Senior Partner Manager – Cloud Native & Kubernetes (f,m,d)
At a glance
Senior Channel & Partnerships role at kubermatic. Hamburg · full-time.
Pay not stated
Growth Roles summary, based on the employer's posting.
What you'll do
- Lead the infrastructure-vendor alliance, covering account plans, registrations, distributor quotes, pricing, and escalations
- Coordinate system integrators on prime and subcontractor bids, including scope, pricing, and compliance documents
- Grow partner-originated and partner-assisted pipeline by recruiting, onboarding, activating, and holding partners accountable
- Create the channel framework for tiers, margins, discounts, registrations, certification, and market development funds
- Maintain accurate HubSpot forecasts and partner data, then share pipeline, attach-rate, and coverage reports with leadership
What you bring
- A track record building B2B technology partnerships with OEMs, distributors, resellers, or system integrators tied to revenue ownership
- Experience closing business through two-tier or OEM channels, including registrations, distributor pricing, and joint account planning
- Experience with prime-contractor deals where your employer delivered as a subcontractor for public-sector or large-enterprise procurement
- Enough Kubernetes and cloud-native infrastructure knowledge to enable partners and assess technical fit independently
- C1 German, B2+ English, and willingness to travel regularly to partners, customers, and events across DACH and the EU
Who this fits
You’ll suit a senior partnership builder who can create structure, manage vendor and SI relationships, and work directly with sales leadership and founders. The role involves regular travel across DACH and the EU and requires working in German and English. Kubernetes and cloud-native fluency matters because you’ll run enablement and qualify fit without an engineer present.
From the employer
About Us
At Kubermatic, we believe that businesses should focus on their core purpose: writing groundbreaking applications, not operations. In line with our commitment to make Kubernetes as easy as possible, we help IT teams worldwide to fully automate their Kubernetes and cloud native operations across multi-cloud, edge, and on-prem.
As one of the top corporate contributors to the Kubernetes project, we develop enterprise-grade software solutions and provide professional services and support to safely navigate and accelerate your cloud native transformation. Our open-source Kubermatic Kubernetes Platform makes it easy to operate thousands of Kubernetes clusters on any infrastructure.
If you are thrilled by the prospect of joining a technology start-up with a lot of room for your own ideas and personal growth, we definitely should at least have a chat.
Role Summary
You own the partner motion end-to-end. Not a slice of it: the alliance with our lead infrastructure vendor partner and its distributors, the system integrator and prime-bidder relationships, and the program mechanics underneath. Tiering, deal registration, margin, enablement, and reporting.
You will have full program ownership. Your first months are structure and cleanup rather than administering something mature, and you'll have direct access to sales leadership and the founders while you build it.
What you will do
- Own the alliance with our lead infrastructure vendor partner and its distribution channel: joint account planning, deal registration, distributor quoting and price books, escalation into the vendor's field organisation.
- Own the system integrator relationships, including prime/subcontractor constructions where the SI bids and Kubermatic delivers, coordinating scope, pricing and the compliance paperwork with our bid desk and legal team.
- Own partner-sourced and partner-influenced pipeline end-to-end: recruit, onboard, activate, hold accountable.
- Build the partner program: tiering, margin and discount framework, deal registration, certification path with our training team, MDF (needs internal confirmation).
- Enable partner sales and pre-sales teams on the portfolio and on the plays that drive our market
- Keep partner data and forecast honest in HubSpot, and report partner pipeline, attach rate and coverage to leadership.
- Feed partner requirements back into product and marketing: joint solution briefs, collateral, shared event presence.
What you need to succeed
Must-have
- You have built and grown B2B technology partnerships with OEMs, distributors, resellers or system integrators with personal responsibility for sourced or influenced revenue.
- You have sold through a two-tier or OEM channel: deal registration, distributor quoting, joint account planning with a partner seller through to a closed deal.
- You have worked deals in which the partner was the prime contractor and your company delivered as subcontractor, in public sector or large enterprise procurement.
- You are technically fluent enough in Kubernetes and cloud-native infrastructure to run a partner enablement session and qualify technical fit without an engineer in the room.
- German at C1 level and English at B2+, our partners and public sector customers work in both.
- You are willing to travel regularly to partners, customers and industry events across DACH and the EU.
Nice-to-have
- You have stood up a channel program from scratch rather than inherited one.
- An existing network in the Kubernetes/CNCF ecosystem.
- Background at an infrastructure vendor or in an open-source/open-core commercial model.
- Working knowledge of HubSpot.
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