Hungry, Humble, Honest, with Heart.

The Opportunity

Nutanix is looking for an operational leader to run the execution engine behind our worldwide Partner Programs and Incentives. This role will ensure that partner programs, incentives, tools, policies, communications, and support processes work reliably for internal teams and partners across the world.
You will lead the operating rhythm for programs such as Elevate and related incentive motions, from planning and readiness through launch, ongoing administration, issue resolution, measurement, and continuous improvement. You will coordinate closely with Sales, Finance, Legal, Compliance, Marketing, Enablement, Revenue Operations, SaaS Engineering, vendors, and the strategic program owners.
The ideal candidate is comfortable owning the details but does not become trapped in them. You will establish clear processes, assign work to the right owners, monitor service levels, resolve cross-functional blockers, and improve the system so that recurring issues are eliminated rather than repeatedly escalated.

What you will do

1. Own worldwide program operations
• Run the operating model for Partner Programs and Incentives across resellers, distributors, service providers, alliances, OEMs, and other partner motions.
• Maintain a single operational calendar covering planning, approvals, launches, checkpoints, communications, payments, reporting, and close activities.
• Translate approved program policy and design into executable procedures, workflows, playbooks, training, FAQs, and support materials.
• Establish intake, triage, prioritization, escalation, and resolution processes for program questions and issues.
• Ensure that internal teams and partners receive consistent answers and that operational decisions are documented and repeatable.
• Manage the backlog of operational improvements and ensure actions are closed on time.

2. Run Elevate and incentive execution
• Coordinate end-to-end operational readiness for annual Elevate planning, program launch, tier changes, requirements, benefits, and ongoing updates.
• Operationalize approved rebates, incentives, checkpoints, partner requirements, individual incentives, and partner-fund processes.
• Coordinate eligibility, enrollment, partner-level, certification, zone, and program data changes across systems.
• Manage exception processes, including intake, documentation, approval routing, decision communication, and auditability.
• Ensure program changes are reflected accurately in the relevant partner-facing and internal systems.
• Coordinate quarterly and annual checkpoints, results publication, remediation actions, and follow-up with owners.
• Maintain operational continuity during fiscal-year, quarter-end, tool, policy, and organizational changes.

3. Manage systems, data, and process integrity
• Own the operational governance of the systems used to execute partner programs and incentives.
• Coordinate updates to Salesforce, Partner Funds Center, enrollment, business-planning, partner-portal, payment, and related tools.
• Maintain data-quality controls for partner levels, zones, certifications, eligibility, program participation, incentive records, and other program attributes.
• Establish change-control, user-acceptance testing, release-readiness, access-management, and post-launch validation processes.
• Partner with Systems, Revenue Operations, and vendors to investigate defects, raise tickets, track fixes, and communicate resolution.
• Ensure that system-of-record data is accurate, reconciled, and available for reporting and downstream processes.
• Document procedures, ownership, dependencies, controls, and contingency plans for critical workflows.
• Maintain the operational communications plan for partner programs and incentives.
• Convert policy and process changes into clear instructions for internal teams and partners.

4. Own finance, payment, and funding operations
Further formalize and solidify collaboration between Finance and Partner Programs Operations & Governance.
• Finance is accountable for the financial outcome, control environment, accounting treatment, and final financial approval or execution within its remit.
• Partner Programs Operations is accountable for program accuracy, completeness of inputs, workflow orchestration, operational reconciliation, action tracking, and stakeholder communication.
• Neither team should own the other team’s work: Programs should not perform accounting or bypass Finance controls, and Finance should not be expected to manage program eligibility, partner communications, operational trackers, or day-to-day exception coordination.
• Establish a documented RACI, service levels, approval thresholds, escalation path, and monthly or quarterly reconciliation cadence between the two teams.

Finance owns:
• Financial policy, accounting treatment, control standards, approval authority, and interpretation of finance requirements.
• Budget ownership, funding authorization, accrual methodology, financial reporting, and formal finance close.
• General-ledger accounting, journal entries, settlement, payment execution, treasury controls, and statutory or management reporting.
• Final approval of purchase orders, checkbooks, funding changes, contra commitments, and payment releases within Finance’s authority framework.
• Financial reconciliation, audit evidence standards, control testing, and resolution of accounting or payment-control exceptions.
• Finance systems of record and the official financial position of program spend, commitments, accruals, and remaining funds.
• Finance participation in audit, compliance, vendor payment, and control reviews.

