---
title: 'Channel Account Specialist at Formal'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/channel-account-specialist-formal-san-francisco-k94xm9aqacgr'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-08'
---

# Channel Account Specialist at Formal

- **Company:** Formal
- **Location:** San Francisco, CA
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Posted:** 2025-08-18
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-08
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/formal/7e7ea2d2-c07e-447c-8f74-6da8b8fefa94

## Job description

## ABOUT FORMAL

Formal is data security platform designed to help teams understand and control their data on autopilot.

We're building a modern protocol-aware reverse-proxy for datastores and APIs that helps organizations understand their data in real-time. This allows teams to see how sensitive data is stored, consumed, and used in order to enforce least privilege through masking, filtering, or anonymization policies.

We are trusted by leading companies such as Ramp http://Ramp.com, Gusto http://Gusto.com, Notion http://Notion.com to solve problems across data security and compliance, data quality management, and infrastructure access.

Formal is backed by top-tiers VCs including Thrive Capital and Y Combinator with angel investors that include executives and founders from Datadog, Clickhouse, Plaid, and Vanta.

## ABOUT THE ROLE

As our Channel Account Specialist, you will play a crucial role in shaping Formal's relationships with channel partners. You'll work closely with our product, sales, and leadership teams to develop and execute partner strategies that drive growth and establish Formal as a leader in the data security space.

## WHAT YOU'LL DO

- Strategic Planning: Develop and implement a comprehensive channel strategy to drive revenue growth and expand the partner ecosystem.
- Partner Recruitment: Identify, recruit, and onboard new channel partners, including resellers, distributors, and strategic alliances.
- Relationship Management: Build and maintain strong, long-term relationships with key partners, serving as the primary point of contact and advocate for their needs.
- Sales Enablement: Provide partners with the necessary tools, training, and resources to effectively sell and support our data security solutions.
- Performance Management: Set performance metrics, monitor partner performance, and implement improvement plans as needed to ensure partners meet and exceed sales targets.
- Marketing Collaboration: Work closely with the marketing team to develop and execute joint marketing campaigns and events that drive demand and generate leads through the channel.
- Forecasting and Reporting: Provide accurate sales forecasts and regular performance reports to senior management, highlighting successes, challenges, and opportunities for growth.
- Product Knowledge: Stay up-to-date with our product offerings and industry trends to effectively communicate value propositions to partners and end customers.
- Cross-Functional Collaboration: Collaborate with internal teams, including sales, marketing, product management, and customer support, to ensure alignment and success of channel initiatives.

## WHAT YOU NEED

- Minimum of 5 years of experience in channel sales or partner management, preferably in the data security or technology industry.
- Demonstrated success in developing and managing a high-performing channel partner network within the security industry with a track record of achieving and exceeding sales targets.
- Exceptional interpersonal and relationship-building skills, with the ability to influence and collaborate effectively with partners at all levels.
- Strong strategic and analytical skills, with the ability to develop and execute effective channel strategies.
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to present and articulate complex concepts clearly and persuasively.
- Strong leadership and team management skills, with the ability to inspire and motivate both internal teams and external partners.
- Ability to understand and communicate technical concepts related to data security solutions.
- Willingness to travel as needed to meet with partners and attend industry events.

## COMPENSATION

- This role offers cash compensation and a stock options grant.
- The positioning of offers within a certain range depends on various factors, including: candidate experience, qualifications, skills, business requirements and geographical location.

