Director, Strategic Infrastructure Partnerships

About NorthMark Compute & Cloud (NMC²) The Company NorthMark Compute & Cloud (NMC²) is backed by dedicated leadership and investment, with a clear mission as it operates at the bleeding edge of technology. Its goal is to scale and enhance the high-performance computing (HPC) and cloud infrastructure that supports its clients' research, production, and delivery, enabling breakthroughs that shape the industries of tomorrow. Its engineers build critical infrastructure to eliminate friction in scientific research, simulations, analysis, and decision-making, accelerating discovery and driving faster innovation. Position Overview We are seeking a Director of Business Development & Partnerships to serve as the company's dedicated lead for managing and growing our ecosystem of strategic infrastructure partners. The new mandate will bring focus, structure, and long‑term vision to a function that has grown in complexity alongside the business, centralizing ownership and acting as the primary business‑side counterpart to the commercial, technical, and operational executives. Responsibilities Strategic Partnership Development: Build and manage strategic partnerships with hardware OEMs, GPU suppliers, data center providers, independent software vendors (ISVs), and channel partners to support infrastructure growth; identify, evaluate, and prioritize new vendor and partner relationships aligned to the company's cloud infrastructure, AI compute, and networking roadmap; track industry trends across cloud, AI infrastructure, networking, and GPU ecosystems to proactively surface partnership opportunities. Relationship Management & Executive Alignment: Act as the primary point of contact for strategic vendor relationships, including executive alignment, escalation handling, and performance stewardship; serve as the business counterpart to the Head of Infrastructure, streamlining communication and reducing organizational navigation burden; coordinate partner enablement programs, certifications, and technical training initiatives. Commercial & Contractual Oversight: Lead negotiation of commercial agreements, pricing structures, rebates, and service‑level commitments in partnership with NMS Procurement; monitor vendor performance metrics, KPIs, delivery timelines, and contractual compliance; support cost optimization by identifying vendor efficiencies, consolidation opportunities, and strategic sourcing improvements; work with legal and compliance to review contracts, risk assessments, and regulatory requirements. Cross‑Functional Collaboration & Planning: Collaborate with procurement, product, engineering, finance, and sales to align vendor capabilities with business objectives; manage strategic supplier forecasting, capacity planning, and inventory coordination for cloud infrastructure deployments; support data center expansion initiatives by coordinating with colocation, networking, and infrastructure vendors. Go‑to‑Market & Ecosystem: Drive joint go‑to‑market initiatives with partners, including co‑selling opportunities, marketing campaigns, and solution integrations; conduct market analysis and competitive research on emerging technologies to identify and size new partnership opportunities; contribute to long‑term ecosystem development strategy to strengthen the company's position in the AI infrastructure market. Qualifications 8–12+ years of experience in business development, strategic partnerships, or vendor management in technology infrastructure, cloud, or HPC environments. Demonstrated track record of building and scaling strategic vendor ecosystems—ideally across hardware OEMs, GPU suppliers, or data center providers. Bachelor's degree required; MBA or relevant advanced degree preferred. Experience negotiating complex commercial agreements with technology vendors at an enterprise level. Prior exposure to AI/ML compute infrastructure, colocation, or high‑performance networking is strongly preferred. Experience working cross‑functionally with procurement, engineering, product, and finance teams. Strategic thinker with the ability to connect partner activity to long‑term business outcomes. Strong commercial acumen—comfortable with pricing structures, rebate models, SLA frameworks, and capacity forecasting. Excellent stakeholder management skills; able to operate effectively at both executive and operational levels. Analytically rigorous—able to evaluate vendor performance data, market trends, and build/buy/partner trade‑offs. Clear, concise communicator with the ability to synthesize complex vendor landscapes for executive audiences. Comfortable operating in a fast‑moving, ambiguous environment where structure must often be created rather than inherited. Must be legally authorized to work in the United States without the need for employer sponsorship, now or at any time in the future. Benefits & Perks Company‑Paid Lunch Stipend: Lunch is provided via GrubHub. Medical: 100% Employer‑Paid Medical in a High Deductible Health Plan. Dental and Vision benefits for employees and their families. 16 weeks of Paid Parental Leave. Employee Assistance Program. Life insurance, Short‑Term Disability and Long‑Term Disability. 401(k): Company will match 100% of your contributions up to 6%. Optional Employee‑Paid Benefits: Medical insurance in our PPO plan and a variety of other benefits such as Health Savings Accounts (with Company Contribution!), Flexible Spending Accounts, Supplemental Life Insurance, Wellhub, and more. Time Off: 25 days of Paid Time Off plus 12 company holidays. Equal Opportunity Employer NorthMark Strategies LLC is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer. The Company’s policy is not to discriminate against any applicant or employee based on race, color, religion, national origin, gender, age, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, mental or physical disability, or any other basis protected by applicable law. The firm also prohibits harassment of applicants or employees based on any of these protected categories. #J-18808-Ljbffr NorthMark Compute and Cloud LLC