At CoLab, we want to help mechanical engineering teams bring life-changing products to market years sooner.
CoLab is a cloud based platform for engineering design review. We make it easy for subject matter experts (SMEs) across your business to access, evaluate, and comment on 2D drawings and 3D models. Our built-in AI peer checker, AutoReview, scans designs for common errors or non-compliance with your standards and guidelines. AutoReview creates markups and comments on your files, in context – just like a human checker.
With CoLab, human SMEs and AI work together to help you make better decisions and improve designs faster. We automatically capture knowledge from across your global business that would otherwise be buried in emails, spreadsheets, slide decks, and unknown locations in Sharepoint or PLM. Then, we make sure every lesson learned and every design guideline is applied exactly when it matters.
Companies like Johnson Controls, Komatsu, Schaeffler, and Polaris have launched products 40% faster, cut BOM costs by 50%, and reduced quality escapes by 15% in 1 year.
About the RoleThis is a strategic and foundational role for CoLab. As the first Director of Partnerships, you’ll define and own our channel strategy and shape how we work with most important strategic partners and technology vendors in our ecosystem - value added resellers, CAD/PLM vendors, engineering software and AI leaders.
You’ll be responsible for developing our approach to reseller, referral, and strategic technology partnerships - establishing the relationships, frameworks, and processes that will turn channels into a major source of growth.
If you’re energized by building strategies with external organizations to win together, managing complex ecosystems, and playing a long game with big upside - this role is for you.
Our Ideal CandidateYou’ve built channel strategy and managed channel relationships that resulted in significant, measurable revenue impact. You know how to navigate both technical integration conversations and high-level GTM strategy, and are a strong cross-functional partner within the business as well as outside it.
You thrive in unstructured environments and know how to build a motion from zero to one. You’re credible with senior stakeholders at companies 100x our size, but don’t need a big team to get started.
This role is for a builder who wants to define what CoLab’s partner ecosystem looks like - and drive the charge in making it real.
What you’ll do:Build the channel strategy: Design and implement CoLab’s partner program framework, including defining what partners to engage and go-to-market models (e.g., reseller, referral, marketplaces, etc).
Recruit and onboard partners: Identify, evaluate, and negotiate high-value channel and technology partnerships that align with CoLab’s growth objectives.
Drive partner success: Partner with Enablement and Marketing to ensure partners can effectively position and sell CoLab.
Establish scalable systems: Build partner processes, reporting, and KPIs - including working directly with Revenue Operations to ensure Salesforce workflows, revenue attribution, and partner performance metrics are built in a clear and scalable way.
Own growth targets: Manage pipeline and revenue goals generated through partner channels; analyze performance and continuously refine the program, driving accountability with partners.
Formalize and grow strategic partnerships: Partner with CoLab’s CSO to determine the highest value strategic partners for CoLab, define our strategy for winning together, and develop the partner models we need to drive technology and GTM objectives together.
Who you are:- Deep experience in technology partnerships, business development, or strategic alliances in B2B SaaS or enterprise software
- Deep familiarity with design engineering, CAD/PLM, simulation, or related ecosystems
- Proven track record of launching and scaling channel partnerships that drive measurable revenue or product outcomes
- Comfortable working with both technical teams (for integrations and roadmapping) and sales/marketing leaders (for GTM alignment)
- Experience launching or managing listings in cloud marketplaces (AWS, Azure, Siemens Xcelerator) is a major plus
- High credibility with VP+ stakeholders at Fortune 1000 companies
- Experience navigating corporate development or M&A discussions is an asset
Frequently cited statistics show that people who identify with historically marginalized groups are likely to apply to jobs only if they meet 100% of the qualifications. We encourage you to help us break that statistic and apply even if you don’t meet every single qualification—your potential is what matters most to us.
Top Skills
What We Do
Engineers need better tools for working together. CAD and PLM systems aren’t built for the design conversations where collaboration truly happens. So engineers go outside of them, using emails and slideshows to get the job done. But when these critical design discussions live in siloed, manual tools, you’re missing vital insights on why engineering decisions are being made, what needs to improve, and how to steer your people in the right direction.
After struggling with the traditional email, PowerPoint, and screenshot-driven collaboration process used by over 90% of manufacturing teams today, our founders made a decision: if better tools didn’t exist, they’d build them. And so CoLab began.
CoLab is a web-based collaboration tool that lets your team share CAD, provide feedback with full mechanical context, and capture the critical design data that your other systems don’t—giving you a design review and collaboration process that’s standardized, simplified, and twice-as-fast.
Today CoLab is trusted by Fortune 500 companies like Johnson Controls and Hyundai Mobis, who use the platform to accelerate design cycles by 51%, drive continuous improvement, and reduce product costs and changes.
See how we’re changing the way engineers work together at www.colabsoftware.com
