Partner Sales Executive, North America Channel

Canonical is a leading provider of open source software and operating systems to the global enterprise and technology markets. Our platform, Ubuntu, is 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. Canonical is expanding its channel sales team to capitalize on rapidly growing demand from channel partners, leveraging their expertise and connections to bring open‑source technology to organizations across a multitude of industries.

The Partner Sales Executive, North America Channel will report to the Director, Americas Channel Sales and requires both farming and hunting capabilities. The successful candidate will be responsible for achieving assigned annual growth quotas, identifying, prospecting, and engaging reseller and distributor partners to build and maintain relationships and grow Canonical’s business within the assigned territory. The role is focused primarily on reseller and distributor channel partners, but may also involve initial customer discovery calls and presentations as appropriate.

The candidate must be comfortable owning and leading initiatives in an unstructured, startup‑like environment and selling open‑source, cloud, virtualization, and technical software solutions.

• Develop and execute channel strategy for distributors and resellers within the assigned territory.
• Increase awareness of Canonical as a lead player in Open Source and Cloud (Private, Hybrid, Multi‑ and Public models).
• Identify and recruit new potential partners in the assigned territory.
• Leverage personal network and prospecting skills to engage new partners and build on Canonical’s already‑successful relationships.
• Guide partners through onboarding and enablement.
• Develop mutually beneficial go‑to‑market plans and commitments with partners.
• Arrange and execute sales and pre‑sales trainings to these resellers.
• Drive and manage channel pipeline through recurring partner interactions.
• Support partner satisfaction and act as trusted advisor and point of contact.
• Maintain a regularity/frequency of contact with priority resellers and distributors.

• Bachelor’s level degree, preferably in a technology field.
• Experience in software or technology sales from the specified market.
• Fluency in English.
• An understanding of open source, Linux and Ubuntu.
• A self‑starter with a proven track record of achieving sales targets.
• Detail‑oriented with strong follow‑up skills.
• Effective negotiating skills with the ability to close sales.
• Excellent interpersonal and presentation skills (written and verbal).
• Productive in a globally distributed team through self‑discipline and self‑motivation.
• Mature approach to long‑term relationship development with customers.
• The ability to represent the company at external events.
• Start‑up experience would be an advantage.

• 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 recognise 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.
• Employee Assistance Programme.
• Opportunity to travel to new locations to meet colleagues.
• Priority Pass, and travel upgrades for long haul…