Head of Channel

About the Role:  

Redpanda is seeking a Head of Channel to build, lead, and scale a world-class global partner ecosystem. This executive will own the end-to-end channel strategy — from hyperscalers and GSIs to ISVs, MSPs, and emerging AI/agentic partners — and turn partners into a primary growth engine for the company.

This role is both strategic and hands-on: designing the partner motion, enabling technical and go-to-market success, and aligning deeply with Sales, Product, Marketing, and Engineering to ensure partners can confidently deliver Redpanda and the Agentic Data Plane to customers.

You Will:  

Partner Strategy & Ecosystem Development

• Define and execute Redpanda’s global channel strategy, aligned with company growth targets and product roadmap.
• Build a multi-tier partner ecosystem including cloud providers, GSIs/SIs, ISVs, MSPs, and AI/agentic technology partners.
• Identify and incubate new partner categories emerging from real-time AI, autonomous systems, and agent-based architectures.

Agentic Data Plane Enablement

• Ensure partners deeply understand Redpanda’s Agentic Data Plane and its role in powering real-time, intelligent systems.
• Develop partner use cases, solution blueprints, and reference architectures for agentic and event-driven workloads.
• Partner closely with Product and Engineering to translate platform capabilities into partner-ready offerings.

Go-to-Market & Revenue Growth

• Make the channel a material, predictable revenue driver through co-sell motions, joint pipeline development, and marketplace strategies.
  Design partner programs, incentives, and enablement that accelerate deal velocity and expansion.
• Align tightly with direct sales leadership to ensure clear rules of engagement and collaborative execution.

Enablement & Operations

• Build scalable partner onboarding, training, certification, and technical enablement programs.
  Define KPIs, reporting, and operational rigor to measure partner performance and ROI.
  Establish repeatable processes for deal registration, co-marketing, and joint customer success.

Leadership & Influence

• Build and lead a high-performing channel organization.
• Represent Redpanda with executive-level partner stakeholders.
• Act as a thought leader internally and externally on ecosystem-led growth and agentic, real-time architectures.

You Have: 

• 10+ years of experience in channel, alliances, or partner leadership roles at high-growth infrastructure, data, or platform companies.
• Proven success building global partner ecosystems that drive significant revenue impact.
• Strong understanding of data streaming, cloud platforms, distributed systems, or adjacent infrastructure technologies.
• Experience working with GSIs, cloud marketplaces, and ISV ecosystems.
• Ability to communicate complex technical concepts — including real-time and agentic architectures — to both technical and business audiences.
• Executive presence with a builder’s mindset: comfortable operating at 30,000 feet and in the details.
• Passion for enabling partners to win and for building something category-defining.

U.S. base salary range for this role is $260,000, not including bonus and/or commission. Our salary ranges are determined by role, level, and location. As a remote-first company, we strive to consider each candidate's job-related skills, location, experience, relevant education or training to determine individual base salary. Your talent partner will share more about the specific salary range for your preferred location during the hiring process.