Director, Global Channel Sales (Commercial & International)

ABOUT THE ROLE

Kion has built a strong partner motion with US Federal agencies. Now, we want to bring that success to Commercial and public sector markets outside US Federal, across North America and EMEA. As Director, Global Channel Sales, you'll build that motion. You'll design the program, recruit the partners and turn them into a reliable source of pipeline and revenue.

This is a build role. You'll own Kion's channel strategy everywhere outside US Federal. Your first priority is to make Kion successful in EMEA, while growing the partner business in North America Commercial. You'll build Kion's relationships with systems integrators, managed service providers, and sign up and activate the cloud providers, distributors, resellers, service providers and consulting partners who can take Kion into new markets. You'll make partner-sourced pipeline something leadership can forecast with confidence. You'll own the most strategic partner relationships yourself, and you'll be the person Kion's leaders go to for how the channel is doing and where it's going next.

At first, you'll be a builder and a seller. As the program grows, you'll hire and lead the team that runs it. Kion is the FinOps+ platform. We help organizations prevent cloud waste with automated governance and AI-driven FinOps, and we extend that discipline beyond public cloud to SaaS, AI and the data center. Kion is self-hosted in the customer's own AWS or Azure environment, so customer data stays in the customer's environment. That makes Kion a natural fit for partners who serve regulated, enterprise, government and data-sovereignty-minded buyers. Your job is to make it easy for partners to sell, deliver and co-market Kion to their customers.

YOUR DAY-TO-DAY:

• Set the strategy, structure and goals for Kion’s channel across North America and EMEA, and own the results.
• Build and run the EMEA channel first plan. Pick the priority countries and partners (starting with the UK and Germany and expanding into Benelux, the Nordics and France), where Kion’s buyers, hyperscalers and partners line up, and prove the model works.
• Grow Kion’s partner business in North America Commercial, so it complements Kion’s Federal partner motion without overlapping it.
• Recruit and build relationships with system integrators, from global firms to regional specialists. Build executive sponsorship and joint go-to-market plans that turn into pipeline.
• Recruit, onboard and activate the integrators, VARs, distributors, and service provider partners most likely to drive revenue.
• Develop and recruit an MSP/MSSP deployment and services model built on dedicated, per-client Kion instances, including deploy-and-manage, build-and transfer, and resell-plus-advisory options, standardized deployment templates, and pricing that supports recurring managed governance services.
• Co-sell with partners on early deals, support them through their first wins, and build repeatable joint sales plays.
• Build partner routes into international public sector buyers, working with integrations and resellers that hold the relationships and buying paths in each country.
• Own and grow Kion's most strategic partner relationships, and work as an overlay to Kion's inside sales team to bring partner deals to close.
• Build Kion's hyperscaler co-sell and marketplace motion outside US Federal, including AWS Partner Central (ACE) referrals and transacting through cloud marketplaces and regional distributors.
• Build the program's foundations: partner tiers and criteria, partner portal/resource hub, incentives and margin structures, deal registration and rules of engagement, enablement and certification content, and partner-facing sales tools (pitch decks, battlecards, pricing guides and demo environments).
• Run the program's operating rhythm, including partner QBRs, joint account planning, account mapping, pipeline reviews and partner advisory input.
• Work with Marketing on joint campaigns, webinars and content with partner marketing teams, and on Kion's presence at partner-hosted and regional events, Marketing Development Funds (MDF) and joint case studies.
• Work with Kion's Federal partner team to share what works, avoid partner conflict and agree clear rules of engagement for partners who work across Federal and Commercial or international markets.
• Work closely with Sales, Solutions Engineering, Marketing, Product, Finance and Legal so channel strategy stays tied to company priorities and partner agreements (including international contracts, pricing, currency and data protection requirements) are commercially sound.
• Report on partner-sourced and partner-influenced pipeline to the SVP of Sales and the sales leadership team, and bring forecast calls that hold up.
• Report market feedback from partners into Kion’s Product Roadmap and pricing as well as the Leadership Team.
• Hire and develop the channel team as the program grows, including in-region partner managers as markets open up.

WHAT WE ARE EXPECTING FROM YOU (I.E., THE QUALIFICATIONS YOU MUST HAVE):

• A track record of building or scaling a multi-tier partner program (systems integrators, VARs, distributors, service providers or MSPs) at a high-growth SaaS, cloud infrastructure or ISV company.
• Proven success building a partner channel in EMEA. You know how channel structures, distribution and buying differ from country to country.
• Experience working with systems integrators and MSPs. You know how to structure and activate a services-led partnership, and how that differs from managing a reseller
• Experience building a channel function and growing it, not just inheriting one that already worked.
• Experience working as a channel overlay to an inside sales team: aligning on accounts, bringing partners into deals and keeping channel conflict low.
• Hands-on knowledge of how channel programs run: deal registration, rules of engagement, joint account planning, QBRs, co-sell and partner incentives.
• Working knowledge of AWS, Azure and GCP, and hands-on experience with hyperscaler partner programs, co-sell (such as AWS ACE) and marketplace transactions.
• Experience selling to and through partners who serve CloudOps, platform engineering and FinOps buyers.
• Strong executive presence. You can represent Kion credibly to senior partner executives and to Kion's own sales and leadership teams.
• Based in the United States, with the ability to travel internationally.

NICE TO HAVE:

• A background at a digital-native company or startup where you built the channel function from scratch.
• Experience in FinOps, AI tokenomics, cloud governance or cloud cost management.
• Experience with cloud hyperscaler co-sell programs and marketplace private offers.
• An existing network of systems integrators, cloud consultancies, distributors or MSPs active in the FinOps and CloudOps space, particularly in EMEA.
• Experience selling to international government buyers through partners.
• Experience with data sovereignty and regulatory requirements such as GDPR.
• Familiarity with partner relationship management (PRM) tools and channel reporting in Salesforce.
• Experience selling into regulated industries such as financial services, healthcare or the public sector.
• Fluency in a major European language.

If you meet most of these qualifications but not all, we still encourage you to apply. We hire for capability and impact, not a specific career path.

WHAT WE WILL PROVIDE IN RETURN:

• Kion is a remote-first company. We offer a 100% remote work schedule (US only)!
• Excellent compensation and outstanding benefits, including medical, dental and vision!
• 3% of direct compensation contribution to your 401(k) (no match required).
• Unlimited PTO to allow staff to spend time with friends and family.
• Regular virtual engagements to better connect with co-workers and talk about life outside of work.
• A small-team collaborative environment that fosters communication and innovation.

Compensation: $225,00 - $250,000 Total OTE

ABOUT KION

Kion offers FinOps+, an approach that unifies automated guardrails, AI-driven FinOps, and beyond public cloud cost management in a policy-driven platform. With FinOps+, teams can proactively govern and eliminate waste before it happens, extend visibility and optimization beyond public cloud (AI, SaaS, and private cloud), and leverage AI for smarter forecasting and faster decision-making. FinOps+ moves beyond simply tracking costs, it accelerates value, serving as the bridge between cost control and operational excellence to do more with less while ensuring long-term efficiency. Kion serves leading regulated enterprises and agencies including Verizon, NASA, Indeed, Insulet and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). Learn more at: kion.io.