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Founding Director Jobs in California (NOW HIRING)

Rox

Founding Director of Partnerships

San Francisco, CA · On-site

About the Role This is a founding-level Director of Partnerships role for someone to sit directly alongside our Sales organization, acting as the ecosystem expert, a deal strategist, and the co-sell ...

Brain Co.

Director of Strategic Finance

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$150 - $200/hr

As our Founding Director of Strategic Finance, you'll be the company's first dedicated finance hire, owning FP&A end to end and building the finance function from the ground up. You'll join at a ...

career

Founding Product Director

Mountain View, CA · On-site

$274K - $287K/yr

The Role We are looking for a Founding Product Director who thrives in the 0-to-1 phase. You are a Player-Coach: one day collaborating with Andrew Ng's team on the long-term agentic roadmap, the next ...

career

Founding Product Director

Mountain View, CA · On-site

$274K - $287K/yr

The Role We are looking for a Founding Product Director who thrives in the 0-to-1 phase. You are a Player-Coach: one day collaborating with Andrew Ng's team on the long-term agentic roadmap, the next ...

career

Founding Product Director

Mountain View, CA

$274K - $287K/yr

The Role We are looking for a Founding Product Director who thrives in the 0-to-1 phase. You are a Player-Coach: one day collaborating with Andrew Ng's team on the long-term agentic roadmap, the next ...

Astra Space, Inc.

Director, Quality

Alameda, CA · On-site

$211K - $250K/yr

The Opportunity As the Founding Director of Quality and Mission Assurance, you will be the ultimate owner of reliability and risk management for all our space hardware programs. You will build and ...

The Broad

Director of Live Programs

Los Angeles, CA · On-site

Reporting to the Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) with a dotted line to the Founding Director, the DLP will activate The Broad through programming that is fresh, unexpected, and wide-ranging - unafraid ...

Clera

Founding Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$120K - $190K/yr

We're looking for a Founding Engineer to join as one of the earliest technical hires ... This role blends hands-on, end-to-end engineering with direct customer engagement - you'll talk to ...

Clera

Founding Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$120K - $190K/yr

We're looking for a Founding Engineer to join as one of the earliest technical hires ... This role blends hands-on, end-to-end engineering with direct customer engagement -- you'll talk to ...

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Founding Director information

What is the difference between Founding Director vs Program Manager?

AspectFounding DirectorProgram Manager
Required CredentialsTypically advanced degrees, leadership experience, industry knowledgeRelevant bachelor’s or master’s degree, project management certifications often preferred
Work EnvironmentLeadership role in startup or new organization, strategic planningOversees specific projects within organizations, operational focus
Employer & Industry UsageFounding organizations, startups, nonprofitsVarious industries, including nonprofits, corporate sectors, government

The Founding Director is a high-level leadership role responsible for establishing and guiding a new organization or initiative, often requiring strategic vision and industry expertise. In contrast, a Program Manager focuses on managing specific projects within an organization, ensuring they meet goals and deadlines. While both roles require strong organizational skills, the Founding Director has broader responsibilities related to organizational development and leadership.

What are the key skills and qualifications needed to thrive as a founding director, and why are they important?

To thrive as a Founding Director, you need strong leadership skills, strategic vision, and a solid background in business development or a relevant industry, often supported by advanced degrees or entrepreneurial experience. Familiarity with budgeting software, project management tools, and legal compliance systems is typically required. Exceptional communication, resilience, and the ability to inspire and motivate teams are standout soft skills in this role. These capabilities are crucial for setting organizational direction, driving growth, and establishing a strong foundation for long-term success.

What are some of the unique challenges a founding director faces when building and leading a new organization?

As a Founding Director, one of the main challenges is balancing strategic vision with hands-on operational duties, since you are often responsible for both setting long-term goals and managing daily operations. Building a strong team from the ground up and establishing a positive organizational culture require significant effort and adaptability. Additionally, securing funding and cultivating stakeholder relationships are crucial in the early stages, often demanding persistent networking and resourcefulness. Founding Directors also need to be comfortable adapting quickly to change, as early-stage organizations frequently pivot in response to market feedback or unforeseen obstacles.
What are the most commonly searched types of Founding jobs in California? The most popular types of Founding jobs in California are:
What are popular job titles related to Founding Director jobs in California? For Founding Director jobs in California, the most frequently searched job titles are:
What job categories do people searching Founding Director jobs in California look for? The top searched job categories for Founding Director jobs in California are:
What cities in California are hiring for Founding Director jobs? Cities in California with the most Founding Director job openings:
Founding Director jobs near you
Infographic showing various Founding Director job openings in California as of August 2026, with employment types broken down into 1% As Needed, 83% Full Time, 13% Part Time, 2% Temporary, and 1% Contract. Highlights an 92% Physical, 3% Hybrid, and 5% Remote job distribution.

