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Business Development Lead, AI & LLM Partnerships

Remote: 
Full Remote
Contract: 
Full time
Work from: 
Switzerland

Offer summary

Qualifications:

10+ years of experience in business development or strategic alliances, preferably in AI/ML and data science., Strong foundational knowledge of the software development lifecycle and ecosystem., Exceptional communication, negotiation, and relationship-building skills, with experience influencing senior executives., Bachelor’s degree in a technical field like Data Science or Computer Science, or equivalent practical experience..

Key responsibilities:

  • Drive the execution of Sonar’s partnership strategy with LLM providers and the Generative AI ecosystem.
  • Identify, evaluate, and prioritize strategic partnership opportunities through market analysis.
  • Build and manage strong relationships with key leaders at major LLM development companies.
  • Lead the end-to-end partnership lifecycle, including negotiation and execution of complex agreements.

Sonar logo
Sonar SME https://sonarsource.com/
501 - 1000 Employees
See all jobs

Job description

Who is Sonar?
Sonar helps prevent code quality and code security issues from reaching production, amplifies developers' productivity in concert with AI assistants, and improves the developer experience with streamlined workflows. Sonar analyzes all code, regardless of who writes it — your internal team, genAI, or third parties — resulting in more secure, reliable, and maintainable applications. Rooted in the open source community, Sonar’s solutions support over 30 programming languages, frameworks, and infrastructure technologies. Today, Sonar is used by +7M developers and 400K organizations worldwide, including the DoD, Microsoft, NASA, MasterCard, Siemens, and T-Mobile.

We believe in developing great products that are supported by great internal teams and a strong culture.  We are highly committed to and obsessed with the company, users, each other, and our open source community. We have high standards and hold each other accountable for acting with positivity, dedication, thoughtfulness, empathy, and passion daily. 
We are deliberate with our decisions with high clarity of intention. At the same time, we feel extreme urgency and move forward quickly. 

And lastly, we are highly effective and operationally efficient. We operate collectively as One Team to accomplish our goals.
At Sonar, CODE is more than just an acronym – it's a mindset that defines daily operations. Why You Should Apply: At Sonar, we’re a group of brilliant, motivated, and driven professionals working hard to help supercharge developers to build better, faster. Sonar helps to continuously improve code quality and code security while reducing developer toil. This means that developers can focus on doing more of what they love and less of what they don’t. Our solutions don’t just solve symptoms of problems – we help fix issues at the source – for all code, whether it's developer-written, AI-generated, or from third parties.

The Impact You Will Have
We are seeking a highly strategic and experienced Business Development professional to join Sonar as the Business Development Lead, AI & LLM Partnerships. Reporting directly to the Chief Growth Officer, you will spearhead Sonar's efforts in this critical domain, building deep, impactful relationships and forging partnerships with leading Foundation Model / Large Language Model (LLM) developers (e.g., OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind, Meta, Cohere, Mistral). Your primary goal will be to establish collaborations that build on cutting-edge AI model development and Sonar's unique IP to create innovative solutions for developers. This involves defining partnership structures, negotiating licensing and collaboration agreements, and developing joint go-to-market plans.

On a Daily Basis, You Will
  • Strategy Development & Execution: Drive the execution of Sonar’s partnership strategy specifically with LLM providers and the broader Generative AI ecosystem, aligning closely with overall company growth objectives.
  • Opportunity Identification & Analysis: Identify, evaluate, and prioritize strategic partnership opportunities. Conduct in-depth market analysis of the LLM landscape, tracking model releases, capabilities, and evolving partnership models.
  • Relationship Building & Management: Build, nurture, and manage strong, long-term relationships with key technical, product, and business leaders at major LLM development companies and influential organizations in the AI space.
  • Deal Negotiation & Execution: Lead the end-to-end partnership lifecycle with LLM providers: define engagement models, negotiate complex agreements focused on licensing, model training, co-development of solutions, and drive deals to closure.
  • Cross-Functional Collaboration: Work closely with internal Sonar teams (Product Management, Engineering, Research, Legal, Marketing, Sales, Finance) to align on LLM partnership priorities, define technical requirements, develop joint solutions, ensure legal compliance, and advocate effectively for partners.
  • Partnership Success & Growth: Track, measure, and report on the performance and impact of LLM partnerships to senior leadership, including the CGO and CEO. Manage relationships post-deal to ensure mutual success, identify new collaboration opportunities, and optimize ongoing engagements as the LLM landscape evolves.

    • The Experience and Skills You Will Demonstrate
  • 10+ years of experience in business development, strategic alliances, technology partnerships, or related fields, preferably within the AI/ML and data science domains.
  • Proven track record of successfully defining, negotiating, closing, and managing high-impact, technology-centric partnerships, ideally including experience working directly with AI/ML platform or model providers.
  • Strong foundational knowledge of the software development lifecycle and ecosystem.
  • Demonstrated ability to engage effectively with partners at both a deep technical level (understanding model architectures, APIs, integration challenges) and a strategic business level.
  • Experience leading complex deal negotiations, including interpreting legal documents and working collaboratively with legal counsel on terms related to IP, data usage, liability, and service levels, particularly in the context of AI/ML services.
  • Proven experience leading or significantly contributing to cross-functional teams to orchestrate and execute complex partnerships. Strong experience working directly with Product Management and Engineering/Research teams.
  • Exceptional communication, presentation, negotiation, and relationship-building skills, with experience influencing stakeholders at various levels, including senior executives.
  • Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
  • Ability to thrive, lead initiatives, and execute in a fast-paced, rapidly evolving, and often ambiguous technological landscape.
  • Bachelor’s degree, preferably in a technical field like Data Science or Computer Science, or equivalent practical experience.

    • Preferred Qualifications
  • MBA or advanced technical degree (e.g., MSCS, MSEE) with a focus on AI/ML.
  • Direct, hands-on experience negotiating partnerships specifically with or for major AI Foundation Model / LLM providers.
  • Experience with data licensing, IP licensing, technology collaboration in the AI space.
  • Deep understanding of the AI landscape, with specific, in-depth knowledge of Foundation Models / Large Language Models (LLMs): key providers (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind, etc.), model capabilities & limitations, common APIs, typical partnership structures, and legal considerations.
  • Experience working in a high-growth or start-up environment focused on AI/ML.
  • Established network within the AI / LLM developer community.
    • Benefits of Working with Sonar:

    Flexible comprehensive employee benefit package that is 90% paid by the company. We encourage usage of our robust time-off allocations. We offer an exciting 401(k) plan that has a 4% match, fully vested on day one of participation. Generous discretionary Company Growth Bonus, paid annually.  Fully paid parking in the heart of downtown Austin, Texas. Global workforce with employees in 20+ countries representing 35+ unique nationalities. We have an annual kick-off somewhere in the world where we meet to build relationships and goals for the company.

    Required profile

    Experience

    Spoken language(s):
    English
    Check out the description to know which languages are mandatory.

    Hard Skills

    AI/ML InferenceBusiness PartneringBusiness DevelopmentCross-Functional CollaborationMarket AnalysisStrategic AllianceSoftware DevelopmentTechnology LicensingTechnology Integration

    Other Skills

    • Negotiation
    • Communication
    • Analytical Skills
    • Relationship Building
    • Presentations
    • Problem Solving
    Are you interested?

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