Manager, Industry Partnerships

About CoLab

At CoLab, we help mechanical engineering teams bring life-changing products to market years sooner.

We build AI for engineers designing cars, medical devices, and jet engines. Products this complex aren't sketched and sent to production. Teams spend months on iterations, reviews, and tests, predicting how every part performs before anything is built. CoLab is where those reviews happen, and we capture the rationale behind every change. Other tools show what changed between versions. Only CoLab knows why. That's how our AI helps manufacturers like Bobcat, Triumph Motorcycles, and GE Appliances make better decisions, eliminate rework cycles, and get to market faster.

Proudly based in St. John’s, Newfoundland, CoLab started with one customer in 2018. Since then we’ve raised a $72M Series C, been named the 57th fastest growing company in North America by Deloitte (Fast 500™), signed multi-yearAI partnerships with companies like Bombardier, and grown to a team of 250+.

About the Role

We're looking for a commercially minded, relationship-driven Manager of Industry Partnerships to own key GTM partnerships, and turn CoLab's partner network into a reliable source of pipeline.

In this role, you'll own CoLab's relationships with our industry and executive referral partners and make sure every partner relationship translates into real opportunities for our sales team.

You'll work hand in hand with the Partnerships team, Account Executives, Field Marketing and Revenue leadership to manage partner introductions into hard-to-reach accounts, co-sell into target opportunities, and keep partner-sourced deals moving. You'll also source more: finding, qualifying, and signing the next wave of partners who can open doors at the engineering organizations we want to work with.

This role is for someone who understands enterprise GTM, and is energized by building. If you're looking for a mature GTM partner program to maintain, this probably isn't it. If you're excited to shape how a fast-growing company works with executive and industry partners - and to see the revenue impact of that work directly - we'd love to talk.

Our Ideal Candidate

• You measure partnerships by pipeline and revenue produced.
• You're equally comfortable building trust with a seasoned industry executive and sitting down with an Account Executive to map out account strategy.
• You're organized and operational. You know that partner programs are made on strong relationship management, well documented and understood partner strategy, clear expectations, consistent cadences, and clean handoffs - and you build the systems that make those things happen.
• You're curious about how hardware products get designed and built, and you can speak credibly with engineering leaders about the problems CoLab solves.

Job Responsibilities

Manage and grow existing partner relationships

• Own day-to-day relationships with CoLab's industry and executive partners.
• Set clear joint goals with each partner - target accounts, introductions, and pipeline - and run a regular cadence of check-ins and business reviews against them.
• Equip partners to represent CoLab well: onboarding, messaging, demo support, and co-branded materials, in partnership with Marketing and Solutions Engineering.
• Manage partner agreements, commission or referral terms, and renewals in partnership with Finance and Legal.

Turn partner relationships into pipeline

• Work closely with Account Executives, Field Marketing, Business Development, and Sales leadership to identify where partners can open doors in target and existing accounts.
• Route partner introductions to the right sellers quickly, and make sure every introduction gets timely, high-quality follow-up.
• Track partner-sourced and partner-influenced pipeline and report regularly on partner performance.

Source and sign new partners

• Build and maintain a target list of prospective referral partners aligned to CoLab's key verticals and regions.
• Lead outreach, qualification, and negotiation with prospective partners, and move them from first conversation to signed agreement.
• Onboard new partners so they are producing introductions within their first 90 days.

Build the partner program

• Define and document CoLab's partner playbook: partner types, tiers, rules of engagement with the sales team, and how partner deals are tracked and credited.
• Continuously improve the program based on what's working, and share insights with leadership on where to invest next.

Qualifications 

• 5+ years of experience in sales, partnerships, channel, alliances, or business development at a B2B software company, ideally selling into enterprise customers.
• Proven track record of building partner relationships that generated measurable pipeline and closed revenue.
• Strong working knowledge of enterprise sales cycles and experience collaborating closely with Account Executives.
• Comfort building trust with senior executives and industry advisors.
• Experience in manufacturing, engineering, PLM, or CAD-adjacent software is a strong plus.
• Experience working with partners in Europe is a plus.