← Back to jobs

Partner Director, Mckinsey Alliance

openai

OnSite San Francisco
IT Governance

Job Score

80 pts
On-site model (+70) IT Governance (+10)

About the Team

OpenAI’s GTM Partnerships team builds a strategic, global partner ecosystem designed to accelerate customer success, enable enterprise AI adoption, and drive durable growth in support of OpenAI’s mission. We work closely across Product, Research, Sales, Legal, Communications, and regional leadership to ensure a cohesive strategy and disciplined execution with our most strategic partners.


About the Role

We are hiring a Partner Director, Global McKinsey Alliance to lead and scale OpenAI’s relationship with McKinsey & Company.

This role will serve as the single accountable executive owner of the alliance globally. You will define the partnership strategy and operating model, translating executive alignment into scaled commercial and transformation outcomes across regions and industries.

You will work closely with McKinsey’s global leadership, industry and functional practices, and technology organizations—including QuantumBlack, AI by McKinsey—to develop differentiated enterprise AI offerings, pursue complex transformation opportunities, and help customers move from strategy to production deployment and measurable value.

The role carries responsibility for the health, performance, and long-term expansion of the partnership. Success requires senior executive presence, sound judgment, commercial discipline, technical fluency, and the ability to operate effectively across a complex, partner-led organization.


In this role, you will:

  • Own the global McKinsey relationship, including alliance strategy, pipeline growth, enterprise impact, deployment scale, and long-term expansion across priority industries.

  • Define and run the partnership’s operating model across executive governance, joint planning, regional execution, opportunity management, resource allocation, and escalation.

  • Serve as OpenAI’s senior executive counterpart to McKinsey’s global leadership and relevant industry, functional, technology, and regional leaders.

  • Develop a differentiated alliance strategy that combines McKinsey’s strategy, industry expertise, transformation capabilities, and executive relationships with OpenAI’s research, models, products, and technical expertise.

  • Build a deep working relationship with QuantumBlack and other McKinsey technology and AI teams to develop repeatable solutions and move customer programs from strategy and experimentation into production.

  • Set joint priorities, establish clear ownership, resolve escalations, and coordinate execution across global and regional teams.

  • Shape and lead the co-selling of complex, CxO- and board-level enterprise AI transformation opportunities.

  • Engage directly with enterprise executives alongside McKinsey leaders to frame AI strategy, operating models, use-case portfolios, governance, adoption plans, organizational change, and value realization.

  • Identify priority industries, transformation plays, and lighthouse accounts where the partnership can create differentiated and repeatable customer value.

  • Coordinate OpenAI stakeholders across Product, Research, Sales, Solutions Architecture, Technical Success, Legal, Finance, Communications, and Operations to support strategic pursuits and deployments.

  • Establish clear rules of engagement and guardrails for intellectual property, solution quality, safety, delivery, commercial ownership, and customer accountability.

  • Build McKinsey’s capability to position, design, and deliver solutions powered by OpenAI through executive alignment, technical enablement, solution patterns, readiness programs, and disciplined delivery handoffs.

  • Develop joint assets and offerings that can scale beyond individual engagements while maintaining the rigor required for highly strategic customers.

  • Allocate OpenAI resources based on strategic value, revenue potential, customer impact, repeatability, delivery readiness, and partner performance.

  • Build and lead a dedicated alliance pod over time, spanning partner management, technical leadership, enablement, and operations.

  • Establish durable reporting, metrics, and operating cadences covering pipeline, conversion, production adoption, customer outcomes, partner readiness, delivery quality, and return on OpenAI investment.

You might thrive in this role if you have:

  • Partner, Senior Partner, Managing Director, or equivalent senior leadership experience at McKinsey, another leading strategy firm, or a top-tier technology or transformation organization.

  • A strong combination of technology fluency and commercial leadership across business development, enterprise transformation, industry advisory, GTM, or strategic alliances.

  • Proven ownership of a global, multi-year strategic partnership with executive accountability and measurable commercial and customer outcomes.

  • Demonstrated success shaping and closing high-stakes, board-level transformation opportunities and moving them from strategy through production deployment.