Founding Director of Partnerships

Rox

San Francisco, CA • On-site

Full-time

Re-posted 23 days ago

Job description

About Rox
Rox is building the AI-native revenue operating system for modern go-to-market teams. Backed by Sequoia, GV, and General Catalyst, we're working with some of the most ambitious enterprise teams to replace fragmented CRM workflows with intelligent, autonomous systems. Rox connects data across the GTM stack, deploys AI agents to do real work, and gives revenue leaders a clear, shared picture of what actually drives outcomes.
We're a small, fast-moving Series A team taking on one of software's most entrenched categories - and we're winning by combining deep technical rigor with obsessive focus on usefulness.
About the Partnerships Team
The Partnerships team is a critical function designed to help scale the growth of Rox through creating and managing strategic relationships with key partners who can co-own the benefit of working with Rox. This team sits inside the GTM org, and is designed to source, accelerate, and aid in closing deals for Rox, while providing a win-win for our partners in the process.
You'll be joining at the ground floor as the first Partnerships hire. Our HQ is based out of San Francisco, while you will support sales teams across our key regions (Central out of Austin and East out of NY). The relationships you build - who we partner with, how we partner best, how we co-sell - will become the blueprint for the company.
About the Role
This is a founding-level Director of Partnerships role for someone to sit directly alongside our Sales organization, acting as the ecosystem expert, a deal strategist, and the co-sell orchestrator who ensures the right partners are engaged in the right opportunities at the right time. Your mission: ensure partners are attached to every deal-whether for insight, influence, or co-selling-and that partner engagement drives measurable revenue outcomes.
If you thrive at the intersection of sales execution, ecosystem strategy, and revenue accountability, and want to influence how a company builds its go-to-market motion from the ground up, this role is for you.
What You'll Do
  • Build and manage a network of strategic partnerships for both technical partners (Databricks, Microsoft, Google, AWS, Snowflake, etc.) and SI partners (McKinsey, BCG, Slalom, Bain, Deloitte, Accenture, etc)
  • Work alongside Sales to align with partners at our target accounts and conduct deal strategy.
  • Create playbooks of how our GTM team engages our partners, document key mutual wins, and craft a repeatable motion as we scale.
  • Run education programs with partners on the value of Rox and how they can benefit from working with us. Additionally, run education for the GTM team to learn how our partners operate and how to best leverage them for mutual wins.

What Success Looks Like
  • In your first few days: You understand Rox's product well enough to speak confidently about the platform and its value, you've identified key partners to go influence
  • Within a few weeks: Partner conversations are well underway, you identify a couple of accounts ideal to pilot the program.
  • Within a few months: You're raising the bar - improving the sales motion, generating best practices working with partners, and most importantly, influencing revenue growth through closed deals.

Must-Have Skills
  • 5-8+ years of experience in partner sales, alliances, channel, or ecosystem-driven GTM roles
  • Demonstrated ability to influence closed-won revenue through partners
  • Experience working with complex sales cycles, multi-stakeholder deals, and enterprise buyers
  • Strong understanding of how partners influence buying decisions-not just transact
  • Ability to diagnose deals and prescribe the right partner strategy, not a one-size-fits-all approach
  • Comfort working on time sensitive deals while also identifying scalable patterns
  • Strong understanding of modern data ecosystems, including data warehouses and GTM stacks
  • Comfort operating in fast-moving, ambiguous environments where process is still being built
  • A track record of partnering effectively with Sales and Product teams to drive outcome

Why This Role Exists
Rox is scaling quickly, and the way we sell matters as much as what we build. This role exists to ensure that our company's fit in the market is supported by those we need to work alongside. Having partners will accelerate our deal cycles, grow our pipeline, and create relationships that we otherwise might not be able to forge on our own.
If you're excited by ownership, influence, and the chance to help define a function from the ground up, this is one of those rare roles where your fingerprints will still be visible years from now.

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