The Role
We're looking for a Head of Strategic Partnerships to make HeyGen the AI avatar & video partner of choice for the world's leading platforms and AI companies.
This role has two priorities. The first is landing distribution partnerships with the largest social, content, and creative platforms, putting HeyGen inside the products where billions of people create and share content. The second is building strategic partnerships with leading AI-native companies across voice, productivity, presentations, legal, and other categories, so that HeyGen is known as one of the defining companies in AI and the company other AI leaders choose to build with.
You'll own partnerships end-to-end, from identifying targets and reaching the right executives to structuring, negotiating, and closing deals, and then making them succeed after launch.
You'll be the founding leader of this function, reporting directly to the CMO. You'll start as a hands-on dealmaker, personally sourcing and closing the first wave of partnerships, with the opportunity to build a team as the function scales.
What You'll Do
Land tier-1 distribution partnerships
- Identify and prioritize the platforms where a HeyGen integration would reach the most creators, businesses, and users: social and content platforms, creative and productivity tools, and enterprise software suites.
- Build relationships with executive, product, and GTM leaders at these companies, and get HeyGen in front of the people who make integration decisions.
- Structure and close integration deals, including native in-product integrations, OEM and embedded partnerships, API partnerships, white-label and licensing arrangements, and revenue-share models.
- Work with product, engineering, and design teams on both sides to prototype integrations, set technical requirements, and ship partner launches.
Build HeyGen's position in the AI ecosystem
- Develop partnerships with leading AI companies across voice, presentations, productivity, legal, and other categories where AI avatars makes their product better.
- Create partnerships with substance: product integrations, joint launches, co-marketing, shared customers, and bundled offerings.
- Track the AI ecosystem closely and move early on the companies that are becoming category leaders.
- Make HeyGen a visible part of the AI conversation through partner announcements, joint events, and relationships with founders and executives across the industry.
- Represent HeyGen at industry events and conferences alongside our partners.
Grow the HeyGen API as a partner platform
- Identify companies that should build HeyGen video into their own products, and bring them onto the HeyGen API.
- Work with the API product team on partner tiers, terms, and pricing.
- Build the partner program, documentation, and support model that let integrations scale beyond what can be managed one deal at a time.
Own deals end-to-end
- Lead the full partnership lifecycle: sourcing, pitching, structuring, negotiation, and closing.
- Design deal structures that align incentives for both sides and protect HeyGen's long-term position on exclusivity, data, brand, and economics.
- Work cross-functionally with Legal, Finance, Product, and Marketing to finalize agreements and get them launched quickly.
- Partner with PR and Marketing to turn major partnerships into launch moments that earn coverage and attention.
- Manage partners after launch: track performance, run regular business reviews, co-sell with partner GTM teams, and expand the partnerships that work.
Build the function
- Set HeyGen's partnerships strategy, including where we focus and where we don't, tied to clear revenue and growth targets.
- Define how partnerships are prioritized, measured, and reviewed with leadership.
What Success Looks Like
Success in this role means HeyGen is integrated into the platforms that matter and is seen as one of the companies that leading AI companies choose to partner with. Examples include:
- Live integrations with multiple tier-1 platforms that bring HeyGen to new audiences at scale.
- Partnerships with leading AI companies that result in shipped integrations, joint launches, and shared customers.
- Measurable reach, usage, and revenue driven by partner channels.
- A growing base of companies building on the HeyGen API.
- Partnership announcements that earn tier-1 press and strengthen HeyGen's standing in AI.
- Inbound interest from top platforms and AI companies that want to partner with HeyGen.
- A repeatable partnerships playbook and a pipeline for the next wave of deals.
What We're Looking For
- 10+ years of experience in strategic partnerships, business development, or corporate development, with several years in a senior leadership role.
- A proven track record of sourcing and closing large partnerships with major technology platforms, such as social, content, creative, or productivity platforms.
- Experience with OEM, embedded, or platform partnerships that put a company's technology inside another company's product.
- Existing relationships with executive, product, and GTM leaders at major tech platforms and AI companies.
- Experience structuring complex deals, including integrations, API and platform partnerships, licensing, revenue share, and co-marketing.
- A track record of driving post-deal value: partnerships that grew in usage and revenue after signing, not just closed.
- Enough technical fluency to scope integrations with Product and Engineering and talk credibly about APIs, models, and product roadmaps.
- Strong product instincts. You can see how HeyGen fits into a partner's product and pitch it in terms of their users and their roadmap.
- Excellent executive presence and negotiation skills. You're comfortable across the table from a founder, a platform VP, or a Big Tech partnerships team.
- Comfortable spanning strategy and execution. You can set partnerships strategy with the leadership team and personally run the deal the same week.
- Experience building a function from an early stage and hiring a team.
- Experience at a fast-growing AI, platform, or PLG company is a strong plus.
AI-Native Mindset
We believe the best operators today are AI-native.
You should be deeply fluent in both AI tools and the AI ecosystem itself: who the important companies are, what they're building, and where the category is heading. You should use AI tools every day to research targets, prepare for meetings, draft proposals, analyze partnership performance, and multiply your output. We're looking for someone who is part of the AI community, not someone watching it from the outside.
Location
- Preferred: San Francisco Bay Area
Salary Range
$250,000 – $300,000 + equity + rewards + benefits
Please note that the salary information is a general guideline only. HeyGen considers factors such as scope and responsibilities of the position, candidate's work experience, education/training, key skills, and internal equity, as well as location, market and business considerations when extending an offer. As part of our total rewards package, HeyGen offers comprehensive benefits including a 401k plan, health benefits, generous PTO, a parental leave program and emotional health resources.
HeyGen is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.
Join us at HeyGen and be part of a team that's making visual storytelling accessible to all!
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