Alibaba Cloud Intelligence-Business Development Director, AI-native Business-Global Strategic Account jobs in United States
cer-icon
Apply on Employer Site
company-logo

Alibaba Group · 1 day ago

Alibaba Cloud Intelligence-Business Development Director, AI-native Business-Global Strategic Account

positionSunnyvale, CA
timeFull-time
remoteHybrid
seniorityLead/Staff, Director/Executive
date5+ years exp

Alibaba is a leading cloud technology company, and they are seeking a Business Development Director for their AI-native Business. The role involves building relationships with AI-native companies, understanding their technical needs, and positioning Alibaba Cloud’s AI solutions as optimal for their business models.

AssociationB2BInformation TechnologyOffice SuppliesShopping
check
Comp. & Benefits
check
H1B Sponsor Likelynote

Responsibilities

Build and own relationships with AI-native companies founders, CTOs, engineers, and product leaders across the U.S
Understand technical architectures and business models of AI-native companies—including LLM fine-tuning, RAG pipelines, AI agent orchestration, computer vision, and generative applications
Position Alibaba Cloud’s AI stack—including Tongyi Qianwen (Qwen) models, PAI (Platform for AI), GPU/ML-optimized instances, OSS for vector storage, and serverless inference—as the optimal infrastructure for cost, performance, and innovation
Drive adoption and expansion from initial proof-of-concept through scaled production usage, with a focus on AI-specific consumption (e.g., GPU hours, model hosting, API calls)
Collaborate with Solutions Architects and AI specialists to design tailored, competitive solutions that solve real startup pain points: cost-efficient training, low-latency inference, global deployment, etc
Navigate complex technical evaluations and help startups compare Alibaba Cloud vs. competitors (AWS Bedrock, Azure OpenAI, GCP Vertex AI) based on openness, pricing, and flexibility
Represent Alibaba Cloud at AI conferences (e.g., NeurIPS, AWS re:Invent Startup events, TechCrunch Disrupt), incubators (Y Combinator, a16z events), and VC partner meetings
Act as the voice of the customer—feeding insights back to product teams to improve developer experience, documentation, and AI tooling

Qualification

AI-native business understandingCloud platform deploymentModern AI stack knowledgeTechnical sales experienceInterpersonal communication skillsBachelor's degreeWillingness to travelNetworking in AI ecosystem

Required

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related technical field (or equivalent practical experience)
3+ years in a customer-facing technical sales, solutions engineering, or developer relations role—preferably in cloud, AI/ML, or infrastructure
Deep understanding of modern AI stacks: familiarity with transformers, fine-tuning, quantization, vector databases, LangChain/LlamaIndex, inference optimization, and MLOps tools
Proven ability to explain complex technical concepts clearly to both engineers and non-technical business audiences
Exceptional interpersonal and communication skills—you build trust quickly and thrive in ambiguous, founder-led environments
Willingness to travel extensively (~50% of time) across the U.S. to meet customers in person

Preferred

Experience working with or at an AI-native companies (as employee, advisor, or investor)
Hands-on experience deploying models on cloud platforms (Alibaba Cloud, AWS, GCP, Azure)
Familiarity with open-weight models, model serving frameworks (vLLM, TGI), and cost/performance tradeoffs in inference
Genuine enthusiasm for AI innovation—you follow arXiv papers, experiment with open models (e.g., Llama, Mistral, Qwen), or build side projects with AI agents
Existing network in the U.S. AI/VC/startup ecosystem

Company

Alibaba Group

twittertwittertwitter
Glassdoor3.9
company-logo
Alibaba Group operates an online marketplace that connects buyers and sellers across various sectors, facilitating e-commerce transactions.
dateFounded in 1999
location
Hangzhou, Zhejiang, CHN
people-size10001+ employees
web-link
https://www.alibabagroup.com

H1B Sponsorship

Alibaba Group has a track record of offering H1B sponsorships. Please note that this does not guarantee sponsorship for this specific role. Below presents additional info for your reference. (Data Powered by US Department of Labor)
Distribution of Different Job Fields Receiving Sponsorship
Represents job field similar to this job
Trends of Total Sponsorships
2025 (5)
2024 (8)
2023 (14)
2022 (21)
2021 (43)
2020 (76)

Funding

Current Stage
Public Company
Total Funding
$23.64B
Key Investors
Ryan CohenChina Investment CorporationYahoo
2025-09-11Post Ipo Debt· $3.2B
2025-07-03Post Ipo Debt· $1.53B
2025-02-21Post Ipo Equity

Leadership Team

leader-logo
Eddie Wu
Director and Chief Executive Officer
leader-logo
Leo Jiang
SVP & Deputy Chief Technology Officer

Recent News

HongKong Business
Capital markets rebound as Q4 property investment hits $20.3b
2026-01-07
Straits Times
The Assembly Place gears up for Catalist IPO; Hong Kong’s CNE eyes secondary listing
2026-01-05
MarketScreener
Mandarin Oriental sells HQ to Alibaba before Jardine buyout
2026-01-05
Company data provided by crunchbase