Business Development Manager, Strategic Partnerships

Role Description

The Dropbox Business Development team builds and grows strategic partnerships that expand Dropbox's reach, deepen product adoption, and drive long-term customer and revenue growth. As a Business Development Manager, you will own a portfolio spanning AI, platform/developer, hardware, AI, and SaaS ecosystems. You will manage the full partnership lifecycle—from opportunity identification and commercial strategy through launch, ongoing growth, and partner success.

You will play a key role in shaping Dropbox's partnership strategy by identifying growth opportunities, evaluating business cases, and translating partner needs into integrated customer experiences. You will work closely with Product, Engineering, Finance, Legal, Marketing, and Sales to execute partnerships across device distribution and AI agent ecosystems. This role offers significant exposure to senior leaders and external executives while owning partnerships with meaningful strategic and commercial impact.

AI and automation are increasingly embedded in our workflows, accelerating research, partner preparation, and administrative work. Success in this role comes from using these capabilities to increase efficiency while focusing your time on strategic decision-making, commercial negotiations, and relationship management.

Responsibilities

• Own and grow strategic distribution and ecosystem partnerships to drive customer acquisition, product adoption, and revenue growth.
• Identify, evaluate, and develop commercial opportunities with existing and prospective partners.
• Build business cases and financial models that inform partnership strategy and investment decisions.
• Lead or support commercial negotiations while balancing strategic objectives, customer value, and financial outcomes.
• Build trusted executive relationships through regular business reviews, strategic planning, and cross-functional collaboration.
• Analyze partner performance and leverage data, experimentation, and AI-enabled tools to optimize commercial outcomes.
• Partner effectively across Product, Engineering, Finance, Legal, Marketing, and Sales to execute complex partnership initiatives.

Requirements

• 5+ years of experience in business development, distribution partnerships, product management, or related commercial roles within SaaS, cloud services, or technology.
• Demonstrated success building and growing strategic business partnerships that drive measurable business results.
• Strong analytical and financial modeling skills with experience evaluating partnership investments and ROI.
• Excellent negotiation, communication, and executive presentation skills.
• Ability to influence cross-functional stakeholders and navigate ambiguity in fast-paced environments.
• Experience leveraging AI and automation tools to improve research, analysis, communication, or workflow efficiency.
• Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience.

Preferred Qualifications

• MBA, consulting, or corporate strategy experience.
• Strong understanding of consumer technology ecosystems.
• Experience leading complex cross-functional initiatives across product and commercial organizations.
• Demonstrated success using AI-enabled workflows to improve commercial execution.

AI fluency means using these tools to amplify human judgment, not replace it. We believe people with these skills will thrive as work and technology continue to evolve:

• Awareness: Understand yourself and others.
• Judgment: Evaluate information and make decisions in complex situations.
• Adaptability: Learn, adjust, and stay effective through change.
• Connection: Communicate, collaborate, and build trust.

To learn more about why these skills matter and what the data shows about thriving through change, read this blog post from our Chief People Officer, Melanie Rosenwasser.

Compensation