Head of Partnerships

Head of Partnerships About Bland AI At Bland, we’re building the most human AI phone agents in the world. We’re a Series B startup backed by Emergence Capital, Y Combinator, and the founders of PayPal and Twilio, and we’ve raised $65M to reimagine the future of customer communication. Today, we’re a 75 person team powering voice automation for companies like Samsara and TP, helping them deliver friendly, helpful, and human-like conversations at massive scale. Why this role exists This is a foundational hire, helping build the strategy, the team, the processes, and the partner ecosystem. Our product sits at the intersection of telephony, CRM, contact center infrastructure, and AI, which means partnership opportunities exist across a wide surface area of industries and technology platforms. You’ll own the full lifecycle: identifying and closing strategic partnerships, then ensuring those partnerships drive real revenue and customer value post-launch. The team you build will include a dedicated account manager for partner relationships, Forward Deployed Engineers (FDEs) for implementation, and customer engineers to handle troubleshooting and building custom solutions. What you'll do - Design and execute the partnerships strategy from scratch, defining partner tiers, ideal partner profiles, go-to-market motions, and revenue targets. - Hire and lead a team across business development, account management, forward deployed engineering, and customer engineering. - Leverage your existing network to generate early pipeline across telephony/CPaaS providers, CRM platforms, contact center software, BPOs, system integrators, and vertical SaaS companies. - Own the full deal cycle from first conversation through signed agreement, including negotiating commercial terms, integration requirements, and co-selling commitments. - Work closely with your account manager and FDE team to ensure every partner customer is onboarded successfully and generating value from Bland. Qualifications - Partnerships builder, not just a partnerships manager. You’ve stood up a partnerships or channel function at a high-growth SaaS company (ideally Series B–D stage) and know what it takes to go from zero to a functioning org. - Deep existing relationships. You come with a warm network across multiple industries; telephony, CRM, contact centers, enterprise software, system integrators, or adjacent spaces. You don’t need 6 months to figure out who to call. - Sales background. You’ve negotiated complex partnership agreements involving revenue share, co-sell motions, technical integrations, and joint GTM plans. You understand how to structure deals that create mutual value. - Technical fluency. You don’t need to write code, but you understand APIs, integrations, and SaaS architecture well enough to have credible conversations with technical partners and to guide your FDE team. - Player-coach mentality. In the early months, you’ll be doing much of the work yourself, and can build structure as you grow the team. You’re energized by that, not frustrated by it. - Bias toward speed. We’re moving fast. You thrive in environments where perfect is the enemy of done, and you can build process without over-engineering it. Nice to haves - Experience in voice AI, conversational AI, telephony, or contact center technology. - Prior experience working with or selling into BPOs, CCaaS platforms, or CPaaS providers (Twilio, Five9, Genesys, NICE, etc.). - Familiarity with enterprise sales cycles in healthcare, financial services, real estate, or logistics. Compensation & Perks Salary: $200k – $220k base + meaningful equity + commission + benefits. Gorgeous office in Jackson Square, San Francisco (rooftop views & great coffee shops nearby)