Software Alliances Director EMEA

About the Role

Canonical is seeking a Software Alliances Director EMEA to join the Software Alliances team in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. This full-time role involves working with leading software companies to optimize and enable their products using Ubuntu and Canonical's software offerings, including AI solutions. The position requires 7+ years of professional experience and involves navigating complex technical challenges and architecting solutions across global teams.

Role Purpose and Scope

The Software Alliances team develops joint product roadmaps, drives delivery, and formulates go-to-market plans, content, and processes. This work enables differentiated offerings and robust product lifecycle support, anchored to Canonical products. Enterprises benefit from open-source, securely maintained, and validated solutions from cloud to edge, whether purchased directly from Canonical, embedded in Alliance partners’ products, or accessed through the cloud.

Key Responsibilities

• Setting the account strategy within a major account, region, or vertical.
• Collaborating with product, engineering, alliance, and marketing teams at partners to align on open-source strategies.
• Capturing partner requirements, evaluating gaps, and identifying Canonical opportunities.
• Coordinating with marketing and product teams on messaging, content creation, and launch plans.
• Creating partner- and customer-facing materials such as reference architectures, joint blueprints, webinars, presentations, videos, and white papers.
• Driving Ubuntu adoption within targeted alliance accounts, advocating its benefits to stakeholders, and working with partners on enablement training for their development, delivery, support, and commercial teams.
• Influencing alliance partners to build with Canonical technology.

Qualifications and Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in science, technology, or engineering.
• 7+ years of experience in a relevant professional role.
• Demonstrated cross-functional leadership and influence.
• Exceptional academic track record or a compelling narrative about an alternative chosen path.
• Experience in software development and system architecture.
• Customer-facing experience in software engineering, product management, business development, technology strategy, or similar functions.
• Excellent communication skills across all levels of stakeholders, from individual contributors to the C-suite, with the ability to grasp complex material and synthesize key points.
• Ability to think and work at both strategic and tactical levels.
• Disciplined and self-motivated for a remote-first workplace environment.

Preferred Skills and Experience

• Experience with open-source software and open-source business models.
• Product management or program management experience.
• Understanding of marketing and go-to-market strategy.
• Sector-specific experience in finance, telecommunications, automotive, or public sectors.
• Working knowledge of independent hardware and software vendor go-to-market motions.
• Post-graduate degree in a science, technology, or engineering field.

Work Environment and Travel

This role operates within a remote-first workplace environment. It requires up to 25% travel, including international travel for internal conferences and to foster partnerships in person.