Senior Director, AWS Strategic Alliance & Platform Partnerships

About this role

Job Description

Zendesk is seeking a high-impact strategic alliances leader to own and advance our global partnership with Amazon Web Services. AWS is Zendesk’s most established and comprehensive strategic platform alliance, spanning cloud infrastructure, artificial intelligence, contact center, product innovation, AWS Marketplace, co-sell strategy, industry solutions, partner marketing, and executive engagement.

Reporting to the Senior Director, Global Strategic Alliances, this leader will have primary responsibility for translating the Zendesk and AWS relationship into measurable product, go-to-market, and commercial outcomes. Approximately 80% of the role will focus on AWS. The remaining scope will include a broader leadership role for Technology Partnerships in San Francisco, driving local executive engagement with additional strategic partners and helping incubate and develop platform relationships such as Microsoft and Google.

This individual will directly manage the AWS Technology Alliances team and serve as the primary day-to-day leader of the AWS partnership. They will establish strategic priorities, align stakeholders across both companies, create operating discipline, and ensure strategic agreements and executive commitments translate into execution.

This leader will also work closely with Zendesk’s AWS go-to-market alliances team, which owns day-to-day co-sell execution, seller engagement, and opportunity management. This role will influence and help define the broader AWS go-to-market and co-sell strategy, connect it to the product and executive dimensions of the partnership, and help establish the operating models, investments, and cross-functional commitments required for effective execution.

The Senior Director, Strategic Alliances will remain the executive sponsor and escalation point for the relationship, while this leader will own the partnership’s operating strategy, technology alliance, cross-functional coordination, and delivery. Based in San Francisco, this person will serve as a highly visible Technology Partnerships leader within Zendesk, strengthening local team connectivity, building relationships across Product, Engineering, Sales, Marketing, Finance, Operations, and executive leadership, and representing the broader partnerships organization with strategic partners in the Bay Area.

Defining Success

Success in this role will be measured by the ability to deepen the AWS partnership and convert strategic alignment into meaningful business results. Key outcomes include: • AWS Partnership Strategy: Develop and execute a clear, multi-year strategy for the AWS relationship across product, AI, Amazon Connect, go-to-market, AWS Marketplace, industry, channel, and executive priorities.

• Strategic Agreement Execution: Establish strong governance and accountability for Strategic Collaboration Agreements and other joint commitments, ensuring milestones, investments, and commercial objectives are achieved.

• Executive Alignment: Build trusted, multi-threaded relationships across AWS and Zendesk leadership, supported by effective executive briefings, QBRs, escalation mechanisms, and clearly defined strategic asks.

• Co-Sell Strategy and Influence: Partner with the AWS go-to-market alliances team to shape Zendesk’s AWS co-sell strategy, improve alignment between product and field priorities, and establish the operating mechanisms, executive support, and cross-functional commitments required to accelerate joint pipeline. The AWS go-to-market alliances team will retain ownership of day-to-day co-sell execution, seller engagement, and opportunity management.

• AWS Marketplace Growth: Expand AWS Marketplace as a strategic procurement and growth channel for Zendesk, including private offers, enterprise agreements, product-led growth opportunities, and multi-product solution motions.

• Product and AI Alignment: Advance joint opportunities involving Zendesk AI, Amazon Bedrock, Amazon Bedrock AgentCore, Amazon Connect, and other relevant AWS capabilities, supported by clear product roadmaps and differentiated customer value propositions.

• Contact Center Growth: Strengthen the Amazon Connect relationship as a catalyst for Zendesk Contact Center growth, including deeper product alignment, field activation, executive engagement, and expansion across the broader Amazon Connect portfolio.

• Industry and Ecosystem Activation: Build repeatable industry solutions and multi-party partner motions that bring together Zendesk, AWS, channel partners, and complementary technology providers.

• Team Leadership: Lead a high-performing AWS Technology Alliances team with clear ownership, measurable goals, strong operating rhythms, and effective cross-functional influence.

• Platform Partner Leadership and Incubation: Build executive relationships and focused strategies for selected platform partners, particularly through the San Francisco ecosystem, creating the foundation for future product, commercial, and go-to-market relationships while maintaining disciplined execution against AWS priorities.

Key Responsibilities and Scope

AWS Partnership Leadership • Own the global strategy, operating model, and day-to-day management of Zendesk’s AWS partnership.

• Serve as the primary Technology Alliances contact for AWS, coordinating activity across senior executives, product and engineering teams, Amazon Connect, AI services, AWS Marketplace, partner marketing, and industry leaders.

• Translate Zendesk’s corporate, product, and go-to-market priorities into a focused joint strategy with AWS.

• Establish clear ownership, governance, milestones, and performance measures across the partnership.

• Identify partnership gaps, resolve execution barriers, and escalate material risks or decisions to the Senior Director, Strategic Alliances.

• Ensure the AWS relationship is broad and resilient, with strong connections across technical, product, commercial, and executive stakeholders.

• Maintain

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