Director, Partner Operations

Strategic Partnerships Director

This is an exciting opportunity to join a newly formed Strategic Partnerships organization at Kiteworks and own the operational engine behind the most strategic partnerships in the company. This role is for someone who is ready to build the structures, systems, and reporting that turn those partnerships into delivered integrations and new opportunities for Kiteworks. This is not a sales job.

This is a Strategic Partnerships job to build solutions, a partner ecosystem, and new business opportunities. It is a role for someone who is ready to roll up their sleeves, anticipate the partnership and business needs before they land on the team, and move quickly.

The Director, Partner Operations sits at the operational center of the Kiteworks Strategic Partnerships organization, enabling the business flow across Technology Partnerships, GSI Partnerships, Partner Architecture, Product Management, and the broader cross-functional teams (Marketing, Finance, Legal, Support, Customer Success, Renewals, Sales, and Channel Alliances). Reporting to the SVP, Strategic Partnerships and Strategy, this leader owns the operational backbone of the partner business: reporting and dashboards, partner program memberships, marketplace reporting and output visibility, integration lifecycle tracking, partner-related budget and investments, and the operational cadence that keeps the team moving.

This is a hybrid role based out of our San Mateo office. Employees are expected to be in office on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.

Partner program operations

• Own the operational lifecycle of Kiteworks' participation in strategic partner programs, including onboarding into new programs, maintaining membership requirements, tracking tier compliance, renewing memberships on time, and ensuring Kiteworks is in good standing across every program.
• Maintain and update partner program documentation, including program guides, FAQs, and benefit structures.
• Centralize program communications and ensure Kiteworks has clarity on partner program expectations, milestones, and resources, and that partners have clear visibility into Kiteworks' commitments in return.
• Prepare for the future-state Kiteworks partner program by capturing operational requirements now, so the program can be launched and scaled cleanly when it is ready.

Reporting, dashboards, and analytics

• Maintain and update the Strategic Partnerships dashboard, keeping the information current. Where there are data gaps or technical issues, work with the BI team to resolve them and ensure data accuracy for reporting.
• Own the operational reporting cadence for the Strategic Partnerships team, including bi-weekly, monthly, and quarterly views of integration progress, partner program health, pipeline contribution, and partnership-driven activity.
• Translate partner activity into the metrics and narratives the SVP and executive team need to make decisions, partnering with Finance and Product Operations on shared definitions and data sources.
• Deliver a consolidated Partner Operations business review to the executive leadership team, covering program health, integration throughput, enablement coverage, membership status, marketplace reporting outputs, and partner satisfaction.

Integration lifecycle operations

• Operationalize the partner integration lifecycle from intake and discovery, through roadmap commitment, development, GA, and post-GA support, in tight partnership with Partner Architecture, so every integration (including API, MCP, AI Skills, and agent-based integrations) has documented artifacts, owners, and status visibility.
• Track partner integration milestones across all active integrations and escalate blockers to ensure timely delivery.
• Work with Kiteworks Support, Customer Success, and Product Management to ensure every released partner integration has a defined support model, escalation path, and runbook in place before GA.
• Coordinate cross-functional triage for partner-impacting issues spanning Kiteworks Engineering, Support, the partner's technical teams, and affected customer accounts.

Cross-functional orchestration

• Partner with Marketing to track partner marketing briefs, deliverables, and timelines, ensuring on-time execution and alignment with each partner pillar's strategic priorities (Technology Partnerships and GSI Partnerships).
• Track and manage the overall Strategic Partnerships budget, including marketing spend, training investments, partner program membership fees, certification costs, operational costs, and marketplace-related spend inputs for reporting purposes. Provide regular budget reporting and forecasting to executive leadership and identify opportunities for optimization.
• Work closely with the Renewals team to support and track partner renewal processes, ensuring timely engagement, identifying at-risk partners, and maintaining accurate renewal timelines in the CRM and partner management platform.
• Partner with Legal on partner program agreements and operational…