The Director, Startup Ecosystem will develop strategies to engage AI startups, lead a dedicated team, enhance the Hatch program, and establish venture partnerships for DigitalOcean's growth.
Dive in and do the best work of your career at DigitalOcean. Journey alongside a strong community of top talent who are relentless in their drive to build the simplest scalable cloud. If you have a growth mindset, naturally like to think big and bold, and are energized by the fast-paced environment of a true industry disruptor, you’ll find your place here. We value winning together—while learning, having fun, and making a profound difference for the dreamers and builders in the world.
As the Director, Startup Ecosystem at DigitalOcean, you will shape and deliver on the strategy to build mindshare and broaden the use of DigitalOcean with venture backed startups. You will lead and innovate DigitalOcean’s Startups Program, which is well established with thousands of active participants, hundreds of venture partners and notable alumni such as Hugging Face. Externally you will ensure that DigitalOcean has a differentiated value proposition for startups and is fully engaged with both startup founders and venture partners to further expand the use of DigitalOcean among startups. You will leverage your existing developer marketing expertise, technology startup insights, while leading a dedicated team to accelerate DigitalOcean's growth with the most innovative AI Startups.
What You’ll Do:Strategy and Leadership
- Develop and execute the overall Startup strategy aligned with DigitalOcean's growth objectives with a focus on AI Startups and venture partnerships.
- Lead the existing Startup team and collaborate cross functionally with internal stakeholders including Sales, Product, Marketing, Finance, Operations and the executive team to ensure alignment with company strategies and revenue goals
Startup Program
- Innovate the Startups Program to create a market-leading experience and value proposition for Startups
- Develop and execute initiatives to support the growth and success of program participants
Marketing and Community
- Work with the Developer Relationship team to create and deliver content and in-person events to engage startup founders and enable them to scale their ventures with DigitalOcean.
- Embed yourself personally in the startup community and seek out opportunities for DigitalOcean to be a trusted partner for startup founders in their entrepreneurial journey.
Partnerships
- Establish and manage relationships with venture partners to promote DigitalOcean's value proposition among startups
- Collaborate with venture partners to develop joint marketing initiatives and support their portfolio companies
- Strong developer marketing background with the ability to understand and communicate complex technological concepts.
- Proven track record of successfully establishing and growing venture partnerships, particularly in the AI and cloud computing space.
- Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to inspire and articulate a compelling vision.
- Experience building and leading high-performing teams in a fast-paced, growth-oriented environment.
- Deep understanding of the developer ecosystem and a passion for making developers successful.
- Strategic thinker with the ability to align partnership initiatives with overall business objectives.
- Experience with or knowledge of AI technologies and offerings is highly desirable.
- Passion and empathy for the entrepreneurial journey.
- Number of active AI Startups: Attract and expand the number of active AI startups.
- Gross AI revenue within DigitalOcean's Startup Program: Grow the AI usage from Startup program participants.
- Partner Net Promoter Score (NPS): Assess partner satisfaction and loyalty, reflecting the health and mutual benefit of our venture partnership relationships.
- $192,800.00 - $241,000.00
*This is a remote role
JR: 2026-7464
#LI-Remote
Why You’ll Like Working for DigitalOcean
- We innovate with purpose. You’ll be a part of a cutting-edge technology company with an upward trajectory, who are proud to simplify cloud and AI so builders can spend more time creating software that changes the world. As a member of the team, you will be a Shark who thinks big, bold, and scrappy, like an owner with a bias for action and a powerful sense of responsibility for customers, products, employees, and decisions.
- We prioritize career development. At DO, you’ll do the best work of your career. You will work with some of the smartest and most interesting people in the industry. We are a high-performance organization that will always challenge you to think big. Our organizational development team will provide you with resources to ensure you keep growing. We provide employees with reimbursement for relevant conferences, training, and education. All employees have access to LinkedIn Learning's 10,000+ courses to support their continued growth and development.
- We care about your well-being. Regardless of your location, we will provide you with a competitive array of benefits to support you from our Employee Assistance Program to Local Employee Meetups to flexible time off policy, to name a few. While the philosophy around our benefits is the same worldwide, specific benefits may vary based on local regulations and preferences.
- We reward our employees. The salary range for this position is based on market data, relevant years of experience, and skills. You may qualify for a bonus in addition to base salary; bonus amounts are determined based on company and individual performance. We also provide equity compensation to eligible employees, including equity grants upon hire and the option to participate in our Employee Stock Purchase Program.
- DigitalOcean is an equal-opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, ancestry, national origin, caste, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or expression, age, disability, medical condition, pregnancy, genetic makeup, marital status, or military service.
Application Limit: You may apply to a maximum of 3 positions within any 180-day period. This policy promotes better role-candidate matching and encourages thoughtful applications where your qualifications align most strongly.
Top Skills
Ai Technologies
Cloud Computing
Developer Marketing
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