  • Experience designing and scaling operating models between senior, partner-led organizations, including governance, incentives, account planning, staffing, delivery handoffs, and escalation.

  • Credibility with senior leaders in strategy consulting and enterprise technology, with a practical understanding of partnership economics, regional structures, and decision-making networks.

  • Strong executive presence and the judgment to make tradeoffs, resolve conflict, and maintain momentum under ambiguity and scrutiny.

  • The ability to influence Product, Research, Sales, Technical, Legal, Finance, Communications, and partner organizations without relying on direct authority.

  • Deep literacy in enterprise AI, data, cloud, security, governance, and organizational transformation, with credibility among CEOs, CIOs, CTOs, CDOs, and other senior executives.

  • Experience working with data science, AI engineering, or advanced analytics organizations such as QuantumBlack or comparable groups.

  • Industry expertise in at least one priority vertical, such as financial services, healthcare, pharmaceuticals and life sciences, retail and consumer, technology, industrials, or energy.

  • Experience building repeatable solutions or transformation plays from high-value strategic engagements.

  • A disciplined approach to portfolio management, including deciding when to invest, scale, redirect, or decline an opportunity.

  • Preferably, experience with private-equity value creation, portfolio transformation, capability building, or large-scale operating-model change.

What success looks like:

  • OpenAI and McKinsey have a clear alliance thesis, differentiated value proposition, executive governance model, and measurable joint plan.

  • The partnership generates qualified, strategically aligned pipeline and converts priority opportunities into production deployments with demonstrable customer value.

  • McKinsey teams can confidently identify, position, design, and support enterprise transformations powered by OpenAI.

  • The relationship with QuantumBlack and other McKinsey technology teams produces strong technical collaboration, repeatable solution patterns, and disciplined paths from prototype to production.

  • OpenAI resources are allocated transparently and concentrated on opportunities with the greatest strategic, commercial, customer, and repeatable impact.

  • Joint assets and transformation approaches move beyond bespoke engagements into reusable, industry-relevant offerings.

  • OpenAI’s field understands when and how to engage McKinsey, and McKinsey teams understand OpenAI’s standards, guardrails, resources, and escalation paths.

  • The alliance demonstrates sustained executive sponsorship, high-quality delivery, partner accountability, production adoption, and year-over-year growth.

About OpenAI

OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company dedicated to ensuring that general-purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. We push the boundaries of the capabilities of AI systems and seek to safely deploy them to the world through our products. AI is an extremely powerful tool that must be created with safety and human needs at its core, and to achieve our mission, we must encompass and value the many different perspectives, voices, and experiences that form the full spectrum of humanity. 

We are an equal opportunity employer, and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, disability, genetic information, or other applicable legally protected characteristic.

For additional information, please see OpenAI’s Affirmative Action and Equal Employment Opportunity Policy Statement.

Background checks for applicants will be administered in accordance with applicable law, and qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment consistent with those laws, including the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, and the California Fair Chance Act, for US-based candidates. For unincorporated Los Angeles County workers: we reasonably believe that criminal history may have a direct, adverse and negative relationship with the following job duties, potentially resulting in the withdrawal of a conditional offer of employment: protect computer hardware entrusted to you from theft, loss or damage; return all computer hardware in your possession (including the data contained therein) upon termination of employment or end of assignment; and maintain the confidentiality of proprietary, confidential, and non-public information. In addition, job duties require access to secure and protected information technology systems and related data security obligations.

To notify OpenAI that you believe this job posting is non-compliant, please submit a report through this form. No response will be provided to inquiries unrelated to job posting compliance.

We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities, and requests can be made via this link.

OpenAI Global Applicant Privacy Policy

At OpenAI, we believe artificial intelligence has the potential to help people solve immense global challenges, and we want the upside of AI to be widely shared. Join us in shaping the future of technology.

What did you think of this job?

Comments 0

Want to leave a comment?
Sign in or create your account in seconds to join the discussion.
Loading comments...

About IT Governance

IT Governance is the area responsible for ensuring that information technology resources are used strategically, efficiently, and in compliance with standards and regulations. IT governance professionals ensure that technology supports business objectives in a secure and reliable manner.

