Founding Partner Sales Manager, AI Training at UserTesting in Remote - California

Job description

• At UserTesting, we’re the leader in human insight, helping organizations build better products and experiences by connecting them with real human perspectives. As companies increasingly build and train AI systems, our technology, participant network, and expert services uniquely position us to support this rapidly evolving space.
• AI Training is a new business being incubated within UserTesting, focused on applying our expertise in sourcing and managing specialized communities to power high-quality AI training initiatives. As one of the early members of this team, you’ll have the opportunity to shape our commercial strategy, establish key customer relationships, and help define how we bring AI Training solutions to market.
• We’re looking for a founding Partner Sales Manager, AI Training to build and grow strategic partnerships across the AI ecosystem. You’ll identify new opportunities, work with customers to solve complex AI training challenges, and partner closely with our Strategic Projects Lead to ensure every engagement is positioned for successful delivery. This is an opportunity to help shape not only our customer relationships, but the direction and growth of an entirely new business.

Responsibilities

• Build and manage a pipeline of strategic opportunities across frontier AI organizations, AI training and data companies, AI-native businesses, and consulting partners, developing relationships that drive long-term growth.
• Partner with prospective customers to understand complex AI training challenges, identify where UserTesting’s contributor network provides a unique advantage, and shape commercial solutions that meet their evolving needs.
• Own opportunities from initial outreach through discovery, solution development, commercial negotiation, and successful close, collaborating closely with internal stakeholders throughout the sales process.
• Work closely with the Strategic Projects Lead to assess project feasibility, align customer expectations, and ensure proposed engagements can be delivered successfully.
• Develop strategic partnerships with AI ecosystem organizations that create repeatable opportunities while identifying and expanding high-value customer relationships over time.
• Build and continuously improve the commercial operating model by refining pipeline management, account prioritization, forecasting, pricing insights, and sales processes as the business scales.
• Bring market insights, customer feedback, and industry trends into the broader AI Training strategy, helping shape where the business invests, grows, and differentiates itself.

Requirements

• 5+ years of experience in business development, partnerships, enterprise sales, strategic accounts, or another customer-facing commercial role within fast-paced or emerging technology markets.
• Experience working with AI companies, AI infrastructure providers, AI training organizations, or other businesses supporting model development is strongly preferred. Existing relationships within the AI ecosystem are a plus.
• Demonstrated success selling services, data, marketplaces, expert networks, talent solutions, or other offerings that require operational delivery and customer collaboration.
• Strong commercial judgment with the ability to navigate ambiguity, evaluate complex opportunities, prioritize effectively, and develop creative solutions for evolving customer needs.
• Excellent relationship-building, negotiation, and communication skills, with experience engaging technical, operational, and executive stakeholders.
• Familiarity with AI training concepts such as post-training, evaluations, expert data, reinforcement learning environments, quality assurance, or related workflows is preferred.
• Don’t meet every single requirement but excited about the role? We encourage you to apply. Research shows that some candidates are less likely to apply unless they meet 100% of the qualifications—but you may be exactly who we’re looking for. Diverse perspectives drive innovation, and we’re committed to building a team with a wide range of backgrounds, experiences, and skills.

Skills

Required

• Business development
• Partnerships
• Enterprise sales
• Strategic accounts
• Customer-facing commercial role
• Commercial judgment
• Negotiation
• Communication
• Relationship-building