About this role.
DuckDuckGo is hiring a senior strategic partnerships leader to source, negotiate, and scale complex product partnerships across Search, Duck.ai, Assist, and subscription products. The role owns end-to-end partnership strategy, commercial structures, financial modeling, deal execution, and ongoing relationship management. It requires deep consumer internet experience, familiarity with the AI/LLM ecosystem, and the ability to lead cross-functional work with Product, Engineering, Legal, and Finance. This remote-first position is open to candidates located in the United States or Canada and includes periodic travel for company and team retreats. The successful candidate will operate with substantial ownership in a fast-changing AI market.
Role DNA
A quick view of the complexity, pace, ownership and collaboration implied by the job description.
Job Complexity
5/5Pace & Pressure
4/5Autonomy Level
5/5Communication Load
5/5Salary analysis
Estimated compensation compared with the broader US market for similar roles.
Core skills
Skills and capabilities most closely associated with this opportunity.
Sample interview questions
I would outline the customer or product problem, explain how I developed the partner thesis and evaluated alternatives, and describe the commercial, technical, and legal issues that needed resolution. I would quantify the outcome using measures such as adoption, revenue, retention, distribution reach, or product capability improvements, then explain how I governed the relationship after launch.
I would assess user value, privacy and data-handling practices, model quality and reliability, commercial economics, technical integration effort, roadmap alignment, and competitive risks. I would compare those factors across potential providers, create scenarios for changing pricing or capabilities, and recommend a structure that preserves flexibility while protecting DuckDuckGo’s strategic position.
I would describe how I aligned internal stakeholders on non-negotiables, built a financial model to evaluate options, and translated technical constraints into clear commercial terms. I would emphasize preparation, disciplined trade-offs, and the mechanisms used to manage risk, such as performance obligations, data protections, exit rights, or phased commitments.
I segment partners by strategic importance, product overlap, dependency risk, and growth potential, then establish clear governance and information boundaries. I maintain consistent performance reviews and contingency plans while ensuring each relationship has a differentiated value proposition and does not unintentionally constrain future options.
I start by aligning stakeholders on the user problem, expected business outcome, decision rights, milestones, and risks. I communicate in concise written updates, surface trade-offs early, and use data and clear accountability to keep work moving. When priorities conflict, I facilitate a decision using the agreed strategic criteria and ensure ownership is explicit through launch and postmortem.
Who We Are
Hi, we’re DuckDuckGo, the online protection company and remote-first team of 300+ on a mission to raise the standard of trust online. Founded in 2008 and profitable since 2014, annual revenue now exceeds $100m USD and millions use our browser on on Mac, Windows, iOS, and Android, our search engine, and the DuckDuckGo subscription. We also offer private, useful, and optional AI, including Duck.ai, which lets you chat privately with ChatGPT, Claude, and other AIs, all in one place. Our culture of trust, inclusivity, and empowered project management underpins everything we do, where each team member takes full ownership of their projects, from scoping and execution to postmortem. If you’re seeking end-to-end ownership of your work, you’ve come to the right place!
Your Team and Role
As a Senior Business Development Manager on the Partnerships team, you’ll lead DuckDuckGo’s most complex Product partnerships and drive strategy — sourcing, negotiating, and scaling high-impact deals with partners that can materially enhance our entire portfolio of products (search, Duck.ai, Privacy Pro subscriptions, etc) and work on related projects. Many of these partnerships will be the first-of-their-kind where you will have to create playbooks from 0-to-1 — you’ll be structuring deals where the product, economics, and strategic value need to be figured out together, and you’ll be working cross-functionally with Product, Engineering, and Finance to make them real.
You’ll manage a portfolio of competing and complementary partner relationships, forging partnerships with leading organizations while, in the case of AI, navigating the strategic tradeoffs of a market where pricing, capabilities, and competitive dynamics shift quarterly. Your work will directly shape how our products evolve, including Duck.ai and Assist, and reach millions of users.