## BENEFITS (FOR U.S.-BASED FULL-TIME EMPLOYEES)

- 100% medical, dental & vision insurance coverage for you
- Partially covered for your dependents
- Flexible PTO

## About Formal

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Formal provides a data privilege access management platform that enforces least‑privilege access at the packet level across databases, infrastructure, and AI agents.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Seed stage – $6.8M seed led by Thrive Capital, plus earlier Y Combinator pre‑seed)
- **Headquarters**: San Francisco, California, USA
- **Founded**: 2022 (Y Combinator S2022 batch)
- **Founders**: Mokhtar Bacha (CEO)

## Core Business
- **Primary Industry**: Data security / access governance
- **Target Customers**: Engineering‑focused security teams at fast‑growing companies (B2B, Enterprise, SMB) – customers include Notion, Ramp, Gusto, and Cursor
- **Mission / Purpose**: “Bring access management to a new age for engineering‑focused security teams” (LinkedIn) and “secure AGI” (company about page)

## Products & Services
- **Formal Proxy** – A single stateless binary that parses 15+ wire protocols (Postgres, MySQL, MongoDB, Snowflake, SSH, Kubernetes, HTTP, MCP, etc.) natively. Deployed in the customer’s VPC, it enforces security policies (allow, block, mask, filter, rewrite, quarantine, etc.) in real time with sub‑10ms overhead. Works with BI tools (Metabase, Looker, Tableau), databases, and infrastructure.
- **AI Agent & MCP Security** – Intercepts and secures interactions between AI agents and MCP servers, stripping PII, blocking unauthorized tool calls, and auditing every action.
- **Real‑Time Session Monitoring** – LLM‑powered anomaly detection for SSH, Kubernetes, and SQL sessions; flags suspicious commands and privilege escalation.
- **Policy Engine & Audit** – No‑code policy editor with Rego support; policy backtesting against 31 days of historical logs; full session/query audit trails exportable to Splunk, Datadog, or S3.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation / Market Cap**: Not disclosed
- **Key Metric (Total Funding)**: $6,925,000 across three rounds (Pre‑Seed 2020/2021, Seed 2023 led by Thrive Capital)
- **Notable Investors / Partners**: Thrive Capital (lead), Y Combinator, Abstract Ventures, Definition Capital; founders from Datadog, ClickHouse, Front, Alan; executives from Rippling, Plaid, Vanta, Checkout.com
- **Growth Signals**: 17 employees (+188% YoY headcount growth); customers include Notion, Ramp, Gusto, Cursor; 2,120 LinkedIn followers (+78% YoY); 6 active job postings as of mid‑2026

## Competitive Advantages
- **Protocol‑native, not network‑level**: Parses each wire protocol to make query‑level decisions (e.g., rewrite SQL, mask MongoDB fields) – unlike generic TCP proxies.
- **Single binary, many protocols**: One proxy handles 15+ protocols, eliminating the need to stitch together multiple tools.
- **Sub‑10ms latency**: Compiled Go, stateless, with connection pooling; minimal performance impact.
- **Zero application changes**: No SDK, no agent – just point connection strings through Formal.
- **In‑VPC deployment**: Data never leaves the customer’s infrastructure; forensic‑grade audit trails owned by the customer.

## Strategic Focus
- Securing AI agents and MCP integrations as AI adoption grows.
- Expanding protocol coverage and deepening compliance automation (HIPAA, SOC 2, PCI DSS, GDPR).
- Scaling go‑to‑market efforts (hiring account executives, solutions engineers, channel specialists) to capture more enterprise customers.
- Building out the “AARM” open specification (mentioned on LinkedIn) for AI agent access management.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture / Environment**: Early‑stage startup (17 people) with a strong engineering focus; in‑office work in San Francisco (2 offices – SF and Paris). Team includes alumni from Stanford, Vanta, Twingate, Ramp, Uber, Databricks, OpenAI.
- **Remote / Hybrid Policy**: In‑office (on‑site required per Built In job listings).
- **Notable Perks**: Opportunity to work on critical infrastructure for data security; backed by top‑tier VC (Thrive Capital); customers are high‑growth tech companies; fast career growth in a small team.

## Sources
1. [formal.ai/about](https://www.formal.ai/about/)
2. [formal.ai](https://www.formal.ai/)
3. [builtin.com/company/formal](https://builtin.com/company/formal)
4. [linkedin.com/company/formalhq](https://www.linkedin.com/company/formalhq)
5. [ycombinator.com/companies/formal](https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/formal)

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