messages/assets and a hand in the selection of the most effective channels through a complex supply chain. They are passionate about technology, the users of enterprise technology, and are early adopters of advanced partner analytics technologies.

Location: This role is home based in the AMER region.

• Strong understanding of the technology ecosystem including Silicon, IHV, ISV, ODM/OEMs, cloud service providers and channels is essential for this role.
• Demonstrated leadership in aligning diverse partners around Go To Market strategies.
• Proven track record of developing and executing successful co-marketing programs in the technology space.
• Experience reporting on complex partner marketing activities and touchpoints.
• Ability to create a culture of excellence, agility and self-drive in your team.
• Curiosity with a habit of continuous learning.
• Outstanding communications skills in English, both verbal and written.
• Exceptional academic results both at high school and university.
• Willingness to travel internationally up to 4 times a year for company events up to two weeks long.
• Familiarity with a particular vertical (e.g. Telco, Finance, Industrial, Automotive).
• Experience in leading distributed teams across different time zones.

• Building a marketing strategy that drives pipeline growth and revenue outcomes through key partners – Silicon, IHV, ODM, Channel, GSIs, etc.
• Aligning with growth, field and product marketing to deliver activities integrated with Canonical’s campaigns.
• Owning the execution of partner campaigns across the funnel from recruitment to demand generation programs.
• Engaging and elevating the partner community through exceptional content in partnership with the communication, product and alliances teams.
• Multiplying our partners’ impact through programmatic approaches.
• Crafting bespoke plans and joint value propositions to stand out in the marketplace.
• Championing our partner collaboration vision both internally and externally.
• Managing the use of Marketing Development Funds (MDF) whether we receive it or distribute it.
• Driving the adoption of advanced analytics and reporting tools to continually improve the ROI of partner marketing activities.
• Mentoring and developing a diverse team of partner marketers covering our whole spectrum of partners.
• Cultivating a culture of continuous testing and optimization.