Sr. Partner Marketing Manager

Sr. Partner Marketing Manager

Remote – US

About Backblaze

Backblaze (NASDAQ: BLZE) is the high-performance capacity storage layer for AI. Founded in 2007, we scaled the business on less than $3 million in outside funding until our 2021 IPO on the Nasdaq. Today we manage over five billion gigabytes of data for 500K+ customers in 175+ countries, including AI platforms, GPU clouds, businesses, developers, IT professionals, and individuals.

About the Role

As a best of breed storage platform, a robust partner ecosystem is how Backblaze reaches the AI market: GPU clouds, AI infrastructure vendors, data and AI platforms, and the events where that ecosystem gathers.

You will serve our Partnerships & Ecosystem team, and report to the VP of Marketing. Product Marketing, Campaign leads, Content and Creative, Demand Generation, Communications, and Analyst Relations all back you up as you provide the bridge between corporate GTM efforts and our partner orgs GTM efforts. You work at a senior level and carry the work yourself, with strong collaboration and teams to support your efforts.

The job is to give partner marketing the same structure, standards, and ambition as everything else Marketing does, and to make every partnership worth more to Backblaze, to the partner, and to the customers we share.

What You’ll Do

Set the plan and the operating rhythm

• Build and run a rolling six-month partner marketing plan with the Partner team with a focus on priority partnerships in the AI space
• Structure the work in manner that keeps the teams aligned and informed with shared calendars, clear intake paths, and a point of view on what Backblaze will and won’t do
• Fold partner marketing into Marketing’s broader planning so partner programs, launches, and campaigns move with brand, product marketing, and demand generation priorities
• Stay agile and responsive as opportunities evolve and shift around you
• Lead the reporting cadence on impact, in collaboration with the business intelligence team, at a level consumable from c-suite to team meetings

Translate our story for partners

• Take Product Marketing’s core positioning and materials and adapt them for each partner’s sellers, architects, and customers: joint value propositions, partner-facing narratives, and co-branded messaging that stay true to how Backblaze talks about itself.
• Equip priority partners’ teams to get Backblaze right, with kits, one-pagers, and sales plays built alongside Enablement and Partnerships

Build brand with the ecosystem

• Raise Backblaze’s profile with the most credible names in AI through joint narratives, co-presented content, webinars, and thought leadership that establish Backblaze as a storage leader for AI
• Coordinate announcements with Communications, including the disclosure requirements that come with being a public company
• Working with the events team, advocate for Backblaze’s presence at AI-first events and moments where we can show up with strategic partners

Bridge marketing and enablement

• Working with the content and creative team, build co-branded reference architectures, joint case studies and customer references, and informative announcements that help customers make decisions
• Work with DevRel and Sales Engineering around content and enablement with technical depth, they can provide the substance but you’ll need to provide structure and promotion
• Own how Backblaze appears on partner surfaces: integration and partner pages, directories, marketplace listings, co-branded assets, and Powered By Backblaze materials, and documentation. Keep them accurate, current, and consistent
• Support analyst submissions for partner-validated architectures alongside our Analyst Relations team

The Right Fit

Required

• 7–10 years in B2B technology marketing, including 4+ years in partner, alliance, or ecosystem marketing at an infrastructure, cloud, data, or AI company.
• A record of launching and running co-marketing with partners larger than your own company, and of earning priority from a partner’s marketing team
• Proven skill at translating core product positioning into partner-specific narratives, and the writing ability to draft them yourself. Bring samples
• Technical fluency to work with Sales Engineers and partner architects: cloud and object storage, S3-compatible APIs, and how AI and data pipelines use storage (training data, checkpoints, inference)
• Experience planning and executing a presence at major industry conferences, ideally in the AI ecosystem
• Comfort reading pipeline and campaign data in Salesforce and dashboards that others build, and turning it into decisions
• The discipline to work solo: set priorities, hold them, and use AI tools to multiply your output without lowering the bar

Strongly Preferred

• Partner marketing experience at an AI cloud, AI infrastructure vendor, or data platform.
• Experience with partner-hosted conferences and co-presented programming at GTC scale.
• Public company experience, including work within disclosure requirements for partner announcements.
• Experience standing up partner marketing in a function that did not have a home.
• A background producing technical proof: reference architectures, benchmark-backed content, and customer references.

Logistics

• Location: Remote – US
• Travel: ~25%, concentrated around major AI events and partner meetings 
• Reports to: VP, Marketing
• Partners with: Partnerships & Ecosystem, Product Marketing, Revenue Operations, Channel Marketing, Content and Creative, Demand Generation, Communications, Analyst Relations

Backblaze Perks

• Healthcare for family, including dental and vision
• Competitive compensation and 401K
• RSU grants for full-time employees
• ESPP program
• Flexible vacation policy
• Maternity & paternity leave
• MacBook Pro to use for work plus a generous stipend to personalize your workstation
• Childcare bonus (human children only)
• Fertility treatment and support
• Learning & development program
• Commuter benefits
• Culture that supports a healthy work-life balance

Pay Transparency

To provide greater transparency to candidates, we share base pay ranges for all US-based job postings regardless of state. We set standard base pay ranges for all roles based on function, level, and country location, benchmarked against similar-stage growth companies. Final offer amounts are determined by multiple factors, including candidate location, skills, depth of work experience, and relevant licenses/credentials, and may vary from the amounts listed below.

The base pay range for this position is $135,000 – $150,000

At Backblaze, we value being fair and good to our customers, partners, and employees. That’s why diversity, equity, and inclusion are at the core of our values. We are committed to fostering a workforce where all employees feel a sense of belonging regardless of race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, age, religion, socio-economic status, ability, veteran status, and education. We believe that our dedication to cultivating a diverse workspace not only allows us to better serve our customers in over 175 countries, but further reinforces our commitment to doing the right thing. We are proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer.

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