Key skills include IT service management (ITIL), IT audit and compliance, risk management, business continuity, disaster recovery, metrics and indicators (SLAs, KPIs), and strategic alignment between IT and business. Frameworks like COBIT, ITIL, ISO 27001, and compliance standards are essential.

IT Governance professionals in technology companies are highly valued, especially those who master ITSM, IT audit, and risk management. The field offers opportunities from governance analyst to CIO/CTO, with a focus on efficiency, compliance, security, and business value.

Discover Other Areas

Understand the scope of work, key skills, and tools used in different career areas.

About Backend

The Backend area is responsible for all server logic, APIs, databases, and infrastructure that support web and mobile applications. Backend professionals ensure that systems are scalable, secure, and performant.

Key skills include languages like PHP, Java, Python, Ruby, Go, and Node.js, frameworks like Laravel, Spring Boot, Django, and Express, databases (MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Redis), software architecture (clean architecture, DDD, microservices), and API security (OAuth, JWT).

Backend developers in technology companies are highly valued, especially those who master microservices architecture, cloud computing, and high-scale performance. The field offers opportunities from junior developer to software architect, with a focus on scalability, security, and efficiency.

About Branding

Branding is the area responsible for building, managing, and strengthening a brand's identity and market value. Branding professionals create strategies that define how the brand is perceived by the public, from the logo to the complete customer experience.

Key skills include brand strategy, visual identity, brand guidelines, positioning, naming, brand voice, market research, brand equity, and brand management. Knowledge of graphic design (Figma, Illustrator, Photoshop), storytelling, and brand experience is a differentiator.

Branding professionals in technology companies are highly valued, especially those who master employer branding, digital branding, and can build strong, memorable brands in competitive markets. The field offers opportunities from brand designer to head of brand, with a focus on identity, differentiation, and perceived value.

About Design

The Design field, especially UX/UI and Product Design, has experienced significant growth in recent years. With accelerated business digitization, the demand for professionals who can create intuitive and pleasant digital experiences has never been higher.

Key skills include Figma, Sketch, Adobe XD, user research, design thinking, prototyping, and system design. Product designers are increasingly valued for their direct impact on business results.

Remote work has opened doors for Brazilian designers to work for global companies, with competitive salaries in dollars and euros.

About UX Design

The User Experience (UX) Design area focuses on optimizing the overall user experience when interacting with a product or service. UX professionals conduct user research (UX Research), map journeys, create wireframes, perform usability tests, and define navigation flows to ensure the product is intuitive, useful, and meets users' real needs.

About Engineering

Software Engineering goes beyond traditional development, focusing on scalability, performance, and system architecture. Software engineers are responsible for designing infrastructures that support millions of simultaneous users.

Skills include microservices architecture, DevOps, cloud computing, application security, and performance optimization. Knowledge of containerization (Docker, Kubernetes) and CI/CD is increasingly required.

Senior software engineers are rare and highly compensated professionals, with opportunities at major global tech companies.

Career Guides

Technology Career Guide

Planning, skills, interviews, and professional growth in IT, Data Science, DevOps, and Product.

Read full guide →

Design Career Guide

UX/UI, Graphic Design, Product Design. Portfolio, tools, interviews, and growth in the Design field.

Read full guide →

Marketing Career Guide

SEO, Paid Media, Growth, Content Marketing. Certifications, tools, and strategies to grow in Digital Marketing.

Read full guide →

Finance Career Guide

Financial market, investments, corporate finance, certifications, and strategies to grow in the financial field.

Read full guide →

Communication Career Guide

Journalism, PR, Corporate Communication, Content Marketing, and Multimedia Production.

Read full guide →

Administration Career Guide

Business Management, HR, Logistics, Consulting, Project Management, and Entrepreneurship.

Read full guide →

Data Career Guide

Data Science, Data Engineering, BI, Machine Learning, and AI. From training to the job market.

Read full guide →

Product Career Guide

Product Management, Product Ownership, Agile, Scrum, and OKRs. From strategy to execution.

Read full guide →

Tech & Remote Glossary

Stop getting lost in interviews and job descriptions

The job market, especially within tech and global companies, has developed its own dialect. Not understanding these acronyms can make you lose valuable opportunities or poorly negotiate your contract. To end this problem, we created the Definitive Glossary for the Remote Professional.

