About this role.
Canonical is hiring a globally remote Alliances & Channels Leader to expand strategic technology partnerships and partner-led revenue for its Ubuntu and enterprise open-source portfolio. The role may be a people-leadership or senior individual-contributor position focused on channels, GSIs, ISVs, OEMs, silicon providers, public clouds, marketplaces, or broader ecosystem alliances. The successful candidate will own partner strategy, forecasting, bookings, joint go-to-market plans, executive relationships, enablement, and operating cadence across complex indirect routes to market. Candidates need 10+ years of alliance, channel, ecosystem, or indirect sales leadership experience, strong commercial judgment, and credibility with both technical stakeholders and C-level executives. The position requires substantial autonomy in a distributed organization, business-level English, and international travel two to four times annually.
Role DNA
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Job Complexity
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5/5Autonomy Level
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Cover letter sample
Dear Hiring Team,
I am excited to apply for the Alliances & Channels Leader role at Canonical. With extensive experience developing strategic technology partnerships, indirect sales motions, and executive relationships, I can help expand partner-led revenue and market adoption for Ubuntu and Canonical’s enterprise open-source portfolio.
I bring a disciplined, data-driven approach to joint go-to-market planning, pipeline governance, forecasting, partner enablement, and cross-functional alignment across sales, product, marketing, engineering, and operations.
I would welcome the opportunity to build durable alliances across cloud, GSI, ISV, OEM, and channel ecosystems while representing Canonical’s mission and high standards globally.
Sample interview questions
I would begin with a structured partner assessment covering strategic fit, addressable market, existing pipeline, technical capabilities, executive sponsorship, route-to-market overlap, and revenue potential. I would then segment partners by near-term and strategic value, establish joint business plans for priority accounts, and set quarterly targets for enablement, pipeline creation, bookings, and executive engagement.
I would build a shared operating model with agreed definitions for sourced, influenced, and attached revenue; named-account ownership; opportunity stages; and escalation paths. Regular pipeline reviews, CRM hygiene, partner scorecards, and clear rules of engagement would make accountability visible while preserving a collaborative sell-with culture.
I would tailor the value proposition to the partner’s business model, showing how Canonical can create differentiated solutions, services revenue, cloud consumption, marketplace demand, or hardware pull-through. I would support the narrative with customer use cases, joint solution architecture, market data, and an executable go-to-market plan rather than relying on a generic partnership pitch.
I would measure performance through bookings, revenue, pipeline coverage, win rate, sales-cycle velocity, partner-sourced and partner-influenced contribution, solution attach rate, enabled sellers, and joint campaign outcomes. I would also monitor leading indicators such as executive engagement, certifications, account mapping completion, and partner participation in business reviews.
I would first understand the source of conflict through account mapping and direct discussions with the relevant teams and partner leaders. I would apply transparent engagement rules, focus on the customer’s preferred buying path, document decisions, and escalate only when needed, ensuring the resolution protects customer experience, revenue opportunity, and long-term partner trust.
Alliances & Channels Leader
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 new senior leadership opportunities in our Global Alliances and Channels organisations, to lead business development and partnership with some of the most important actors in the global technology sector. As the publisher of Ubuntu and a leading provider of open source to major technology firms globally, Canonical works across a broad partner ecosystem that includes global system integrators, value-added resellers, regional distributors, independent software vendors, independent hardware vendors, silicon companies, public clouds and other strategic technology brands.
These partners shape the platforms, solutions, marketplaces, hardware and delivery motions through which enterprises adopt open source at scale. We are looking for exceptional partner leaders who can build durable, mutually valuable relationships, develop joint solutions, drive global go-to-market programmes, and convert partner potential into measurable customer impact, revenue growth and market expansion for Canonical.
Opportunities are available for both people leaders and senior individual contributors. In these roles, you will lead, build or scale one or more strategic partner motions for Canonical, either by managing a team or by directly driving high-impact partner initiatives. You will work closely with partners throughout their sales, product, delivery and executive planning cycles to make Canonical their trusted partner for enterprise open source solutions. Depending on your experience and Canonical’s business priorities, your focus may include Channels, GSI, ISV, IHV/OEM, Silicon, Cloud or cross-ecosystem partnerships.
