Partner Director, McKinsey Alliance

About the role

You will serve as the single accountable executive owner for the global strategic alliance between OpenAI and McKinsey & Company, responsible for defining and executing the partnership strategy from the boardroom to the operating team. You will translate executive alignment into scalable commercial outcomes and enterprise AI transformation across industries and regions. This role requires you to own the full relationship health, performance, and long-term expansion of the alliance on behalf of OpenAI. You will develop and deploy a differentiated partnership operating model that combines McKinsey's strategy and transformation capabilities with OpenAI's research, products, and technical expertise. Success in this position demands senior executive presence, sound judgment, commercial discipline, and technical fluency to operate effectively within a complex, partner-led organization. You will be the primary architect of the alliance, ensuring that joint initiatives move from strategy to production deployment and measurable value for enterprise customers.

Key facts

What you'll do

Own the global McKinsey relationship, including alliance strategy, pipeline growth, enterprise impact, deployment scale, and long-term expansion across priority industries.

Define and run the partnership's operating model across executive governance, joint planning, regional execution, opportunity management, resource allocation, and escalation.

Serve as OpenAI's senior executive counterpart to McKinsey's global leadership and relevant industry, functional, technology, and regional leaders.

Develop a differentiated alliance strategy that combines McKinsey's strategy, industry expertise, transformation capabilities, and executive relationships with OpenAI's research, models, products, and technical expertise.

Build a deep working relationship with QuantumBlack and other McKinsey technology and AI teams to develop repeatable solutions and move customer programs from strategy and experimentation into production.

Set joint priorities, establish clear ownership, resolve escalations, and coordinate execution across global and regional teams.

Shape and lead the co-selling of complex, CxO- and board-level enterprise AI transformation opportunities.

Engage directly with enterprise executives alongside McKinsey leaders to frame AI strategy, operating models, use-case portfolios, governance, adoption plans, organizational change, and value realization.

Identify priority industries, transformation plays, and lighthouse accounts where the partnership can create differentiated and repeatable customer value.

Coordinate OpenAI stakeholders across Product, Research, Sales, Solutions Architecture, Technical Success, Legal, Finance, Communications, and Operations to support strategic pursuits and deployments.

Establish clear rules of engagement and guardrails for intellectual property, solution quality, safety, delivery, commercial ownership, and customer accountability.

Build McKinsey's capability to position, design, and deliver solutions powered by OpenAI through executive alignment, technical enablement, solution patterns, readiness programs, and disciplined delivery handoffs.

Develop joint assets and offerings that can scale beyond individual engagements while maintaining the rigor required for highly strategic customers.

Allocate OpenAI resources based on strategic value, revenue potential, customer impact, repeatability, delivery readiness, and partner performance.

Build and lead a dedicated alliance pod over time, spanning partner management, technical leadership, enablement, and operations.

Establish durable reporting, metrics, and operating cadences covering pipeline, conversion, production adoption, customer outcomes, partner readiness, delivery quality, and return on OpenAI investment.

Requirements

You must possess partner, senior partner, managing director, or equivalent senior leadership experience at McKinsey, another leading strategy firm, or a top-tier technology or transformation organization, with a proven track record of owning global strategic partnerships.

You must demonstrate technology fluency and commercial leadership across business development, enterprise transformation, industry advisory, GTM, or strategic alliances, with the ability to communicate complex concepts to executive audiences.

You must have a history of successful ownership for a global, multi-year strategic partnership with clear executive accountability and measurable commercial and customer outcomes.

You must show demonstrated success in shaping and closing high-stakes, board-level transformation opportunities and moving them from strategy through production deployment and measurable value.

You must have experience working closely with C-suite and board-level executives in enterprise environments, influencing without direct authority and aligning multiple stakeholders toward shared outcomes.

You must exhibit sound judgment, commercial discipline, and the ability to operate effectively in ambiguous, fast-paced, and matrixed environments.

You must have strong interpersonal skills, including the capacity to build trust, manage conflict, and drive alignment among senior leaders across regions and functions.

You must be comfortable with quantitative analysis, financial acumen, and outcome-oriented thinking, with the ability to translate strategic intent into actionable plans and performance metrics.