Partner Account Manager

AHEAD builds platforms for digital business. By weaving together advances in cloud infrastructure, automation and analytics, and software delivery, we help enterprises deliver on the promise of digital transformation. At AHEAD, we prioritize creating a culture of belonging, where all perspectives and voices are represented, valued, respected, and heard. We create spaces to empower everyone to speak up, make change, and drive the culture at AHEAD. We are an equal opportunity employer, and do not discriminate based on an individual's race, national origin, color, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, religion, age, disability, marital status, or any other protected characteristic under applicable law, whether actual or perceived. We embrace all candidates that will contribute to the diversification and enrichment of ideas and perspectives at AHEAD. We are looking for a detail-oriented Program Manager to oversee and streamline our partner programs for IBM. The ideal candidate will have strong analytical skills where they are able to forward think with the ability to communicate effectively across multiple teams to ensure alignment and maximize company, program, and deal profitability. This position will be approximately 75% Partner Programs and 25% Go-To-Market. Key Responsibilities Proficiency and Certification Tracking: Work strategically and collaboratively to identify which proficiencies would be most beneficial. Identify the reason why. Complete, track and report proficiencies and certifications accordingly. Marketing and MDF: Coordinate with AHEAD stakeholders on IBM demand gen campaigns and events to build strategic and intentional growth plans. Enablement: Coordinate with the engineers and sales team on IBM enablement activities to grow AHEAD’s collective skills on IBM’s portfolio. Services: Coordinate with the AHEAD services team to build a practice around key IBM solution areas to support client’s needs. Sales Strategy Collaboration: Work with sales teams to develop strategies to grow existing business while still maximizing margins and providing creative deal structuring. Lead and New Business Development – Identify, assign and pursue opportunities to expand into new product categories, customer segments, and lines of business to drive revenue growth. Quoting & Pricing Expertise – Develop and maintain expert-level knowledge of the quoting tool, including pricing structures, SKU management, product configurations, and quoting processes to ensure accurate and efficient proposals. Rebate and Investment Reporting: Record, track, monitor and report on monthly, quarterly, and annual rebates, and other partner-related programs and investments. Program and Incentive Management: Learn, utilize, track and report on various programs, ensuring all relevant metrics are captured. We would want to capture not only yearly programs, but quarterly and/or brand incentives. Internal Content Creation and Communication: Create, publish, and effectively communicate internal content to maintain current processes, facilitating enablement for Operations, Engineering, and other relevant teams through newsletters and team meetings. Pipeline Tracking: Regularly meet with in-house teams, partner channel teams, and distributors to progress and track the pipeline and ensure accurate forecasting to establish what needs to be done to get an opportunity booked. Alignment Oversight: Investigate and resolve misaligned deals to ensure proper hygiene and optimizemargins, incentives, and profitability to progress deals. Registration Tracking: Monitor weekly pipeline and registration additions, ensuring that all terms and conditions (T&C’s) are met for compliance. Sales Support: Maintain rapid responsiveness to sales teams (CDs, COSs, CSAs) for deal support as needed.Provide alignment support for new and existing sales teams including account mapping and introductionsvia emails/calls. Strategic Partnership Oversight: Ensure Strategic Partnership KPI’s, milestones and commitments are met,and report on progress based on a required schedule. Customer Growth – Review our existing customer base to identify opportunities to grow each account through expanded use of current product lines and the introduction of new products and solutions. Compliance & Audits – Serve as the subject matter expert on customer and manufacturer compliance requirements by understanding compliance audits, being able to identify gaps, and implement best practices to ensure we can successfully pass an audit. Strategic Thinking – Assess situations and opportunities with a forward-looking perspective to identify risks, recommend solutions, and drive the appropriate next steps. Strong Communication Skills: Demonstrate urgency and effective communication, being well-connected internally to facilitate collaboration. Support for Partner Managers: Assist partner managers on unique projects related to strategic partner go-to-market initiatives. Partner Advantage – understand, manage and oversee IBM’s Partner Advantage program. Qualifications Proven experience in program management, partner management, or a related field. Excellent organizational skills with a strong attention to detail. Strong analytical skills and proficiency in tracking metrics and reporting. Exceptional communication skills, both verbal and written, with the ability to engage effectively with various stakeholders. Experience in sales support or business development is preferred. Ability to work in a fast-paced environment while managing multiple priorities. Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Marketing, or a related field (preferred). Occasional travel to support partnership, as appropriate. The compensation range indicated in this posting reflects the On-Target Earnings (“OTE”) for this role, which includes a base salary and any applicable target bonus amount. This OTE range may vary based on the candidate’s relevant experience, qualifications, and geographic location. Why AHEAD: Through our daily work and internal groups like Moving Women AHEAD and RISE AHEAD, we value and benefit from diversity of people, ideas, experience, and everything in between. We fuel growth by stacking our office with top-notch technologies in a multi-million-dollar lab, by encouraging cross department training and development, sponsoring certifications and credentials for continued learning. USA Employment Benefits include: - Medical, Dental, and Vision Insurance - 401(k) - Paid company holidays - Paid time off - Paid parental and caregiver leave - Plus more! See benefits https://www.aheadbenefits.com/ for additional details. Use of AI: We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, assessing responses, or to capture recordings and create transcriptions or summaries during interviews. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please refer to the Candidate Privacy Notice or contact us at [email protected] . You may opt-out of the review or analysis of your application and resume by AI tools by using the General Application . Please include the role you wish to apply for in the Additional Information field. You may also choose to opt-out of recording and transcription at any time, including after joining an interview. Candidates will not be penalized for choosing to opt-out.