Partner Program Manager

Job description

We are a development, data science and design studio that works closely with founders and executives to create custom software and machine learning solutions.

AE Studio is seeking a strategic, relationship-driven, and execution-oriented Partner Program Manager to lead our Partner Lifecycle Program and help drive success across all business development channels. You will own the full funnel, from partner attraction and onboarding to enablement, activation, and long-term retention while rolling up your sleeves to support broader BD and sales initiatives alongside a tight-knit and collaborative team.

If you’re passionate about building revenue-driving programs, empowering partners as champions, and thriving at the intersection of systems and relationships, this role is for you.

Key Responsibilities

1. Attract & Qualify

• Define and continuously refine our Ideal Partner Profile
• Design and implement a discovery call strategy to assess fit and alignment
• Drive creative outreach campaigns to recruit high-trust, high-fit partners
• Represent AE Studio externally in relevant communities and networks
• Maintain a _Partner Fit Scorecard_ to prioritize and segment leads

2. Contract & Onboard

• Own the contracting process, ensuring all legal and compensation terms are clear
• Deliver an exceptional onboarding experience with welcome flows, training assets, and motivational live touchpoints that set up partners for highest impact
• Manage onboarding questionnaires, intake forms, and HubSpot partner profiles

3. Enable & Support

• Coordinate across teams to create and maintain enablement collateral, including one-pagers, case studies, pitch decks, and communication templates
• Run ongoing learning sessions such as webinars, product updates, and Partner Forum events to deliver value and foster community
• Develop and manage partner support systems including Slack groups, drop-in hours, and partner inboxes
• Collaborate across AE Studio with a team-first mindset, embodying AE’s core values of ownership, growth, clear communication, and agency-increasing impact

4. Track

• Build out and manage HubSpot’s referral pipeline, CRM fields, and dashboards with a high level of attention to detail
• Implement and maintain deal registration forms, activity tracking, and engagement metrics
• Design and manage automations and workflows to improve internal alerts, partner follow-ups, and commission processes, leveraging AI tools where appropriate

5. Activate, Incentivize & Retain

• Build relationships and unlock opportunities with partners and external stakeholders through a creative, entrepreneurial approach
• Ensure a consistent flow of active, engaged partners by driving regular activity and maintaining pipeline momentum
• Develop and manage incentive strategies including tiered rewards, retainer eligibility, and milestone bonuses
• Monitor performance benchmarks such as referral-to-close ratios, quarterly deal volume, and revenue generation
• Coordinate partner recognition, events, campaigns, community-building efforts, and access to exclusive benefits
• Identify and address inactivity triggers through automated nudges, manual check-ins, and re-engagement campaigns

6. Strategy, Feedback & Continuous Improvement

• Gather partner feedback via quarterly surveys, 1:1 calls, and partner councils
• Analyze performance data to recommend program improvements and refine incentive models
• Collaborate with sales, marketing, and product teams to align priorities and grow the partner-generated pipeline

Ideal Candidate

You are a builder, operator, and connector who thrives on creating programs from scratch, scaling systems, and nurturing meaningful relationships. You bring curiosity, creativity, a growth mindset, and an ownership mentality to everything you do, pairing process with people. You’re passionate about emerging tech and AI and know how to translate it into business value. You communicate fluently across startup and enterprise contexts, strengthen organizational presence, engage communities, and motivate external champions to drive revenue and long-term success.

Just as importantly, you collaborate seamlessly within teams, working with humility, openness, and a focus on shared success.

Must-Haves

• 4+ years in partnerships, business development, or channel programs
• Proven success designing and executing partner or referral programs
• Experience with HubSpot, Salesforce, or similar CRMs
• Strong communicator across startup and enterprise contexts
• Collaborative and entrepreneurial, skilled at networking and creative problem-solving
• Passion for emerging technologies and AI, with the ability to communicate applications clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences

Nice-to-Haves

• Background in agency, SaaS, or venture environments
• Familiarity with partner tiers, retainer models, or affiliate program structures
• Experience managing partner communities (Slack, Discord, etc.)
• Exposure to entrepreneurial or EIR programs
• Experience representing an organization externally and building brand presence through events, communities, or thought leadership
• Hands-on familiarity with AI tools and emerging technologies; able to experiment and stay current; technical background a plus, but not required

Success Metrics

• Volume and quality of partners onboarded and activated
• Number of qualified leads and revenue generated via partner channels
• Retention and engagement rates of top-tier partners
• Partner-driven deal velocity and time to close
• Partner feedback scores on onboarding, enablement, and support
• Efficiency gains through improved workflows

What You’ll Get

• The opportunity to own and build a revenue-generating program, with real autonomy and founder-level responsibility
• A central role in shaping AE Studio’s partner ecosystem and representing us in emerging tech and AI communities
• Collaboration with a world-class team of engineers, strategists, designers, and entrepreneurs who treat every project like their own startup
• A culture grounded in our core values: ownership, growth mindset, and increasing agency for our team, our clients, and the world
• Flexibility in how you work, with in-person or hybrid collaboration at our Marina del Rey HQ preferred (remote considered for exceptional candidates). AE Studio HQ is a collaboration hub near the marina and a center for AI alignment work, where teams connect, whiteboard ideas, and build strong relationships while pushing the boundaries of emerging technology to create a better future for humanity.
• Competitive compensation, equity opportunities, and full benefits, backed by a company committed to building an agency-increasing, maximally flourishing future.

Salary range from $120k/year to $200k/year. Not in the range? That’s fine, you can still apply and our team may fit you in a more senior position that we’re not actively hiring right now, but we are growing fast and may have other openings soon.

Equity

Working at AE means receiving equity in some of our client projects and in the Skunkworks projects we incubate. The equity granted is priced at a value of $0 when you receive it. If it were otherwise, you’d be forced to pay taxes. But to be clear, there are no free lunches, only the choice of who pays for your sandwich.

At AE, the equity you receive is not free to AE. We invest millions annually in Skunkworks projects - paying our employees to build technology for which no client pays a bill. We receive equity from certain clients, which means we accept less in terms of our billable rate. We then pass that equity on to our employees. Sure it’s priced at $0 on day 1 - a call option on a stock trading at $100 with a strike price of $100 is priced at $0 today for tax purposes, but you’d want to receive that option. If you received that option on a dozen stocks, you’d be fairly confident that some of them would be worth a lot more than $0.

Offering this equity (by investing in Skunkworks or offering clients a lower rate) comes out of AE’s margins. Theoretically, we should be lowering salaries to compensate. But we’re competitive on that front as well. Over the long-term, we believe AE employees who stick around are likely to fare extremely well monetarily (no legal promises). We think long-term. You should too when you choose your employer.

We are looking to hire people who think long term. People create exponentially more value here in their 3rd or 4th year rather than their 1st or 2nd, and that only increases. The value you create leads to more equity issued every year, and you retain it while you remain at AE or at a Skunkworks co that spins out, in order to free up equity for others, which is how we afford to be generous with the equity.

\* Disclaimer: If you leave AE on good terms, you can retain 20% of your equity if you continue to send leads our way, share our core values, etc. If you leave AE for your own AE-incubated Skunkworks project (or someone else’s), you retain 100% of your equity. Folks create exponentially more value here in their 3rd and 4th years than their 1st or 2nd - we want folks who think long-term like we do.