Director, Business Development and Partnerships

Hazelcast is a leading company that provides a unified real-time data platform. They are seeking a foundational leader to shape their global ecosystem strategy through partnerships, focusing on partner acquisition, deal formation, and executing go-to-market plans.

Responsibilities:

• Design Hazelcast’s global partner strategy from the ground up, defining partner archetypes (GSI, Regional SI, OEM, Cloud, VAR) and use-case-specific GTM motions (e.g., BFSI, payments, real-time analytics)
• Develop and present clear, data-backed recommendations for approval to the CEO and executive team, whilst defining success metrics, economic models, and investment tradeoffs for the partnerships function
• Personally source, negotiate, and close foundational partnerships with Strategic GSIs, consulting partners, and key technology alliances
• Own early-stage partner economics, including margin structures, referral/resale models, and joint solution packaging
• Build and execute joint GTM plans, including target account mapping, joint solution narratives, and field enablement for both Hazelcast Sales Directors and partner sellers
• Accountable for Partner-sourced pipeline, Partner-influenced ACV, Time-to-first-deal per partner and act as a deal quarterback on strategic partner-led opportunities
• Work cross-functionally with Sales leadership on rules of engagement, and with Product, Engineering, and Marketing (partner messaging, co-marketing, events) to execute the partner-driven roadmap and strategy
• Once the motion is proven, you will hire, build, and scale the global partnerships team

Requirements:

• 10–15+ years in Business Development, Strategic Partnerships, or Alliances within the enterprise software space
• A demonstrated track record of creating (not just inheriting) partner strategies and programs
• Proven ability to source, negotiate, and close complex, multi-party enterprise deals and OEM distribution opportunities
• Experience with complex, infrastructure-level technologies (distributed systems, data streaming, or in-memory computing) is strongly preferred
• Strong instincts for designing economic models that drive partner motivation while protecting company margins
• Comfortable operating at the CEO and Board level, with the ability to present data-backed recommendations
• Experience operating in global markets with high cultural fluency