Our Alliances and Channels teams build trusted relationships with partners at executive level, increase Canonical market share and attach rate, evangelise the partnership, and lead business interactions from engineers to CxO level. This role will own strategy, sell-to, sell-through and sell-with motions across assigned partners or sectors, as well as promotion of partner-related activities, from campaigns, enablement and executive engagement, to strategic opportunities and partner events.
Location: These are globally remote positions.
The role entails
- Own and drive partner strategy, forecast, bookings and revenues for Canonical across one or more indirect routes to market
- Lead and evolve a team or strategic partner portfolio towards accelerated revenue growth and market impact
- Build strategic relationships with global and regional partners at executive levels
- Design and execute joint go-to-market plans with partners, sales, product management, product marketing and engineering teams
- Develop partner capability through sales engagement, technical enablement, joint marketing and disciplined business planning
- Guide our offering from product management, to product marketing, and scale it through the support of our global sales organisation
- Establish operating cadence, pipeline governance and data-driven accountability across complex partner relationships
What we are looking for in you:
- 10+ years of experience in alliance, channel, partner, ecosystem or indirect sales management roles
- Experience in one or more of GSIs, VARs, distributors, ISVs, IHVs/OEMs, silicon, public cloud, marketplaces or strategic technology alliances
- Deep commercial experience encompassing revenue, margins, pipeline, forecasting and partner economics
- Proven leadership and presentation skills, with the ability to engage confidently from engineer to CxO level
- Ability to build trusted executive relationships while aligning product, sales, marketing, engineering and operations teams
- Insight into open source, Ubuntu, enterprise infrastructure, cloud, AI, security and Canonical’s competition and opportunities
- Track record of data-driven decision-making and disciplined execution across complex, global relationships
- An autonomous, disciplined, hands-on, get-it-done mentality
- An exceptional academic track record from high school and university.
- Business level written and spoken English.
- Sincere personal motivation aligned with our mission.
- International travel 2-4 times a year for company events up to two weeks long.
In addition we expect that you will match our values, by being:
- Precise, taking care to deliver correctness and clarity.
- Reliable, delivering high quality work that builds trust and confidence.
- Accessible, collaborating to build products and systems that are usable.
- Adroit, blending enthusiasm, knowledge, adaptability, style and character.
What we offer colleagues
We consider geographical location, experience, and performance in shaping compensation worldwide. We revisit compensation annually (and more often for graduates and associates) to ensure we recognize outstanding performance. In addition to base pay, we offer a performance-driven annual bonus or commission. We provide all team members with additional benefits which reflect our values and ideals. We balance our programs to meet local needs and ensure fairness globally.
- Distributed work environment with twice-yearly team sprints in person
- Personal learning and development budget of USD 2,000 per year
- Annual compensation review
- Recognition rewards
- Annual holiday leave
- Maternity and paternity leave
- Team Member Assistance Program & Wellness Platform
- Opportunity to travel to new locations to meet colleagues
- Priority Pass and travel upgrades for long-haul company events
About Canonical
Canonical is a pioneering tech firm at the forefront of the global move to open source. As the company that publishes Ubuntu, one of the most important open-source projects and the platform for AI, IoT, and the cloud, we are changing the world of software. We recruit on a global basis and set a very high standard for people joining the company. We expect excellence; in order to succeed, we need to be the best at what we do. Most colleagues at Canonical have worked from home since our inception in 2004. Working here is a step into the future and will challenge you to think differently, work smarter, learn new skills, and raise your game.
Canonical is an equal opportunity employer
We are proud to foster a workplace free from discrimination. Diversity of experience, perspectives, and background create a better work environment and better products. Whatever your identity, we will give your application fair consideration.
Annual salary information is not provided for this position. Explore salary ranges for similar roles in our Salary Directory ›
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