🏢 Work Models & Routine

Async (Asynchronous Work)
A communication model where responses don't need to be immediate. Instead of back-to-back meetings, the team relies on well-structured documents, threads, and messages. It's the gold standard for global companies spanning multiple time zones.
Sync (Synchronous Work)
The opposite of Async. It requires the team to be online and available at the same time for meetings, live chats, and real-time collaboration.
Daily / Stand-up
A quick daily meeting (usually 15 minutes) common in Agile (Scrum) methodologies. The team answers three questions: What did I do yesterday? What will I do today? Are there any blockers?
All-Hands / Town Hall
A company-wide meeting involving all employees. Usually led by the founders (C-Levels) to present results, new goals, and answer team questions.
1:1 (One-on-One)
A recurring individual meeting between a professional and their direct manager. It is used for career alignment, feedback, and problem-solving, not just for project status updates.

💰 Contracts, Benefits & Compensation

PTO (Paid Time Off)
Instead of strict, categorized leave policies, modern US companies usually offer a flexible pool of days (e.g., 20 days of PTO, or even "Unlimited PTO") that you can use for vacations, sick days, or personal matters, while receiving your regular compensation.
Equity / Stock Options
Company ownership. The startup offers you the right to buy shares at a heavily discounted strike price in the future. If the company grows, goes public, or is acquired, these shares can be highly lucrative.
Vesting (Vesting Schedule)
The rule that controls your Equity. It usually lasts 4 years. You don't get all the shares on day one; you "earn" them gradually as you stay with the company. A "1-year Cliff" means you must stay for at least one year to receive your first batch of shares.
RSUs (Restricted Stock Units)
Unlike Stock Options (where you have the right to buy the stock), RSUs are actual shares the company grants you as a bonus or part of your compensation package, following a strict Vesting schedule.
Independent Contractor (1099 / B2B)
The most common international hiring model for global talent working for US companies. You act as a service provider (business-to-business), receiving the gross salary (often six-figure compensation) without standard local payroll tax deductions at the source.

🤖 Recruitment & Hiring Process

ATS (Applicant Tracking System)
The "robot" that reads your resume. Software like Greenhouse, Ashby, and Workday are used to filter candidates by keywords before a human even looks at the document. (Pro tip: this is why your resume must be clean, semantic, and have the right keywords).
JD (Job Description)
The document that lists the responsibilities, technical requirements, and benefits of the open position.
Cultural Fit
The interview stage that evaluates if your core values, communication style, and worldview align with the company's culture. This is the ultimate test of your Soft Skills.
Onboarding
The integration process. It's the period of your first few weeks at the company, where you get your access credentials, learn about the culture, study the internal documentation, and understand how the product works.

🚀 How to use this to your advantage?

The secret isn't just knowing what these acronyms mean, but using them actively. If during an interview for a premium tech role you ask, "How does your PTO policy and Vesting schedule work?", the recruiter will immediately perceive you as a high-level professional, familiar with the global market standards.

The remote job market requires preparation. And having the right vocabulary is the first big step to securing six-figure proposals and standing out among thousands of applicants.

Expert Tip

The Ultimate Guide to Global E-commerce

The Ultimate Guide to Global E-commerce: Careers, Technology, and the Best Opportunities

By Mondywork | Career and Technology Insights

How borderless digital commerce is shaping the future of work and creating high-value, six-figure roles for Managers and Engineers.

1. The Current Landscape of Global E-commerce

E-commerce is no longer just a "digital storefront"; it has become the core revenue engine for the world's biggest brands. According to projections by eMarketer, global retail e-commerce sales continue to break records, easily surpassing the multi-trillion-dollar mark annually.

Today, the market thrives in the era of Cross-Border Commerce, where consumers buy from brands across continents with the same ease as a local purchase. To sustain this massive operation, companies are investing heavily in cloud infrastructure, data-driven smart logistics, and modern tech architectures like Headless Commerce — where the front-end (user interface) is completely decoupled from the back-end (sales engine), ensuring lightning-fast loading speeds and highly personalized experiences.

