Senior Manager, Business Development & Partnerships - AI & Agentic Solutions

Summary

Join Upwork as a Senior Manager, Business Development & Partnerships - AI & Agentic Solutions and make a founder-level impact. This pivotal role involves driving the vision and execution of Upwork’s AI partner ecosystem, shaping growth through innovative partnerships, and building Upwork’s AI and agent-focused partnership strategy. You will work cross-functionally with various teams to bring Upwork’s solutions to more businesses. Success requires a strong background in discovery, partnership strategy, cross-functional execution, and driving partner success. The ideal candidate is highly skilled at navigating diverse partnership models and has a proven track record of closing impactful deals. You will contribute meaningfully to Upwork’s long-term growth strategy and play a critical role in launching new distribution and revenue channels.

Requirements

• Deal Structuring & Activation: Strong discovery and sales background with demonstrated success driving partnerships across varied models (e.g., integrations, embedded tooling, co-development), and a customer-zero mindset to validate and improve partner experiences from the ground up
• Storytelling & Positioning : Strong communicator who can translate complex technical partnerships into compelling business narratives, internally and externally
• Strategic Thinking + Executional Rigor : Demonstrated ability to own partnership strategies end-to-end within mid-sized to large organizations, balancing 0–1 ambiguity with a strong focus on owning outcomes and commitment to excellence from concept to scale
• Innovation Mindset: Embraces experimentation and isn’t afraid to build and break fearlessly—rapidly testing, learning, and iterating to unlock new partnership opportunities and scalable solutions
• Cross-functional Influence: Comfort working across diverse functions and influencing without authority in a matrixed, fast-paced environment—playing to win as a team
• AI & Agent Fluency: Understanding of the AI value chain, from foundation models to last-mile applications and human-in-the-loop workflows. Experience working with AI-native companies is a plus
• Feedback-Driven Adaptability: A growth mindset and comfort working cross-functionally in a fast-paced environment

Responsibilities

• AI Ecosystem Strategy: Contribute to the design and execution of Upwork’s AI partner ecosystem strategy, including identifying and prioritizing high-value partnerships with AI-native startups, LLM platforms, and infrastructure providers
• Partnership Execution & Pipeline Management: Drive end-to-end deal flow—from discovery and value proposition development to negotiation and contract execution—while maintaining a qualified pipeline that meets or exceeds strategic performance goals
• Market & Trend Intelligence: Stay ahead of AI and agentic infrastructure trends to uncover emerging opportunities that inform both partnership strategy and product innovation
• Relational Leadership: Build and nurture trusted partnerships with key external stakeholders, serving as the primary point of contact and championing long-term success across the partner lifecycle
• Product Alignment & Feedback Loops: Collaborate closely with Product and Engineering to create feedback loops, ensuring partnership opportunities align with platform capabilities and roadmap priorities
• Operational Excellence: Develop internal documentation and processes to scale partnership execution and measurement efficiently across teams
• Reporting & Communication: Own a regular reporting cadence with product and executive leaders to share progress, insights, and blockers on prioritized projects

Benefits

• Comprehensive medical coverage for you and your family
• Unlimited PTO
• A 401(k) plan with matching
• 12 weeks of paid parental leave
• An Employee Stock Purchase Plan