What Projects Might Look Like
Figuring out further partnerships that could enhance our Duck.ai and Search Assist offerings
Identifying opportunities for Partnerships to drive product enhancement and user engagement/retention.
Creating new distribution channels to help grow our AI related services
About You
10+ years of Business Development, Partnerships, or Strategic Partnerships experience.
2+ years of cross-functional leadership on partnership projects and teams, including legal and engineering.
Experience with consumer internet or user-facing software business with an understanding of the AI/LLM ecosystem and how AI capabilities are being integrated into consumer products.
Significant experience leading complex product partnerships end-to-end — from identifying the opportunity through deal close and beyond. These should be partnerships where you’ve created something new together and navigated real product and technical complexity, not sales deals or API licensing.
Self-sufficiency on the commercial details — you don’t wait for someone else to draft terms, build financial models, or pressure-test deal structures — you can handle these details on your own while partnering with Legal and Finance.
Experience managing a portfolio of complex strategic partner relationships and an understanding of the tradeoffs that come with balancing competing and complementary providers.
You build trust quickly with internal teams, partners, and stakeholders you’ve never worked with before. You’re collaborative by default and decisive when it counts.
Located in US or Canada.
Compensation
$200,267 USD annually and stock options. Compensation is transparent across the organization, and all team members within the same professional level and global region receive the same compensation.
Eligibility for company-sponsored health benefits is limited to team members based in the United States. This program does not extend to team members located in other countries, such as Canada or the UK.
Our Team Member Support Guide explains how we prioritize your wellbeing including paid parental leave, office setup, and co-working allowances.
Hiring Process
Hiring works best when it’s a two-way street. Learn how we help you get to know DuckDuckGo, envision your future role here, and find out more about how we hire.
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
DuckDuckGo provides equal work opportunities to all team members and applicants, and it prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type on the basis of race, color, ethnicity, caste, religion, age, sex (including pregnancy), national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by our policies or federal, state, or local laws.
We want to ensure that our hiring process is accessible. If you need reasonable accommodation for any part of the application process because of a medical condition or disability, please send an email to careers@duckduckgo.com to let us know the nature of your request.
Please note that:
You’ll be required to attend meetings on camera via video conferencing
Expect to travel at least two times a year: once for our all-hands meetup and again for a team retreat (each around 4-5 days). While extenuating circumstances may impact attendance, everyone is strongly encouraged to attend.
While we offer a flexible work arrangement with no core hours, expect an average full-time commitment of 40 hours per week.
A successful candidate must pass a background check as a condition of joining the team.
By applying for this role, you confirm that all information submitted is accurate and complete. You further acknowledge that providing false or fraudulent information during the application process is cause for denial of an offer, revocation of any existing offer, or other adverse action, up to and including termination after the start of your commencement of work.
Disclosure Statement: Use of AI in Hiring Process
As part of our commitment to enhancing our recruitment process, we utilize artificial intelligence (AI) technology to assist in reviewing and summarizing job applications and test projects, including those tools integrated into our recruitment vendor platforms. We use AI to flag potentially fraudulent applications, analyze and summarize applicants’ experience, interviews, and project performance, and help streamline our selection process.
Key Principles:
Data Privacy: All information provided in your application will be handled in accordance with our Recruiting Privacy Policy. We ensure that your personal information is protected and used solely for recruitment purposes.
Human Oversight and Accountability: The AI technology is designed to support our hiring team by providing insights and summaries of applications and evaluations of test projects against scoring rubrics. All final evaluations and hiring decisions, however, will be made by our hiring team, who will consider the AI’s input alongside other factors.
Transparency: We believe in transparency regarding our hiring practices. If you have any questions about how AI is used in our recruitment process, please feel free to reach out to us.
By submitting your application, you acknowledge and consent to the use of AI technology in our review process. If you would like to request an alternative selection process, please contact us as at careers@duckduckgo.com. Thank you for your interest in joining DuckDuckGo!
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