**Senior Partner Business Development Advisor, AI & Cloud** **Role Summary** We are seeking a highly driven and experienced **Senior Partner Business Advisor** to join our growing team. This pivotal role combines strategic partner engagement with proactive business development to identify, nurture, and accelerate the growth of high-potential AI-first startups and market-moving disruptors within the Google Cloud ecosystem. You will be instrumental in expanding our partner sales pipeline, guiding strategic Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) through their Go-To-Market journey, co-sell readiness, and the adoption of Google Cloud's AI services and Marketplace. Your efforts will be key in winning early mindshare and establishing these partners as integral to Google Cloud's success in the evolving AI landscape. **Key Responsibilities** ● **Strategic Partner Identification & Qualification:** Conduct thorough market research to identify, understand, and strategically align with our AI-first and Disruptor initiatives. ● **High-Touch Partner Engagement:** Develop and implement prospecting strategies to generate qualified partner leads through outbound calls, emails, social selling, and networking. Provide concierge-style engagement to a portfolio of AI-first and Disruptor ISVs, ensuring a deep understanding of their business to support relevant GTM and cloud adoption strategies. ● **GTM & Co-sell Enablement:** Support partners in developing and optimizing their GTM strategy, demand generation campaigns, and co-selling capabilities. Guide ISVs through co-sell bootcamps and facilitate co-sell readiness. ● **Marketplace Onboarding & Acceleration:** Facilitate ISV Partner Coordination for Google Cloud Marketplace onboarding, guiding partners from initial engagement through technical integration and solution listing. ● **Partner Pipeline Management & Sales Alignment:** Actively manage and guide partners to share pipeline, activate customers, and engage in co-marketing and co-selling motions. Drive sales alignment and support partner-led demand generation efforts, ensuring pipeline hygiene and accurate tracking. ● **Internal Advocacy & Collaboration:** Act as an advocate for partner needs internally, providing strategic alignment and engaging with cross-functional teams (e.g., Marketing, Sales, Product Engineering, etc) to ensure partner success. Support AI Ignition team efforts in strategic engagement and internal advocacy. ● **Programmatic Support Utilization:** Drive partner utilization of programmatic resources, including Partner Advantage acceleration, sales training, and enablement for marketing development funds (MDF), development acceleration funds (DAF), and professional services funds (PSF). ● **Success Story & Case Study Development:** Collaborate with partners to build compelling customer stories, reference architectures, and "better together" narratives to showcase joint solutions and drive further adoption. ● **Reporting & Insights:** Maintain and update a robust Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system (e.g., Salesforce) with accurate partner information and communication records. Participate in sales meetings to provide insights on partner lead generation activities and market trends. **Desired Qualifications** ● **Experience:** ○ **Minimum of +10 years of experience in business development, sales development, account management, or partner-facing roles.** ○ **Proven track record of success in prospecting, lead generation, qualification, and strategic partner growth/enablement.** ○ **Experience working with partners, specifically executing go-to-market activities at scale.** ○ **Experience with SaaS lifecycle and partner environments preferred.** ● **Technical & Industry Knowledge:** ○ **Strong understanding of AI technologies and their application in enterprise solutions.** ○ **Strong understanding of Cloud fundamentals (e.g., Infrastructure services) - Optional** ○ **Experience with cloud marketplaces and partner programs.** ○ Specific understanding of customer needs across a designated market/region (e.g., enterprise, corporate, mid-market) and how cloud infrastructure services address them. ● **Skills & Attributes:** ○ **Communication & Interpersonal:** Excellent communication, interpersonal, and presentation skills, with the ability to build rapport with potential partners and engage effectively with partner executives and internal stakeholders (both senior and peers). ○ **Strategic & Problem-Solving:** Ability to provide strategic guidance and hands-on support to partners for technical integration, GTM execution, and sales acceleration. Strong problem-solving skills and comfort dealing with ambiguity. ○ **Analytical:** Strong analytical skills, proficient with spreadsheet formulas and basic pivot tables. Capable of communicating business insights, recommendations, or best practices supported by analytics or customer/partner data. ○ **Drive & Ownership:** A self-motivated and results-oriented individual with a strong work ethic. Demonstrated ability to take ownership and execute with strong attention to detail. ○ **Collaboration:** Excellent time management and organizational skills, with the ability to work independently and as part of a multi-regional team (North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia). Strong collaboration skills with peers. ○ **Leadership:** Possess leadership skills to help direct the team and provide guidance on areas of opportunity. **Education** ● Minimum Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience in Sales or a related field. Cognizant is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, color, religion, national origin, disability, protected Veteran status, age, or any other characteristic protected by law.