Senior Partner Programs Manager

About the role

The Partner Team at Vercel is charged with creating mutual success for Vercel, our partners, and our customers. We are seeking a Senior Manager, Partner Programs to build and scale the programs, infrastructure, and operating model that turn Vercel's partner strategy into repeatable, high-leverage execution across our entire partner ecosystem, including SIs, GSIs, ISV co-sell, and product partners.

Reporting to the VP of Partnerships, this person owns how partner strategy gets operationalized: designing the shared systems, journeys, and enablement that every partner type moves through, so partner leadership and partner managers can focus on strategy, relationships, and growth rather than rebuilding infrastructure partner-by-partner.

This is a hybrid position, with a required 3 days per week in one of our San Francisco, Austin, or New York City offices.

What you'll do

• Own the partner journey framework: design and continuously improve the shared journey every partner moves through, from Acquisition to Onboarding to Activation to Acceleration, including eligibility criteria, intake paths, incentives, tiering, and agreements.
• Lead partner enablement & certification: own the roadmap and delivery model for partner onboarding, training, certification, and badging programs, partnering with PSE and GTM Enablement on technical training content.
• Establish governance & standards: define tiering, KPIs, and rules of engagement across partner types, and drive consistent standards across Partnerships, Sales, Marketing, Product, and Customer Success.
• Design repeatable GTM plays: build co-sell, pipeline-generation, and joint go-to-market motions that scale successful partner plays rather than reinventing them per relationship.
• Run partner communications & community: own ongoing partner comms, news, meetups, summits, self-serve co-marketing kits, and the Partner Advisory Board with its feedback loops.
• Use data to evolve programs: evaluate program and partner performance using data and partner feedback, and recommend where programs should expand, simplify, or retire.
• Act as the execution arm of partner strategy: translate partner leadership's priorities (enterprise, agentic pipeline, scale) into clear, resourced programs and roadmaps.

What you need

• 6+ years in partnerships, partner programs, ecosystem enablement, or GTM strategy roles, in AI / Developer tooling.
• Proven experience and results building and scaling partner programs.
• Strong understanding of the developer, modern web, and AI agent ecosystem.
• Experience with PRM systems, marketplaces, or partner ecosystem tooling.
• Ability to translate ambiguous strategy into concrete, scalable programs and measurable execution.
• Strong cross-functional leadership; comfortable driving alignment across Partnerships, Sales, Marketing, Product, and Customer Success without direct authority.
• Data-driven approach to evaluating program performance and partner feedback.
• Clear, confident communicator capable of building tools, content, and playbooks that other people can execute consistently.

Bonus if you have

• Experience designing governance, tiering, or certification frameworks for multiple partner types simultaneously (SIs, ISVs, GSIs, resellers).
• Exposure to AI/ML, devtools, cloud, or SaaS startup ecosystems.
• Experience standing up or migrating PRM/marketplace infrastructure.

The San Francisco, CA on-target earnings (OTE) range for this role is $175,000 - $230,000. Actual salary will be based on job-related skills, experience, and location. Compensation outside of San Francisco may be adjusted based on employee location. The total compensation package may include benefits, equity-based compensation, and eligibility for a company bonus or variable pay program depending on the role. Your recruiter can share more details during the hiring process.