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Job Description
Position Overview Ambarella is seeking an experienced Director of Channel Development to build and scale a high-impact global channel ecosystem supporting the company’s growth in Edge AI Infrastructure and Physical AI.
This leader will be responsible for developing strategic channel relationships across distributors, OEMs/ODMs, solution providers, and other channel partners, translating Ambarella’s technology and ecosystem strategy into repeatable partner-led revenue motions.
The Director of Channel Development will own the development of channel strategy, recruitment and activation of priority partners, creation of joint business plans, pipeline development, commercial programs, and partner performance. The role will work closely with Ambarella Sales, Global Partnerships & Channels, Product Management, Product Marketing, Finance, Operations, Legal, and technical organizations to accelerate customer adoption of Ambarella platforms.
This is a highly cross-functional and commercially oriented role for a leader who can build new routes to market while remaining directly engaged in strategic customer and partner opportunities.
Key Responsibilities
Channel Strategy & Development
- Develop and execute Ambarella’s channel development strategy for Edge AI Infrastructure and Physical AI.
- Identify, recruit, negotiate with, and onboard strategic distributors, OEM/ODM partners, solution providers, and other channel partners in priority markets.
- Define the role each partner plays within Ambarella’s go-to-market model and establish clear value propositions, business objectives, and engagement models.
- Build scalable channel coverage aligned with Ambarella’s target verticals, geographies, products, and customer segments.
- Identify gaps in channel coverage and develop partnerships required to address them.
Partner-Led Revenue Growth
- Establish measurable revenue, pipeline, design-win, customer acquisition, and market-development objectives with channel partners.
- Develop joint business plans that translate strategic relationships into identifiable customer opportunities and revenue.
- Work with regional sales organizations to identify opportunities where channel partners can accelerate customer acquisition, solution deployment, and production scale.
- Drive partner-sourced and partner-influenced pipeline from initial opportunity identification through design win and production.
- Maintain executive-level visibility into channel pipeline, forecasts, opportunities, risks, and partner performance.
- Develop mechanisms to increase the percentage of Ambarella revenue generated through repeatable partner-led motions.
Distributor Development
- Develop strategic relationships with regional and global distributors capable of supporting Ambarella’s Edge AI Infrastructure business.
- Establish distributor business plans covering revenue development, demand generation, technical enablement, inventory, customer coverage, ecosystem development, and fulfillment.
- Work with distributors to expand Ambarella's reach into customers and markets that cannot efficiently be served through a direct-sales model.
- Collaborate with Sales Operations, Finance, Legal, and the Deals Desk on pricing, incentives, deal registration, forecasting, and commercial governance.
- Establish performance metrics and operating reviews to continuously improve distributor productivity.
OEM / ODM Ecosystem Development
- Develop relationships with OEMs and ODMs capable of commercializing Ambarella-based systems, modules, appliances, and Edge AI platforms.
- Build a portfolio of production-ready Ambarella-based platforms that reduce customer development effort and accelerate time to deployment.
- Align OEM/ODM roadmaps with Ambarella silicon and software roadmaps.
- Connect OEM/ODM partners with distributors, software partners, GSIs, and end customers to develop complete market-ready solutions.
- Drive the transition from reference platforms and development systems to scalable commercial products.
Ecosystem & Solution Development
- Work across the broader Ambarella partner ecosystem to connect silicon, hardware, software, integration, and distribution into deployable customer solutions.
- Collaborate closely with ISV and GSI partnership teams to build repeatable multi-partner solution architectures.
- Identify priority use cases where Ambarella and its partners can establish differentiated market positions.
- Facilitate joint engagements between channel partners and strategic customers for evaluations, PoCs, design wins, and production deployments.
- Help partners develop differentiated offerings based on Ambarella's compute efficiency, AI capabilities, multimedia architecture, and edge deployment advantages.
Partner Enablement
- Establish structured onboarding and enablement programs for new channel partners.
- Coordinate technical training, product education, sales enablement, demonstration platforms, reference designs, and solution collateral.
- Work with Ambarella FAEs, partner solution architects, product teams, and marketing organizations to ensure partners have the capabilities required to sell and support Ambarella solutions.
- Develop partner competency and certification frameworks where appropriate.
- Ensure channel partners can independently identify opportunities, position Ambarella solutions, and support customers through deployment.
