Partner Manager, AI Ecosystems

Apollo.io is the leading go-to-market solution for revenue teams, trusted by over 500,000 companies and millions of users globally, from rapidly growing startups to some of the world’s largest enterprises. Founded in 2015, the company is one of the fastest growing companies in SaaS, raising approximately $250 million to date and valued at $1.6 billion. Apollo.io provides sales and marketing teams with easy access to verified contact data for over 210 million B2B contacts and 35 million companies worldwide, along with tools to engage and convert these contacts in one unified platform. By helping revenue professionals find the most accurate contact information and automating the outreach process, Apollo.io turns prospects into customers. Apollo raised a series D in 2023 and is backed by top-tier investors, including Sequoia Capital, Bain Capital Ventures, and more, and counts the former President and COO of Hubspot, JD Sherman, among its board members. Apollo is one of the most-used data and go-to-market platforms inside the AI agent ecosystem — reachable today through Claude, ChatGPT, Perplexity, and a growing list of agent and headless surfaces. That ecosystem is being rewritten in real time: MCP, skills, and plugins have opened entirely new surfaces for integration, collaboration, and partnership that didn’t exist eighteen months ago, and what a “partnership” even means in this space is still being defined as foundation model capabilities evolve. This role owns that frontier for Apollo: deepening our relationships with the foundation model companies, agent harnesses, and AI-native platforms we already work with, and identifying the surfaces we’re not yet part of. What you’ll do: 1. Own and Deepen Apollo’s Frontier AI Partnerships • Own Apollo’s relationships with foundation model companies, agent harnesses, and AI-native platforms — both the ones Apollo already works with and the ones it doesn’t yet • Go deeper with existing platform relationships: more surface area, better placement, tighter integration, and a real seat at the table as their roadmaps evolve • Continuously scan the landscape for new surfaces Apollo should be part of, and build the case for where to invest next • Lead on partner review, certification, and compliance processes (e.g., app store/plugin submissions) and drive resolution when a partner’s feedback loop stalls or lacks specifics. • Drive monetization strategies within each partner surface — identifying where usage, credit consumption, or connector adoption can be grown, and building the plan to convert platform reach into revenue 2. Build the Next Generation of Apollo Surfaces • Partner with platforms — and often multiple ISVs at once — to design and ship new plugins and skills that make Apollo genuinely useful to people running it headless, not just technically accessible via API • Work with Apollo’s own R&D team to translate what a partner’s surface can support into what Apollo should actually build for it • Treat every new surface (an MCP server, a skill, a plugin, an agent tool) as its own product decision: what it should do, who it’s for, and how it gets discovered 3. Stay on the Frontier • Track foundation model and agent-ecosystem developments as they happen — this category has no fixed playbook, and the right way to partner with it changes as model capabilities change • Translate what’s changing in the market into a point of view Apollo can act on before it becomes obvious • Be the person internally who can explain, credibly, what’s actually happening in this space and why it matters for Apollo’s partnership strategy Minimum Qualifications • 5+ years in technology/API partnerships, developer relations, or a closely related technical partnerships role, ideally touching foundation model, agent, or AI-native platform ecosystems • Genuine technical fluency: comfortable in API docs, MCP concepts, and integration architecture discussions with both a partner’s engineering team and Apollo’s own R&D • Demonstrated ability to track and make sense of a fast-moving, still-forming category — you can explain what’s changed in the last month and why it matters • Comfortable working multi-party: coordinating a partnership that involves a platform and one or more other ISVs at the same time • Experience working in a category with no established playbook — you build the process and the point of view as you go Preferred Qualifications • Existing relationships or experience with foundation model companies, agent harness platforms, or the broader AI-native/builder ecosystem • Experience designing or shipping an MCP server, skill, or plugin — yours or a partner’s • Background in developer relations, technical partner management, or a product-adjacent partnerships role at a SaaS or platform company The listed Pay Range reflects the total cash compensation inclusive of annual base salary and annual bonus as applicable. For sales roles, the range provided is the role’s On Target Earnings (“OTE”) range, meaning that the range includes both the sales commissions/sales bonus target and annual base salary for the role. This salary range may be inclusive of several career levels at Apollo and will be narrowed during the interview process based on a number of factors, including the candidate’s experience, qualifications, and location. Applicants interested in this role who are not located in the US may request the annual salary range for their location during the interview process. Additional benefits for this role may include: equity; company bonus or sales commissions/bonuses; 401(k) plan; at least 10 paid holidays per year, flex PTO, and parental leave; employee assistance program and wellbeing benefits; global travel coverage; life/AD&D/STD/LTD insurance; FSA/HSA and medical, dental, and vision benefits. Tier 1 Pay Range (San Francisco, New York City, Seattle) $195,000—$245,000 USD Tier 2 Pay Range (All other US Locations) $180,000—$225,000 USD We are AI Native Apollo.io is an AI-native company built on a culture of continuous improvement. We’re on the front lines of driving productivity for our customers—and we expect the same mindset from our team. If you’re energized by finding smarter, faster ways to get things done using AI and automation, you’ll thrive here. Why You’ll Love Working at Apollo At Apollo, we’re driven by a shared mission: to help our customers unlock their full revenue potential. That’s why we take extreme ownership of our work, move with focus and urgency, and learn voraciously to stay ahead. We invest deeply in your growth, ensuring you have the resources, support, and autonomy to own your role and make a real impact. Collaboration is at our core—we’re all for one, meaning you’ll have a team across departments ready to help you succeed. We encourage bold ideas and courageous action, giving you the freedom to experiment, take smart risks, and drive big wins. If you’re looking for a place where your work matters, where you can push boundaries, and where your career can thrive—Apollo is the place for you. Learn more here!