Head of Startup Program

The role

We are hiring a Head of Startup Program to build and scale a world-class, AI-native startup program at Nebius. This role will define the strategy, operating model, and measurable impact of our global Startup Program, ensuring it becomes a meaningful acquisition, retention, and expansion engine for the company.

Unlike traditional startup programs that focus primarily on credits or community engagement, our vision is to create a commercially rigorous, technically differentiated program designed specifically for AI-native companies. You will own the end-to-end startup lifecycle — from onboarding and first deployment to production scale and long-term expansion.

This is a highly cross-functional leadership role at the intersection of ecosystem, product, sales, and customer success.

You are welcome to work remotely from the United States (San Francisco Bay Area preferred)

Your responsibilities will include:

Program Strategy & Architecture

• Design and continuously evolve the global strategy for the Startup Program, including stage-based engagement models that support companies from early experimentation through growth and scale.
• Define the end-to-end startup lifecycle framework, from onboarding through expansion, ensuring clear progression milestones and measurable success benchmarks.
• Develop structured credit frameworks aligned with both technical and commercial milestones.
• Embed differentiated technical value — including GPU advisory, training optimization, and inference best practices — into the core program experience.

Lead Generation, Customer Journey & Commercial Impact

• Own the startup customer journey from initial engagement through production and long-term expansion.
• Drive measurable business outcomes in partnership with Sales, RevOps, and Customer Success teams.
• Generate high-quality startup pipeline and improve conversion from credits to paid workloads.
• Increase expansion revenue from startup accounts through structured lifecycle engagement and success planning.
• Establish reporting mechanisms to track program ROI, optimize funnel performance, monitor retention, and ensure accurate CRM attribution.

Startup Onboarding & Customer Success Enablement

• Design and optimize seamless onboarding experiences that accelerate time-to-first-deployment and time-to-production.
• Define startup success milestones and playbooks in collaboration with Solutions Engineering and Customer Success teams.
• Develop technical enablement programs that help startups deploy faster, optimize infrastructure costs, and scale efficiently.
• Build proactive engagement models to support high-potential startups through critical growth phases
• Continuously improve retention and customer health metrics within the startup segment.

VC & Ecosystem Integration

• Collaborate closely with the Venture Partnerships team to strengthen portfolio engagement across priority VC firms.
• Build structured referral workflows to increase portfolio penetration.
• Run technical clinics and targeted enablement initiatives for VC-backed startups.
• Position Nebius as a preferred infrastructure partner within strategic venture ecosystems.

Cross-Functional Leadership

• Serve as the central driver of the Startup Program across Sales, Solutions Engineering, Product, Marketing, and Ecosystem teams.
• Ensure alignment between startup initiatives and broader GTM, product, and customer success priorities.
• Improve internal processes to reduce friction across onboarding, deployment, and expansion stages.
• Act as the internal voice of the startup segment, informing product roadmap and GTM strategy.

We expect you to have:

• 10+ years of experience in cloud infrastructure, AI platforms, developer ecosystems, or startup GTM roles
• Proven experience building or scaling startup programs, developer platforms, or ecosystem initiative
• Demonstrated ability to translate early-stage engagement into long-term commercial impact
• Strong understanding of AI workloads, including training and inference environments
• Experience working closely with Sales, RevOps, Product, and Customer Success teams
• Data-driven and metrics-oriented, with the ability to define and track performance KPIs
• Operationally rigorous, capable of building scalable systems and repeatable processes
• Comfortable operating across both technical and commercial functions
• Credible and trusted by founders, technical teams, and executive stakeholders
• Strong communicator with the ability to influence cross-functional teams

It will be an added bonus if you have:

• Experience at a cloud provider or AI infrastructure company
• Experience in a high-growth startup environment
• Background as a founder or early-stage operator
• Familiarity with venture capital ecosystems and portfolio engagement models

Key employee benefits in the US:

• Health insurance: 100% company-paid medical, dental, and vision coverage for employees and families.
• 401(k) plan: Up to 4% company match with immediate vesting.
• Parental leave: 20 weeks paid for primary caregivers, 12 weeks for secondary caregivers.
• Remote work reimbursement: Up to $85/month for mobile and internet.
• Disability & life insurance: Company-paid short-term, long-term and life insurance coverage.

Compensation

We offer competitive salaries, ranging from $220k - $285k OTE (On Target Earnings) + equity based on your experience.