Head of Alliances and Partnerships (REMOTE)

Job Description

Job Description

Upbound is redefining how modern infrastructure is built. As the creators of Crossplane and the pioneers of the Intelligent Control Plane, we are leading the shift toward agentic infrastructure : platforms that reason, adapt, and operate alongside AI-native systems.

We are seeking an accomplished and highly strategic Head of Partnerships & Alliances to help define and execute Upbound's ecosystem and alliance strategy. This senior individual contributor role operates at the intersection of open source ecosystem development and commercial go-to-market execution. You will build and scale relationships that expand the reach of Crossplane — the leading open-source control plane framework — while driving commercial success for Upbound's enterprise platform. You'll collaborate deeply across engineering, product, marketing, and sales to shape joint strategies with cloud providers, ISVs, and system integrators that bridge community adoption with enterprise outcomes.

What You'll Do

The ideal candidate thrives in environments where open source credibility and business impact go hand in hand — capable of earning trust in developer ecosystems, influencing technical direction, and turning ecosystem momentum into measurable growth. You're comfortable operating across technical and commercial contexts, equally fluent in conversations with maintainers and hyperscaler executives. You bring curiosity about AI and emerging infrastructure models and see partnerships not just as contracts, but as systems for long-term category creation.

Open Source Ecosystem & Community Partnerships

• Build strategic relationships within the Crossplane ecosystem — including contributors, maintainers, and adjacent project communities — to expand adoption and integration momentum.
• Collaborate with open-source foundations and community leaders to strengthen the broader control plane and platform engineering ecosystem.
• Support co-marketing, education, and joint initiatives that celebrate community success and reinforce Upbound's leadership within open source.
• Partner with Developer Relations and Product teams to ensure two-way collaboration between community innovation and enterprise needs.

Strategic Alliance Development

Partner GTM Execution

Partner Program & Framework Design

Product & Roadmap Alignment

Ecosystem Representation & Industry Presence

What You'll Bring

A plus if you :

#LI-REMOTE

Why Upbound?

At Upbound, you'll help shape the systems and strategies that drive predictable, scalable growth in a product-led company embracing usage-based models. If you're excited to build from the ground up, work with cutting-edge cloud technologies, and directly impact how revenue is generated and scaled—this is your seat at the table.

About Upbound

Upbound is pioneering infrastructure platforms for the Agentic AI Era, serving Fortune 500 companies and platform engineers across more than 100 countries. The company empowers infrastructure and platform teams with Intelligent Control Planes - based on Kubernetes and Crossplane - that provision, operate, and adapt so platforms are ready for both humans and AI agents. Upbound is the creator and primary maintainer of Crossplane, the popular open-source framework for building cloud-native control planes, with over 100 million downloads and adoption by more than 1,000 teams worldwide. A Series B startup backed by GV (formerly Google Ventures), Altimeter Capital, and Intel Capital, Upbound has raised $69M to date. For more information, visit www.upbound.io.