Alibaba Cloud · 19 hours ago
Business Development Director, AI-native Business-Global Strategic Account
Sunnyvale, CA
Full-time
Hybrid
Lead/Staff, Director/Executive
3+ years expAlibaba Cloud is seeking a Business Development Director to build and manage relationships with AI-native companies in the U.S. This role involves understanding technical architectures, driving adoption of Alibaba Cloud’s AI stack, and collaborating with various teams to create tailored solutions for startups.
Cloud Data ServicesCloud ManagementData CenterData ManagementFoundational AISoftware
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
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 Cloud
Alibaba Cloud develops cloud computing and data management services. It is a sub-organization of Alibaba Group.
10001+ employees
H1B Sponsorship
Alibaba Cloud 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 (18)
2024 (14)
2023 (2)
2022 (1)
Funding
Current Stage
Late StageTotal Funding
$1.2BKey Investors
Alibaba Group
2015-07-29Series B· $1B
2012-09-20Series A· $200M
Recent News
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