Partner Programs Operations & Governance owns:
• Translating approved program decisions into operational funding requests, purchase-order requests, checkbook requests, and payment-ready documentation.
• Maintaining the program-level view of approved funding, commitments, transactions, balances, open actions, owners, due dates, risks, and dependencies.
• Validating that incentive and contra requests are complete, eligible, supported by the required approvals, and aligned with current program terms before submission to Finance.
• Coordinating the workflow between Programs, Finance, Legal, vendors, and approvers; tracking requests through approval, processing, payment, and closure.
• Maintaining operational records and reconciling them to Finance reports, investigating discrepancies, and escalating unresolved items with a clear issue statement and proposed action.
• Coordinating checkbook creation, funding changes, payment-file handoffs, payment-status follow-up, and partner or field communications about timing and next steps.
• Managing program-specific trackers, documentation, decision logs, exception records, and evidence needed for Finance or audit review.
• Identifying recurring defects, delays, or manual work and improving the process, system, controls, or documentation so the issue does not repeat.
• Ensuring that operational owners complete their actions on time and that Finance receives clean, accurate, and decision-ready inputs.

5. Coordinate Legal, compliance, and contractual operations
• Coordinate operational follow-up for compliance items, NIRA-related activity, contract reviews, templates, addenda, terms and conditions, and letters of authorization.
• Maintain clear routing and approval processes between Programs, Legal, Finance, and business owners.
• Ensure that operational teams use current approved language, templates, policies, and program terms.
• Track open legal and compliance actions to closure and communicate dependencies or risks.
• Maintain an auditable record of approvals, exceptions, effective dates, and changes.

6. Manage vendors and operational partners
• Own the operating relationship with vendors supporting program administration, incentives, payments, portals, data, and related workflows.
• Run regular vendor reviews focused on service quality, defects, delivery, roadmap, risk, and continuous improvement.
• Track vendor actions, contractual deliverables, system changes, escalations, and transitions to new tools.
• Coordinate testing, communications, training, and cutover plans for vendor or platform changes.
• Ensure that vendor dependencies do not become single points of failure for the business.

7. Lead and develop the Programs Operations team
• Lead a globally distributed team responsible for partner programs, incentives, enrollment, rebates, distributor programs, alliances and OEM support, renewals, and related operations.
• Set clear role definitions, ownership boundaries, priorities, goals, and operating expectations.
• Run effective one-on-ones, team meetings, planning sessions, and development conversations.
• Build succession depth and ensure critical processes have backups and documented coverage.
• Coach team members to resolve issues at the right level and to improve the system rather than repeatedly work around it.
• Balance global consistency with regional context and time-zone coverage.
• Recognize strong execution while holding the team accountable for quality, responsiveness, control, and completion.

What we are looking for

Required experience
• Significant experience in partner-program operations, incentive operations, sales operations, business operations.
• Experience running global programs across multiple regions, routes to market, and partner types.
• Demonstrated ownership of operational processes from intake and policy interpretation through systems, execution, reporting, issue resolution, and continuous improvement.
• Experience coordinating with Finance, Legal, Marketing, Enablement, Systems, Revenue Operations, vendors, and field teams.
• Experience leading teams in a matrixed, global, and fast-changing environment.
• Strong process-design, project-management, prioritization, and change-management skills.
• Strong judgment with confidential financial, contractual, partner, and operational information.
• Excellent written and verbal communication, including the ability to make complex processes simple and actionable.

Preferred experience
• Experience in enterprise software, cloud infrastructure, SaaS, cybersecurity, data infrastructure, or a related technology market.
• Experience with partner tiering, rebates, MDF/BDF, incentives, deal registration, partner enrollment, onboarding, renewals, or services programs.
• Experience with Salesforce, incentive-management platforms, partner portals, business-planning tools, payment platforms, ERP systems, and reporting tools.
• Experience leading a platform implementation, vendor transition, system migration, or operational automation program.
• Experience building service catalogs, SLAs, operational scorecards, process controls, and audit-ready documentation.

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