Suggested rewrite: Led a cross-functional initiative that improved [business outcome] by [measurable result], demonstrating experience relevant to this role...
Cloud Alliances Business Development Lead
Review the role, location requirements, compensation details, and application process before deciding whether this opportunity fits your next career move.
- Salary
- Undisclosed
- Department
- Business Development
- Employment
- Full Time
- Experience
- Senior
- Published
- Apply before
- 22 Nov 2026
- Listing views
- 29
- Application actions
- 1
Make your next move.
Prepare your resume, explore your fit, and draft a cover letter for this opportunity.
The role, at a glance.
Canonical is seeking a senior business development leader to coordinate go-to-market strategy and execution with tier-one public cloud partners. The role connects product, engineering, marketing, sales, and alliance teams to build joint roadmaps, partner enablement, launch materials, and customer-facing cloud solutions. Success requires a technical foundation in software development and systems architecture alongside strong commercial, stakeholder-management, and strategic planning skills. The position is remote across the Americas and includes up to 25% international travel for conferences and in-person partnership development.
Role DNA
A quick view of the complexity, pace, ownership and collaboration implied by the job description.
Pace & 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 begin by aligning on target customer segments, joint value propositions, product readiness, commercial goals, and success metrics. I would translate these into a shared roadmap covering enablement, solution assets, demand-generation activities, sales plays, ownership, and a regular operating cadence to review pipeline and delivery progress.
I would collect requirements through structured conversations with technical, commercial, and support stakeholders, then map them against current product capabilities, integration paths, support models, and roadmap commitments. I would prioritize gaps by customer impact, revenue potential, delivery effort, and strategic importance before proposing owners and timelines.
I start with the business outcome, such as faster deployment, improved reliability, or lower operational risk, and then connect the architecture to that outcome using clear diagrams and concise language. I tailor the depth of technical detail to the audience while retaining enough evidence to make trade-offs and decisions credible.
I would track joint-sourced and influenced pipeline, revenue attainment against forecast, active opportunities, solution adoption, partner enablement completion, launch milestones, and customer outcomes. I would also monitor qualitative indicators such as executive alignment, responsiveness, roadmap dependencies, and field feedback.
I would establish clear written goals, decision logs, owners, and recurring operating rhythms across time zones. I would communicate proactively, document context for asynchronous collaboration, escalate blockers early, and use in-person events strategically to strengthen relationships and resolve complex alignment issues.
About this role.
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 are hiring for our Cloud Alliances Business Development Lead to coordinate our ‘go-to-market’ with tier 1 Cloud Partners. We develop joint product roadmaps, drive delivery, and formulate go-to-market plans, content and processes, enabling differentiated offerings and robust product life-cycle support anchored to best-in-class Canonical products. This role supports the interaction of Canonical’s sales, marketing and alliances teams with counterparts at the cloud to jointly service customers and prospects. This role is responsible for quarterly and yearly public cloud derived revenue budget forecasts.
The successful candidate is someone who is passionate about tech and driving revenue growth through collaboration. If you are data-driven and skilled at navigating complex new technical challenges, learn quickly, and ready to architect strategies across global teams, this challenging role is for you.
Location: This role will be based remotely in the Americas region.
The role entails
- Collaborating with product, engineering, alliance and marketing teams at a cloud partner to align on open-source strategies.
- Capturing partner requirements, evaluating gaps, and identifying Canonical opportunities.
- Coordinating with marketing and product teams on messaging, content creation, and launch plans.
- Creating partner- and customer-facing materials like reference architectures, joint blueprints, webinars, presentations, videos, and white papers.
- Driving Ubuntu adoption within targeted alliance accounts, advocating its benefits to stakeholders and working with partners on enablement training for their development, delivery, support and commercial teams.
- Influencing Cloud customers to build with Canonical technology.
- Up to 25% travel, including internationally, for internal conferences and to drive partnerships in person.
What we are looking for in you
- Exceptional academic track record from both high school and university or a compelling narrative about your alternative chosen path.
- Bachelor’s degree in science, technology and/or engineering.
- Experience in software development and system architecture.
- Customer-facing experience in software engineering, product management, business development, technology strategy or similar functions.
- Excellent communication skills across all levels of stakeholders – individual contributors to the C-suite; ability to grasp complex material and synthesize key points.
- Ability to think and work at both strategic and tactical levels.
- Disciplined and self motivated for a remote-first workplace environment.
Nice-to-have skills and experience
- Experience with open source software and open source business models.
- Team leadership, product management or program management experience.
- Understanding of marketing and go-to-market strategy.
- Sector-specific experience in finance, telecommunications, automotive, or public sectors.
- Working knowledge of independent hardware and software vendor go-to-market motions.
- Post-graduate degree in science, technology or engineering field.
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 ›
This job listing has been manually reviewed by the Jobicy Trust & Safety Team for compliance with our posting guidelines, including verification of the company's legitimacy, accuracy of job details, clarity of remote work policy, and absence of misleading or fraudulent content.
Apply now.
Follow the employer’s application method and review Jobicy’s safety guidance before sharing personal information.
Continue on the employer website
Protect your personal information and never pay to secure an interview or job offer. .