Joint Go-to-Market
- Develop joint GTM programs with priority partners targeting defined industries, use cases, customers, and geographic markets.
- Coordinate joint account planning, demand-generation programs, industry events, demonstrations, customer workshops, and executive engagements.
- Work with Product Marketing to develop partner-facing positioning and solution messaging.
- Identify lighthouse customers and reference deployments that can be replicated across the channel.
- Create repeatable solution and channel playbooks that can scale across multiple partners and regions.
Commercial & Operational Management
- Negotiate commercial frameworks, business objectives, incentives, and operating models with strategic partners.
- Partner with Finance, Legal, Sales Operations, and the Deals Desk to establish appropriate commercial governance.
- Develop KPIs covering partner pipeline, revenue, design wins, partner activation, customer acquisition, solution readiness, and partner productivity.
- Conduct regular business reviews with strategic partners and Ambarella leadership.
- Identify underperforming relationships and implement corrective actions or changes in channel strategy.
Qualifications
Required
- 12+ years of experience in channel development, business development, strategic partnerships, sales, or related commercial roles within the semiconductor, AI, cloud, enterprise technology, embedded systems, or edge-computing industries.
- 5+ years leading strategic channel or partner relationships at the Director level or equivalent.
- Demonstrated experience developing relationships with distributors, OEMs, ODMs, solution providers, GSIs, or technology ecosystem partners.
- Proven record of building partner relationships that resulted in measurable pipeline and revenue.
- Strong understanding of indirect sales models, channel economics, pricing, margins, incentives, deal registration, and partner business planning.
- Experience taking new technologies or product categories into the market through ecosystem and channel partners.
- Ability to engage effectively with senior executives within customers and partner organizations.
- Strong commercial negotiation, strategic planning, and analytical skills.
- Ability to operate effectively across Sales, Product, Engineering, Marketing, Finance, Legal, and Operations organizations.
- Excellent executive communication and presentation skills.
- Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Business, or a related discipline.
Preferred
- Experience within Edge AI, AI infrastructure, semiconductors, embedded computing, robotics, intelligent video, industrial automation, automotive, or IoT.
- Experience developing global or multi-region channel organizations.
- Existing relationships across major semiconductor distributors, OEM/ODMs, industrial-computing providers, and enterprise technology partners.
- Experience building new channel programs or routes to market from an early stage.
- Understanding of AI hardware and software ecosystems, including CPUs, GPUs, AI accelerators, SoCs, SOMs, edge servers, AI frameworks, and AI application software.
- MBA or advanced technical degree.
Leadership Attributes
The successful candidate will be:
- Commercially driven - able to translate partnerships into pipeline, design wins, and revenue.
- Entrepreneurial - comfortable building new programs and routes to market where established processes may not yet exist.
- Ecosystem-oriented - understands that winning complex Edge AI deployments requires alignment across silicon, hardware, software, integration, and distribution partners.
- Strategic and execution-focused - capable of developing long-term partner strategy while directly driving near-term opportunities.
- Technically credible - able to engage with partners and customers around AI platforms, system architectures, and solution requirements.
- Highly collaborative - able to influence cross-functional teams without relying solely on organizational authority.
- Metrics-driven - establishes measurable objectives and holds partners and internal organizations accountable for execution.
Measures of Success
Success in this position will be measured by:
- Channel-sourced and channel-influenced revenue.
- Qualified partner-generated pipeline.
- Number and quality of strategic channel partners activated.
- OEM/ODM platforms commercialized around Ambarella technology.
- New customer acquisition through channel partners.
- Design wins transitioning into production revenue.
- Partner productivity and revenue per activated partner.
- Development of repeatable partner-led solutions and GTM motions.
- Expansion of Ambarella's market coverage across priority industries and geographies.
Reporting The Director of Channel Development will be part of Ambarella’s Global Partnerships & Channels organization and will work closely with regional Sales leadership, Product organizations, Partner Solutions, ISV Partnerships, Marketing, Operations, Finance, Legal, and the Deals Desk. The position requires regular interaction with senior executives at Ambarella, strategic partners, and customers and may require significant domestic and international travel.
The base range is $265,000 - $300,000. Your base salary will be determined based on your location, experience, and the pay of employees in similar positions. We also offer new hire RSU grants and the opportunity for annual RSU grants, as well as other highly competitive benefits.