The Role

The best software companies don’t grow through direct sales alone. They grow through ecosystems: networks of partners who extend their reach, deepen customer relationships, and deliver outcomes no single company can achieve alone.

Braze is on track to surpass $1BN in ARR, and the partner ecosystem is one of our key levers to get there with minimal drag. The agencies and systems integrators in it are where a huge share of the customer relationship actually lives: they implement Braze, run the campaigns, and shape the day-to-day experience our customers have with the platform long after the deal closes. The quality of those relationships determines the quality of our customers’ outcomes, which is why this isn’t a channel to manage at arm’s length: it’s a global practice to build.

As AVP, Agency & SI Partnerships, within our Partner Development function, you own Braze’s global partnership with the agencies and systems integrators who implement, activate, and grow Braze for our customers. This is a true ownership role: you set the global strategy for how Braze builds and invests in these partnerships, define the practice-development and certification model that keeps partner-delivered work at a high bar, and are accountable for the health of our most strategic agency and SI relationships worldwide. You report to the SVP, Partnerships and operate as a peer to the VP, Technology & Marketplace Partnerships, AVP, Partner Sales AMER, the AVP, Partner Sales EMEA, and the AVP, Partner Sales APAC.

Your closest counterpart is the VP, Technology & Marketplace Partnerships. Their team broadens Braze’s addressable market - deepening our reach into ISV and marketplace ecosystems and expanding what we can sell. Your team delivers on the promise that broader reach creates: making sure every account and opportunity that surfaces through a technology or marketplace relationship is implemented and serviced well with our agency or SI partners running the work. Neither pillar succeeds without the other. You’ll also depend heavily on the AVP, Partner Experience, whose team builds the strategy, program management, and instrumentation layer that every partnership function — including yours — runs on.

What You’ll Own

A global team building and governing Braze’s agency and SI practice:

• Partner Account Directors – own and grow a global team of 11 responsible for Braze’s platinum-tier relationships with Deloitte, Accenture, WPP, Publicis, and Merkle, plus the broader roster of global agency and SI partners. This includes leading the hiring and global expansion of the team, expanding beyond its current North America concentration to build out a dedicated presence in EMEA and APAC.
• Practice development and certification – partner closely with the Global Learning and Enablement team to mature the enablement, training, and certification model that determines how well a partner can actually implement and run Braze, and hold partners to that bar.
• Partnership with Partner Services on Partner-Led Delivery– work closely with Partner Services leadership (within the Braze Customer Experience team) to keep Partner-Led Delivery – onboarding, certification, and delivery quality for every partner-run engagement – aligned with your agency and SI strategy.
• Solution development and joint GTM – co-building packaged, market-making solutions with Technology & Marketplace and platinum-tier agency/SI partners, so practice development and certification have a concrete, sellable offering to build around rather than an abstract relationship.
• One global practice, three regional partners – you establish the global SI and agency strategy and partnership standards; the AMER, EMEA, and APAC Partner Sales AVPs and their teams execute against it locally. You’re the escalation point and relationship owner behind every platinum-tier engagement, wherever it happens.
• Shared foundation with Partner Experience – drawing on the strategy, program management, and instrumentation that team builds for the whole partnership org, rather than standing up parallel infrastructure for agency and SI partners alone.
• Pipeline and performance visibility – using Salesforce, Crossbeam, Clari, and Looker to track partner-sourced and partner-influenced pipeline, implementation quality, and retention outcomes, and report on performance to senior leadership.

What This Role Is Really About

Pipeline and partner-influenced ACV are outcomes. They are the measure of a healthy practice, not the strategy itself.

The real work is building a partner community where every consultant at Deloitte or Merkle, every strategist at WPP or Publicis, knows Braze deeply enough to represent it well without us in the room. It’s successful onboardings. It’s campaign operations that actually run. It’s retention and expansion driven by partners who are invested in their customers’ success, not just the initial statement of work. It’s a certification model with real teeth, not a logo on a partner page.

When a customer engages with Braze through an agency or SI, that partner is carrying our brand into every project they run. This role sets the standard for what that means globally.

How We Lead at Braze

• Charts Strategic Transformation – You define the global strategy for how Braze invests in agency and SI partnerships, decide which practices are worth building out and which partners earn platinum-tier investment, and evolve the certification and enablement model from where it exists today into a predictable and scalable credentialing program that ensures customer success and growth.
• Drives High Performance – You lead a team of Partner Account Directors with clear targets against partner-sourced pipeline, delivery quality, retention, and growth, and hold both your team and your partners accountable to a consistent bar.
• Forges Collaborative Relationships – You operate as a true peer to the three regional Partner Sales AVPs, the VP, Technology & Marketplace Partnerships, and the AVP, Partner Experience & Ecosystem Ops — orchestrating the broaden-then-deliver handoff on one side and drawing on shared partner infrastructure on the other — while carrying the senior, executive-level relationships with our largest agency and SI partners that make the practice real.
• Communicates with Impact – You translate a global strategy into a playbook your team, Partner Sales, and your cross-functional peers in Partner Services and Partner Marketing can act upon.

Who You Are

• 15+ years in partner sales, alliances, or consulting/SI ecosystem roles in B2B SaaS, with at least 7-8 years at Senior Director or AVP level – you’ve owned a global partner-influenced revenue number and can speak clearly to the commercial outcomes you drove
• Deep experience managing relationships with global SIs and agency holding companies at the executive sponsor level – you’ve sat across the table from a Deloitte, Accenture, Merkle, WPP, or Publicis partner lead and know how their business, and their incentives, actually work
• Proven track record building or scaling a partner certification, enablement, or practice-development program – you know what separates a partner who can genuinely deliver from one who just has the logo rights
• Comfortable operating as a global function, leading through influence with peer AVPs in AMER, EMEA, and APAC, and you’ve done this successfully before
• Track record co-developing packaged solutions or joint IP with technology and agency/SI partners together — not just a co-marketing agreement, but a named, sellable offering built on top of the platform — and turning that into a repeatable practice motion
• MarTech or adjacent SaaS ecosystem knowledge strongly preferred, with an emphasis on how composable tech stacks create implementation and delivery opportunities for SIs and agencies
• Comfortable using account mapping tools such as Crossbeam or equivalent to prioritize where to invest partner attention
• Energized by owning something that isn’t fully built yet, with a track record of creating operating models, certification programs, and playbooks from scratch

For candidates based in the United States, the pay range for this position at the start of employment is expected to be between $163,000 and $256,000/year, with an expected On Target Earnings (OTE) between $271,000 and $426,000/year (including bonus or commission). Your exact offer may vary depending on multiple individualized factors, including market location, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. In addition to cash compensation, this role qualifies for a comprehensive Total Rewards package that includes equity grants of restricted stock (RSUs) so that you will own a piece of our company.