Director of AI Ecosystem & Partnerships

At Justworks, you’ll enjoy a welcoming and casual environment, great benefits, wellness program offerings, company retreats, and the ability to interact with and learn from leaders in the startup community. We work hard and care about our most prized asset - our people.

We’re helping businesses get off the ground by enabling them to focus on running their business. We solve HR issues. We’re data-driven and never stop iterating. If you’d like to work in a supportive, entrepreneurial environment, are interested in building something meaningful and having fun while doing it, we’d love to hear from you.

We're united by shared goals and shared motivations at Justworks. These are best summed up in our company values, which are reflected in our product and in our team.

Our Values

If this sounds like you, you’ll fit right in.

We’re seeking a Business Development Manager, Strategic Alliances responsible for creating and scaling transformative partnerships that go far beyond transactional sales. These alliances will unlock multi-year revenue streams, new distribution channels, and mutual enterprise value between Justworks and our partners.

This is not a traditional Account Executive role — it’s a strategic position for a dealmaker and relationship builder who can create alignment with Fortune 1000 companies, navigate complex, consensus-driven sales cycles, and drive partnerships that move the needle for both organizations. Typical engagements will involve long-term, multi-stakeholder cycles (9+ months) that require persistence, credibility, and strategic influence.

You’ll collaborate closely with Product, Marketing, Legal, and other cross-functional teams to transform ideas into scalable business outcomes. From identifying new alliance opportunities to bringing them to market, you will shape how Justworks expands its reach and drives sustainable growth through partnerships that deliver value to small and midsize businesses nationwide.

You are a strategic, relationship-driven business development professional who thrives at the intersection of innovation and execution. You bring a strategic mindset, thinking big and long-term while recognizing real-world limitations and pragmatic constraints. You understand how to build partnerships that scale — balancing vision with operational reality.

The Strategic Alliances team at Justworks focuses on expanding our customer footprint by partnering with Fortune 1000 companies to mutually serve the SMB segment. In this role, you will be responsible for sourcing, structuring, and launching new partnerships that accelerate top-line growth. This includes identifying enterprises with overlapping customer segments, co-developing go-to-market strategies, fostering executive relationships, influencing internal stakeholders, and negotiating high-impact contracts.

Partnerships at scale are a new muscle for Justworks. You’ll proactively engage with potential partners to uncover their needs, co-create value propositions, and ensure cross-functional alignment across internal teams — from Product to Marketing to Legal — to deliver results for all stakeholders.

You set the standard for collaboration, with a proven ability to work effectively across functions and levels. You’re as comfortable rolling up your sleeves to build a pipeline as you are cultivating executive relationships at the enterprise level.

This is a hybrid role based in our New York City office, requiring in-office presence two days per week when not traveling to visit prospective partners.

Strategic Origination & Deal Management

• Identify, qualify, and pursue high-potential strategic alliance opportunities across priority verticals and geographies.
  
  
• Develop and tailor value propositions aligned with each partner’s strategic objectives, customer base, and growth priorities.
  
  
• Collaborate with Marketing and GTM teams to design and execute strategies for acquiring new alliance partners.
  
  
• Structure, negotiate, and close complex partnership agreements, including co-selling, co-marketing, joint product offerings, or embedded technology integrations.
  
  
• Build and manage a robust pipeline of prospective partners, maintaining clear visibility into deal stages, timelines, and key stakeholders.
  
  
• Drive end-to-end deal management, from initial outreach and discovery through contract execution and launch, ensuring alignment with internal priorities and revenue goals.
  
  

Enterprise Relationship Development

• Cultivate trust-based, long-term relationships with executive stakeholders at prospective and existing partners.
  
  
• Serve as a strategic advisor, understanding partner business models, objectives, and constraints to shape win-win collaborations.
  
  
• Partner cross-functionally with Product, Marketing, Sales, Legal, and Operations to align on partnership goals and deliverables.
  
  
• Represent Justworks externally with professionalism, credibility, and a deep understanding of our value proposition for SMBs.
  
  
• Act as the voice of the partner internally, advocating for mutual success and ensuring commitments are delivered on both sides.
  
  

• 5+ years of enterprise sales, business development, or strategic partnerships experience, with a focus on large-scale deal origination and execution.
  
  
• Proven track record of closing $5M+ TCV and/or multi-year enterprise deals with global Fortune 1000 organizations.
  
  
• Expertise in managing complex, consensus-driven sales cycles and navigating multiple stakeholder groups.
  
  
• Strong executive presence, with the ability to build trust and influence at the highest levels.
  
  
• Strategic thinker who pairs vision with action, balancing innovation with pragmatic execution

Actual compensation is based on multiple factors that are unique to each candidate, including and not limited to skill set, level of relevant experience, and specific work location. Salary ranges for positions based in other locations may differ based on the cost of labor in that location.

For more information about Justworks’ Total Reward Philosophy, including all of the perks and benefits we are proud to offer our team members, please visit Total Rewards @ Justworks.

Justworks is committed to maintaining a workplace where diversity of identity, culture, and life experience is the norm and is celebrated authentically and respected consistently. Diversity in our work, our people, and our product drives creativity and innovation, entrepreneurial leadership and integrity, competitiveness, and collaboration throughout our business and in the market. We depend on our differences to make our team stronger, our workplace more dynamic, and our product accessible to all of our customers.

We’re proud to be an equal opportunity employer open to all qualified applicants regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital or familial status, disability, pregnancy, gender identity or expression, veteran status, genetic information, or any other legally protected status. Justworks is fully dedicated to providing necessary support to candidates with disabilities who may require reasonable accommodations. We also provide reasonable accommodations to employees based on their sincerely held religious beliefs, as well as for other covered reasons consistent with applicable federal, state, and local laws. If you're in need of a reasonable accommodation, please reach out to us at accommodations@justworks.com. Your comfort and success matter to us, and we're here to ensure an inclusive experience.

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