The ChannelLeap 2025 Partner-Ops Careers Guide

Partnerships aren’t a “feel-good” channel anymore—they’re a predictable revenue engine. At ChannelLeap we build, fix, and scale those engines every day, so we pulled the latest salary snapshots and mapped them to the real-world responsibilities we see inside SaaS and fintech orgs.

Three trends driving those numbers

1. Ecosystem = Revenue, not “optional.” Boards now expect 30-50 % of new ARR to come from partners, so comp plans reward that lift. glassdoor.com

2. Ops is the choke-point. Anyone who can wire Salesforce → PRM → billing is commanding $140 k+ offers.

3. Hybrid hiring is back. Director-level talent is still remote-flex, but most are asked to drop into GTM hubs (Austin, NYC, Toronto) at least quarterly for strategy sprints.

So… Do You Really Need a Full Partner Team?

If you’re pre-Series C, probably not.

Even the most partner-savvy startups rarely need eight different FTEs in year one. What they actually need is:

• Partner-sourced pipeline that closes

• A system for tracking, rewarding, and growing partner influence

• Someone who can fix the ops mess between Salesforce, PRMs, and RevOps

But here’s the catch: Hiring even two experienced partner roles can blow past $300k/year. That’s just base comp—add benefits, tech stack, and ramp time, and you’re looking at $500k+ fully loaded.

Not Just Hands—Brains

We’re not a recruiting firm. We’re the ones behind the curtain actually:

• Fixing your partner onboarding flows

• Designing deal-reg logic that your RevOps team won’t hate

• Running enablement that partners actually complete

• Finding co-sell opportunities and tracking sourced pipeline

All for less than the cost of one full-time hire.

Our Clients Use Us To…

• Launch a partner program in <60 days

• Unblock Salesforce/PRM sync issues

• Design MDF and referral workflows

• Build quarterly reports to justify ecosystem ROI

• Train internal reps to co-sell with ISVs and agencies

Basically: we make partnerships work before you staff up.

Let’s Just Talk

If you’re spinning up a partner program—or fixing one that never got traction—let’s chat.
You’ll walk away with clarity, and maybe even a working playbook.