Partnerships Development Lead

ABOUT US Sierra is the leading platform for customer-facing AI agents, working with many of the world's biggest brands — including The GAP, Rocket Mortgage, SoFi, Sutter Health, and SoftBank — to transform how they serve customers and grow their businesses. We are primarily an in-person company based in San Francisco, with growing offices across North America, Europe, and Asia. We are guided by a set of values that are at the core of our actions and define our culture: Trust, Customer Obsession, Craftsmanship, Intensity, and a commitment to balancing Family along the way. These values are the foundation of our work, and we are committed to upholding them in everything we do. Our co-founders are Bret Taylor https://www.linkedin.com/in/brettaylor/ and Clay Bavor https://www.linkedin.com/in/claybavor/. Bret currently serves as Board Chair of OpenAI. Previously, he was co-CEO of Salesforce (which had acquired the company he founded, Quip) and CTO of Facebook. Bret was also one of Google's earliest product managers and co-creator of Google Maps. Before founding Sierra, Clay spent 18 years at Google, where he most recently led Google Labs. Earlier, he started and led Google’s AR/VR effort, Project Starline, and Google Lens. Before that, Clay led the product and design teams for Google Workspace. WHAT YOU’LL DO As a Partnerships Development Lead, you’ll play a critical role in building and nurturing a robust ecosystem of partners and stakeholders around Sierra, amplifying our reach and market impact. - Industry Partnerships: Develop and grow partnerships with key industry players and technology platforms - Strategic Customer Channels: Explore and cultivate alternative customer acquisition channels beyond traditional sales, leveraging Sierra’s ecosystem of investors, partners, and industry influencers to drive inbound interest and adoption - GTM Strategy & Collaboration: Align partnership efforts with Sierra’s broader GTM approach, collaborating closely with Sales and Marketing - Investor & VC/PE Engagement: Build and deepen relationships with VCs and PE firms to position Sierra as a strategic AI partner across their portfolios. Proactively identify opportunities to introduce Sierra to portfolio companies that would benefit from our agents - Industry & Market Expansion: Gather market intelligence, share insights to inform product development, and explore opportunities for potential growth across new market segments and geographies WHAT YOU’LL BRING - 8+ years in business development, strategic partnerships, or related roles in tech - Strong understanding of the VC/PE landscape and experience working with investors - Proven track record of structuring and closing high-value partnerships with senior stakeholders - Ability to engage and maintain relationships with C-level executives, investors, and key decision-makers - Analytical mindset to evaluate partnership opportunities and align them with Sierra’s long-term vision - Ability to navigate ambiguity in a fast-moving startup environment EVEN BETTER… - Prior experience at a high-growth AI or enterprise SaaS startup - Deep expertise in a few of our key industries: financial services, healthcare, telecommunications, media, travel, transportation and hospitality, retain and consumer goods, and/or technology - Experience structuring and managing ecosystem partnerships OUR VALUES - Trust: We build trust with our customers with our accountability, empathy, quality, and responsiveness. We build trust in AI by making it more accessible, safe, and useful. We build trust with each other by showing up for each other professionally and personally, creating an environment that enables all of us to do our best work. - Customer Obsession: We deeply understand our customers’ business goals and relentlessly focus on driving outcomes, not just technical milestones. Everyone at the company knows and spends time with our customers. When our customer is having an issue, we drop everything and fix it. - Craftsmanship: We get the details right, from the words on the page to the system architecture. We have good taste. When we notice something isn’t right, we take the time to fix it. We are proud of the products we produce. We continuously self-reflect to continuously self-improve. - Intensity: We know we don’t have the luxury of patience. We play to win. We care about our product being the best, and when it isn’t, we fix it. When we fail, we talk about it openly and without blame so we succeed the next time. - Family: We know that balance and intensity are compatible, and we model it in our actions and processes. We are the best technology company for parents. We support and respect each other and celebrate each other’s personal and professional achievements. WHAT WE OFFER We want our benefits to reflect our values and offer the following to full-time employees: - Flexible (unlimited) paid time off - Medical, dental, and vision benefits for you and your family - Life insurance and disability benefits - Retirement plan dependent on country of employment - Parental leave - Fertility and family building benefits through Carrot - Lunch, as well as delicious snacks and coffee to keep you energized - Discretionary benefit stipend giving people the ability to spend where it matters most - Free alphorn lessons These benefits are further detailed in Sierra's policies, may vary by region, and are subject to change at any time, consistent with the terms of any applicable compensation or benefits plans. Eligible full-time employees can participate in Sierra's equity plans subject to the terms of the applicable plans and policies. BE YOU, WITH US We're working to bring the transformative power of AI to every organization in the world. To do so, it is important to us that the diversity of our employees represents the diversity of our customers. We believe that our work and culture are better when we encourage, support, and respect different skills and expe