2. The Pillars of the Operation: Who Makes E-commerce Happen?

Behind every "1-Click Buy" button, there is a complex engineering structure bridging business and technology. Two fundamental professionals stand out in this ecosystem:

The E-commerce Manager

This is the strategic brain of the business. The E-commerce Manager isn't just a digital inventory keeper; they are performance analysts obsessed with metrics and growth.

  • Core Responsibilities: Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO), P&L (Profit and Loss) management, catalog curation, dynamic pricing, and coordinating traffic campaigns alongside the Marketing team.
  • Key Metrics: CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost), LTV (Lifetime Value), ROAS (Return on Ad Spend), and Churn Rate.
  • Ideal Profile: Highly analytical, data-driven, with strong cross-departmental leadership skills (uniting logistics, marketing, and tech).

The E-commerce Engineer (Developer)

The technological arm and executor of the business vision. Developers focused on e-commerce are highly valued because they understand that every millisecond of latency in the code translates to lost revenue.

  • Core Responsibilities: Building and maintaining storefronts, complex API integrations (ERPs, CRMs, Payment Gateways, and shipping providers), developing custom themes, and ensuring information security (PCI Compliance).
  • Tech Stack: Varies by platform, but mastering JavaScript (React/Next.js for Headless), Node.js, GraphQL, and specific template languages (like Liquid for Shopify) is essential.
  • Ideal Profile: Technical problem-solver with a strong business acumen, deeply focused on Web Performance (Core Web Vitals) and scalability.

3. The Biggest Market Players (SaaS and PaaS Platforms)

To succeed in this field, it is crucial to master or be deeply familiar with the giants that power virtual stores globally:

Shopify / Shopify Plus:
The Canadian giant dominates the global SaaS market. With a massive app ecosystem and Liquid as its template language, Shopify Plus is the go-to choice for scalable enterprise brands. Shopify Developers are in incredibly high demand across the US and European markets.
VTEX:
A Latin American powerhouse that became a formidable global player, now listed on the NYSE. The VTEX IO architecture, based on React and Node.js, changed the game for Enterprise development. VTEX Managers and Devs have guaranteed opportunities in large B2B and B2C corporations.
Magento (Adobe Commerce):
Known for its extreme robustness and flexibility (PaaS/On-Premise). It requires solid knowledge of PHP and complex software architecture. It is the platform of choice for massive, highly customized operations.
Salesforce Commerce Cloud:
Aimed at the top of the pyramid (large enterprise accounts), it integrates seamlessly into the Salesforce CRM ecosystem, requiring highly specialized professionals versed in its proprietary languages and corporate processes.

4. Where Are the Best Opportunities and How to Break In?

The e-commerce market is one of the biggest hubs for global remote jobs. US and European companies are actively seeking top-tier talent worldwide, offering aggressive compensation (often six-figure salaries in USD or EUR) to professionals who can scale their operations.

For those looking to enter or pivot to this area:

  1. Specialize in a Platform: Being a "Generic Developer" pays the bills, but being a "VTEX IO Specialist" or a "Shopify Expert" multiplies your market value. Pursue official certifications.
  2. Master APIs and Integrations: Modern e-commerce doesn't live in a vacuum. Knowing how to connect a store to a logistics system, a marketing automation software (like Klaviyo or Brevo), or a global ERP is the most valued skill today.
  3. Build a Real Portfolio: For devs, create test stores, build a public app for the Shopify App Store, or contribute to Headless projects. For managers, showcase real conversion optimization cases and campaign management on your LinkedIn.
  4. Flawless Technical Communication: Fluent English (especially asynchronous communication for documentation, Jira tickets, and Slack) is the golden key to unlocking those US Remote and global six-figure roles.
"In e-commerce, the code isn't just software; it's the store itself. If the site crashes on Black Friday, the company bleeds money. That's why highly qualified professionals in this field are never out of work."

Accelerate Your Career with Mondywork

Whether you are a business strategist or a software engineer, the best E-commerce and Tech jobs—including global remote opportunities—are published daily on our board.

Golden Tip: Browse the Mondywork platform, set up your customized Job Alerts on our homepage, and ensure your resume highlights the technologies mentioned in this article. The market won't wait, and your next big global opportunity might be just one click away.