Partnership Manager Lead, APAC

Mecka AI is building the data infrastructure layer for robotics and embodied AI. We design and operate global systems for data capture, data labeling, and hardware-enabled workflows used by leading AI and robotics teams. Our work sits at the intersection of software, operations, and real-world execution — where reliability, speed, and quality all matter.

APAC is one of Mecka's most strategic regions — home to the world's densest concentration of robotics OEMs and a deep, scalable base for data collection and annotation. Our ability to scale here depends on strong partnerships across both sides of our business: the partners who help us collect data at scale, and the partners who help us deploy and integrate robotic systems.

Robotics will become the largest industry in human history — larger than anything that has come before it. As intelligent machines move into the physical world, they will dramatically expand global GDP, raise the material standard of living for everyone, and ultimately help make humanity a multiplanetary civilization. None of that happens without one thing: enormous amounts of high-quality, real-world data.

Mecka AI builds that foundation. We are the data infrastructure layer for robotics and embodied AI — the substrate that teaches machines to perceive, reason, and act in reality. Get this right, and we accelerate the most important technological transition of our time.

• Excellence as the baseline. We hold an extremely high bar and expect the best work of your career. Mediocrity isn't interesting to us.

• Highly technical. We reason from first principles, not by analogy. The best argument wins — regardless of title or tenure.

• Truth-seeking. We are relentlessly honest with ourselves and each other. We chase reality — measured, not assumed — and kill our own bad ideas fast.

• Maniacal urgency. The work matters and the clock is real. We move fast, ship, measure, and iterate.

• Extreme ownership. You own outcomes end-to-end — no hand-offs, no excuses, no waiting for permission.

• Hardcore. This is a high-intensity environment for people who want to do the defining work of their lives.

We're hiring a Partnership Manager Lead, APAC to own and grow Mecka's APAC partnership portfolio across two distinct surfaces:

• Data Collection partnerships — annotation vendors, expert networks, capture-site operators, field-data partners, and BPO/operations partners who let us collect and process real-world data at scale.

• Robotics partnerships — robotics OEMs, hardware partners, systems integrators, and deployment partners who let us place robotic systems into real commercial environments and source platform partners for our customers.

You will maintain and grow the partnerships we already have — keeping the relationships healthy, contracts current, programs delivering, and revenue compounding — while sourcing and closing net-new partnerships that open up new capacity, geographies, and capabilities. This is a hunter/farmer role, not one or the other.

Equally important: this is an operationally serious role. APAC partnerships only work if the programs behind them actually run. You need the muscle to deliver on what you sign — coordinating across our operations, hardware, data, and country teams to make the partnership real, not just papered.

• Own the day-to-day health of Mecka's existing APAC partnerships across data collection and robotics — relationships, contracts, SLAs, escalations, renewals.

• Be the primary external face for each partner — the person they call when something is going right or wrong.

• Run quarterly business reviews, expand scope where it makes sense, and identify upsell/expansion opportunities inside the existing book.

• Catch and resolve issues before they escalate; turn one-off engagements into durable, multi-year programs.

• Source, qualify, and close new partnerships across both data collection (annotation vendors, expert networks, capture operators, BPOs) and robotics (OEMs, hardware platforms, systems integrators, deployment partners).

• Develop partnership theses for each APAC market — Japan, Korea, China, Singapore, India, SEA — and prioritize where to invest based on customer demand and operational fit.

• Run end-to-end deal cycles: outbound, qualification, term negotiation, legal, signing, kickoff.

• Build the pipeline that lets Mecka enter new APAC markets and modalities ahead of customer demand.

• Translate every partnership into an operational plan: who delivers what, on what timeline, against what quality bar.

• Coordinate across data operations, hardware, country leadership, and customer teams to launch and scale partner programs.

• Own the partner side of program delivery — capacity, throughput, quality, escalations — partnering with internal program leads who own the customer side.

• Pull partnerships back on track when execution slips; you do not hand off and hope.

• Own the partnership CRM, pipeline, and reporting for APAC — what's signed, what's in flight, what's at risk.

• Build repeatable systems for sourcing, qualifying, and onboarding partners; leverage AI tools and automation where they move the needle.

• Capture institutional knowledge so partnerships don't live in one person's head.

• Report on partnership performance to Mecka leadership monthly.

• Work closely with Country GMs (Canada, India, future APAC geos), data operations, hardware, sales, and product to align partnership strategy with what the business actually needs.

• Surface partnership-level signal back into product and ops — what partners are asking for, what's breaking, where capacity is constrained.

• 5+ years in partnerships, business development, strategic alliances, or commercial roles — with real operational responsibility, not just deal-signing.

• Track record managing an existing partner book AND sourcing/closing new partnerships — both farming and hunting.

• Strong APAC market knowledge across multiple countries (Japan, Korea, China, Singapore, India, or SEA) — you know the players, the deal norms, and the operating pitfalls.

• Experience delivering complex programs through external partners — capacity planning, SLAs, escalation management, quality oversight.

• Comfortable operating across data, ops, and hardware contexts; you can hold a credible conversation with both a BPO operations director and a robotics OEM product lead.

• Built or scaled partnerships in robotics, AI/ML, autonomy, data labeling, BPO, or hardware ecosystems.

• Owned a regional partner P&L or portfolio with measurable revenue and capacity outcomes.

• Multilingual or culturally fluent across multiple APAC markets.

• Experience using AI tools and automation to scale outbound, qualification, and partner ops.

• Background in operations, supply chain, or program management before moving into partnerships — operational muscle is core to this role.

• A hunter and a farmer — you don't see "managing existing partners" and "sourcing new ones" as separate skills.

• Operationally rigorous; you can deliver on what you sign, not just sign it.

• Comfortable spanning data collection and robotics partnerships, even though they require different conversations.

• High-context across APAC business cultures; you move differently in Tokyo than in Bangalore than in Shenzhen, and you know why.

• Resourceful and self-directed; you do not wait for structure.

• Detail-driven about contracts, SLAs, and follow-through.

• Own the APAC partner portfolio for a company sitting at the center of robotics and data infrastructure — both sides of the most important industrial transition of the next decade.

• Run real partnerships with robotics OEMs and the operators powering global AI data — not paper deals.

• Build the partnership engine for a region that will be one of Mecka's largest in 24 months.

• High autonomy, direct collaboration with leadership, and the ability to shape how Mecka shows up across APAC.