Vice President of AI Ecosystem Partnerships

Vice President of AI Ecosystem Partnerships

Somerville, Massachusetts, United States

At Smart Bear, we believe building great software starts with quality – and we’re helping our customers make that happen every day. Our solutions, featuring Smart Bear AI, bring visibility and automation to software development, making it easier for teams to deliver high-quality software faster. Smart Bear is trusted by over 16 million developers, testers, and software engineers at 32,000+ organizations – including innovators like Adobe, Jet Blue, Fed Ex, and Microsoft.

Our vision is to become the trusted, independent testing layer in an AI-powered software ecosystem—bringing confidence and credibility to software created by autonomous and AI-assisted tools.

Smart Bear is seeking a Vice President of AI Ecosystem Partnerships to lead end-to-end partnership strategy for our autonomous application testing solutions. Reporting to the SVP, Channel, this executive will identify, build, and formalize strategic partnerships with companies that generate AI-driven code, workflows, and applications.

This role is both strategic and execution-oriented. The VP will own the partnership lifecycle from ecosystem strategy and executive relationship-building through deal execution, product integration, and launch.

A core part of this role is advancing a compelling market narrative: the company generating AI code should not be the same company responsible for testing it. Smart Bear provides independent validation—helping partners and customers build trust, meet enterprise expectations, and scale adoption.

• Define and execute Smart Bear’s partnership strategy for autonomous testing within the AI code-generation ecosystem.
• Structure agreements that drive measurable revenue contribution, distribution leverage, and joint customer acquisition.
• Establish partnerships with AI development platforms including Anthropic, OpenAI, Cursor, Windsurf and emerging agent-based ecosystems.
• Establish Smart Bear as the neutral, trusted testing authority within an emerging AI software stack.

• Build and maintain senior executive relationships with founders, CEOs, product leaders, and business leaders at partner organizations.
• Lead partnerships end-to-end: sourcing, positioning, negotiation, deal structure, and formal agreement execution.
• Design partnership models that balance strategic alignment, technical integration, and long‑term commercial value.

• Partner closely with Product, Engineering, AI, and Architecture teams to define integration requirements and roadmap alignment.
• Define technical integration patterns that support agent-based workflows, API‑first connectivity, and real-time validation of AI-generated code.
• Act as the voice of partners internally, translating ecosystem needs into actionable priorities.
• Work with Channel, Sales, and Marketing leaders to develop joint go-to-market strategies, messaging, and launches.
• Support partner enablement and co-marketing efforts that enhance Smart Bear’s ecosystem credibility.

• Represent Smart Bear externally with partners, customers, and industry forums.
• Evangelize—credibly and pragmatically—the importance of independent testing for AI-generated software.
• Shape best practices around separation of code generation and code validation in AI-driven SDLC.

• Required
  · 12+ years of experience in business development, partnerships, or strategic alliances within SaaS, developer tools, or AI platforms.
• Proven track record of sourcing, negotiating, and closing complex strategic partnerships.
• Strong understanding of modern software development, AI-assisted coding, and platform ecosystems.
• Executive presence with the ability to influence both internal stakeholders and external partners.
• Experience owning initiatives end-to-end in ambiguous, fast-evolving markets.

• Experience partnering with AI code-generation tools, autonomous agents, or developer platforms.
• Familiarity with testing, quality engineering, Dev Ops, or software validation.
• Experience helping define category…