SUMMARY
The Senior Director, MSP Partner Development is an individual contributor responsible for driving partner-led growth by recruiting, onboarding, and activating Managed Service Providers (MSPs) as partners for Arete's Incident Response (IR) and Managed Security Services (MSS) portfolio. This role is accountable for building a high-velocity MSP partner pipeline and signing 100 MSPs as partners through targeted outreach, relationship development, enablement, and coordinated go-to-market execution.
Reporting to the Senior Vice President, Commercial Strategy and Growth, this role focuses on execution rather than team management or long-range channel strategy ownership. Success in this position is measured by signed partner agreements, activated partners, partner-sourced opportunities, and revenue contribution across Arete's IR and MSS service lines.
ROLES & RESPONSIBILITIES
- MSP Partner Recruitment and Growth
- Own a defined target to recruit, sign, and activate 100 MSPs as Arete partners annually for Incident Response and Managed Security Services
- Build and manage a robust pipeline of prospective MSP partners through outbound prospecting, referrals, conferences, ecosystem relationships, and targeted account outreach
- Identify and prioritize high-value MSP prospects based on ideal partner profile criteria, geographic fit, service maturity, customer base, and opportunity potential across both incident response and managed security services
- Conduct discovery conversations, position Arete's value proposition, and advance prospective partners from initial engagement through signed agreement and activation
- Maintain a disciplined cadence of outreach, follow-up, and pipeline progression to ensure consistent partner acquisition results
- Partner Onboarding and Activation
- Lead partner onboarding activities to ensure newly signed MSPs are enabled to introduce, position, and refer Arete's incident response and managed security services
- Coordinate with internal stakeholders to deliver partner training, sales enablement materials, process documentation, and operational readiness support
- Drive time-to-first-referral and time-to-first-opportunity metrics across newly recruited partners
- Develop practical activation plans for each partner to increase engagement, referral readiness, and early-stage pipeline generation across IR and MSS offerings
- Monitor partner activity and engagement levels, identifying gaps and executing follow-up plans to improve activation rates
- Revenue and Pipeline Development
- Generate partner-sourced and partner-influenced pipeline through consistent co-selling engagement with MSP partners
- Collaborate with sales leadership and account executives to ensure effective handoff, follow-up, and conversion of partner-generated opportunities across the IR and MSS portfolio
- Maintain accurate pipeline visibility, forecast updates, and activity tracking in Salesforce and other internal systems
- Track performance against key commercial metrics, including signed partners, activated partners, referral volume, opportunity creation, pipeline value, and closed revenue
- Deliver consistent progress against monthly, quarterly, and annual growth targets for the MSP partner motion
- Relationship Management and Ecosystem Engagement
- Build trusted working relationships with MSP owners, executives, sales leaders, and technical leaders to drive long-term partner engagement
- Represent Arete in the MSP community through direct meetings, industry events, partner briefings, and ecosystem networking opportunities
- Identify opportunities to expand partner engagement through co-marketing, joint campaigns, webinars, regional events, and field-level collaboration
- Serve as the primary commercial point of contact for assigned MSP partners throughout the recruitment and activation lifecycle
- Capture market feedback from MSP partners and communicate insights to leadership, marketing, and service delivery teams to strengthen Arete's IR and MSS partner motion
- Cross-Functional Collaboration
- Work closely with Marketing, Legal, Finance, Sales, and Service Delivery to support partner recruitment, contracting, onboarding, and ongoing activation
- Coordinate execution of partner agreements, enablement workflows, referral processes, and internal reporting requirements
- Ensure a strong partner experience by removing friction from onboarding, communications, and opportunity handoff processes
- Support refinement of partner messaging, outreach campaigns, and enablement content based on field feedback and conversion performance
- Perform other duties as assigned by management
- Performance Metrics
- Goal: 100 new MSP partners per year
- Revenue activation within 90 days
- $5 million annual revenue stream across Incident Response and Managed Security Services
SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE
- Excellent verbal, written, and interpersonal communication skills
- Strong business development and partner acquisition capabilities within cybersecurity, managed services, or technology services environments
- Working knowledge of the MSP ecosystem, including partner operating models, buying behavior, and common platform environments
- Demonstrated ability to prospect, develop, and close channel or partner relationships with measurable results
- Strong consultative selling and relationship-building skills with the ability to engage decision-makers across executive, sales, and technical functions
- Highly organized, disciplined, and metrics-oriented approach to pipeline management and partner development
- Ability to work independently in a fast-paced, growth-oriented environment
- Experience using CRM platforms such as Salesforce to manage outreach activity, pipeline, forecasting, and reporting
- Understanding of incident response, managed detection and response, managed security services, and adjacent cybersecurity offerings preferred
JOB REQUIREMENTS
- Bachelor's degree and 8+ years of industry experience, or Master's degree and 6+ years of related experience, or Doctorate and 4+ years of related experience
- Proven success in business development, channel sales, partner development, or ecosystem growth roles
- Direct experience working with MSPs, MSSPs, channel partners, or adjacent technology partner ecosystems
- Demonstrated track record of recruiting and activating partners that generate measurable pipeline and revenue impact
- Experience in cybersecurity, incident response, managed security services, SaaS, or other complex B2B services environments preferred
- Ability to travel for partner meetings, conferences, and field events as needed
DISCLAIMER
The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed. They are not intended to be an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties and skills required personnel so classified.
WORK ENVIRONMENT
While performing the responsibilities of this position, the work environment characteristics listed below are representative of the environment the employee will encounter: Usual office working conditions. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable people with disabilities to perform the essential functions of this job.
PHYSICAL DEMANDS
- No physical exertion required
- Travel within or outside of the state
- Light work: Exerting up to 20 pounds of force occasionally, and/or up to 10 pounds of force as frequently as needed to move objects
TERMS OF EMPLOYMENT
Salary and benefits shall be paid consistent with Arete salary and benefit policy.
FLSA OVERTIME CATEGORY
Job is exempt from the overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act.
DECLARATION
The Arete Incident Response Human Resources Department retains the sole right and discretion to make changes to this job description.
EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY
We’re proud to be an equal opportunity employer- and celebrate our employees’ differences, regardless of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, or Veteran status. Different makes us better.
Arete Incident Response is an outstanding (and growing) company with a very dedicated, fun team. We offer competitive salaries, fully paid benefits including Medical/Dental, Life/Disability Insurance, 401(k) and the opportunity to work with some of the latest and greatest in the fast-growing cyber security industry.
When you join Arete…
You’ll be doing work that matters alongside other talented people, transforming the way people, businesses, and things connect with each other. Of course, we will offer you great pay and benefits, but we’re about more than that. Arete is a place where you can craft your own path to greatness. Whether you think in code, words, pictures or numbers, find your future at Arete, where experience matters.
Equal Employment Opportunity
We’re proud to be an equal opportunity employer- and celebrate our employees’ differences, regardless of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, or Veteran status. Different makes us better.