Partner Sales Manager

The role

The Partner Sales Manager drives revenue through partners by building joint business plans and growing partner-sourced and partner-influenced pipeline. This senior individual contributor role involves managing resellers, systems integrators, and consultancies across AMER.

What you will do

• Drive a joint business plan with focus partners to set shared goals for pipeline and revenue.
• Sell Kong's full portfolio including products, renewals, professional services, and support.
• Partner with Kong Account Executives to increase partner attach and align on target accounts.
• Orchestrate co-sell, co-marketing, and co-solutioning with focus partners.
• Sign new partners and map territory to spot new joint opportunities.
• Drive partner-sourced pipeline and focus on net-new business.
• Coordinate deal registration, lead sharing, and co-sell for Kong products.
• Create joint assets such as reference architectures, blueprints, and solution briefs.
• Run joint marketing events and campaigns.
• Work with Partner Sales Engineers to ensure partner technical readiness.

Required qualifications

• 5+ years in partner, channel, or alliances sales with a track record of driving go-to-market through resellers and SIs or consultancies
• A drive to source net-new business and grow it with partners
• The organization to run many partners and activities in parallel
• Experience selling infrastructure, developer platforms, or API and AI technology to enterprise buyers
• Experience selling open source solutions
• Experience with B2B sales, deal registration, partner quoting, and co-selling
• Experience with Salesforce and partner management systems, such as a partner portal
• Clear written and verbal communication, strong interpersonal skills, and a steady presence under pressure
• An established network in the industry
• A results-oriented approach
• Interest in Kong and open source software, and the ability to use Kong
• Ability to travel up to 50% and comply with the company's travel policy

Nice to have

• Prior Partner Sales Manager or partner leadership experience at an API, integration, or open-source-led company
• Hyperscaler co-sell experience, such as AWS ISV Accelerate, Azure IP Co-sell, or GCP Partner Advantage
• Existing relationships with AMER SIs, regional consultancies, or value-added resellers
• Sales methodology training, such as MEDDPICC or Command of the Message

About the company

Kong Inc. is the AI Connectivity Company building the connectivity layer of AI. Their unified API and AI platform enables organizations to secure, manage, accelerate, govern, and monetize the flow of intelligence across APIs and AI traffic.