AI Partnerships Manager

ABOUT RAMP Ramp is building the smart infrastructure for finance teams, embedded in the transaction flow of every dollar a business spends. We automate how over $200B in annualized spend flows in and out of 70,000+ companies: authorizing payments, flagging risk, categorizing spend, and closing books. The problems are high-stakes, data-dense, and unforgiving. We hire people with high agency and high urgency. We look for slope over intercept. We care less about where you trained and more about what you’ve built. At Ramp, everyone is a builder who owns problems end to end and makes consequential decisions that shape the outcome. The median Ramp customer saves 5% and grows revenue 16% in their first year – far in excess of businesses operating without Ramp. We believe every ambitious company deserves the same. If you want to build systems that directly shape how companies move and manage billions, Ramp is the place to do it. ABOUT THE ROLE Ramp is building a dedicated function to drive its partnerships across the AI ecosystem — labs, AI-native companies, and the investor community — and convert those into real technical and commercial outcomes. This is a newly created, high-visibility role that sits at the intersection of strategic business development, product partnership, and ecosystem relationship-building. Ramp is already embedded with key partners across the AI ecosystem, from working with leading labs on the latest models to serving as a design partner for emerging product capabilities. This role exists to deepen those relationships across every major lab and AI-native company, and turn them into something commercially meaningful. There is no playbook for this. This person will own and grow Ramp's most strategic relationships across the AI ecosystem, leading the technical side of those relationships end to end with partner product and engineering teams. The mandate spans product integrations, technical partnership strategy, deal-making, co-selling, and the creation of new revenue channels, pairing real product and engineering depth with commercial execution and ecosystem credibility. WHAT YOU'LL DO - Demonstrate technical depth to lead AI product and integration conversations end to end with partner engineering and product teams. - Own Ramp's relationships with emerging labs and AI-native companies at a true partnership level — not account management - Be embedded in the San Francisco AI community and know who is actually driving decisions at the labs, not just what the org chart says - Convert ecosystem relationships into commercial outcomes — referrals, integrations, co-selling, and new revenue channels - Do both the business development and product/integration work, combining deal-making with genuine technical engagement - Stay ahead of how leading AI companies are commercializing and going to market, and help Ramp move with them — and ahead of them - Represent Ramp externally across the San Francisco AI community: founders, investors, lab leaders, and operators WHAT YOU'LL NEED - Deep, trusted relationships at leading AI companies with the people who make decisions and influence direction — not just formal contacts - Commercial outcomes tied to those relationships, including initiatives with measurable revenue potential and smarter product integrations on both sides - Ramp is known and respected across the San Francisco AI community as a must-know fintech partner - Ramp keeps pace with — and ideally stays ahead of — how quickly the labs are changing, evolving their go-to-market strategies, and commercializing - A repeatable business development and product motion built for the AI ecosystem, not a series of one-off partnerships - An ever-evolving AI partnership strategy that includes sourcing, negotiating, contracting, executing, and growing relationships with leading AI companies Over the course of a year, success means launching public products, integrations, go-to-market initiatives, and distribution channels with labs and applied AI companies. Near-term objectives could include inclusion in model-launch announcements and joint product-integration launches. Longer-term goals will incorporate adoption of integrations and revenue targets as distribution partnerships are executed. Every day will look different, but the work will include meeting with cross-functional stakeholders internally and externally, keeping a pulse on applied AI and the labs, negotiating active contracts, refining and executing Ramp's AI partnership strategy, and helping Ramp get closer to the teams that matter at the top AI companies. NICE TO HAVES - The ideal candidate combines two qualities that are hard to find in one person: ECOSYSTEM CONNECTOR - Deep personal relationships in the San Francisco AI community — founders, lab leaders, and investors — at a level where people pick up the phone - Experience working inside or alongside leading AI partners in a way that provides genuine credibility, not just familiarity - Known and trusted by the venture capital and investor community in AI COMMERCIAL OPERATOR - Has built partnerships from zero at a high-growth company and been accountable for commercial outcomes - Can do the product and business development work simultaneously — technically fluent enough to engage on integrations and commercially sharp enough to close deals - Has a builder mindset and can design scalable programs, not just one-off relationships KEY CRITERIA - Strategic business development — can identify and close partnerships that drive real commercial outcomes - Technical aptitude — enough depth to hold credible conversations with AI lab and product teams - Systems thinking — builds scalable programs, not just one-off deals - Access — personal relationships at the decision-maker level inside labs, AI-native companies, and the investor community WHY THIS ROLE IS EXCITING - Ramp's AI partners are among the most influential partners any technology comp