---
title: 'Channel Sales Manager at CIQ'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/channel-sales-manager-ciq-remote-7anh66f2gmmm'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-10-18'
---

# Channel Sales Manager at CIQ

- **Company:** CIQ
- **Location:** Remote
- **Work type:** remote
- **Posted:** 2026-10-13
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-18
- **Apply:** https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/ciq/jobs/5450287008

## Job description

## CIQ OVERVIEW

CIQ builds the enterprise infrastructure that powers the world's most demanding workloads. From the operating system layer through AI infrastructure, high-performance computing, and cloud-native orchestration, CIQ delivers the speed, security, scalability, and sovereignty that major enterprises, government agencies, and research institutions depend on.

CIQ is the founding support and services partner of Rocky Linux and the developer of the RLC Pro family of Enterprise Linux distributions, Fuzzball workload orchestration, Warewulf Pro cluster provisioning, and Ascender Pro automation. Our customers include some of the largest and most technically sophisticated organizations in the world, working across HPC, AI/ML, defense, and regulated industries.

We are a company of builders, operators, and open source practitioners. If you want to do work that matters, at a company that is genuinely changing how enterprise infrastructure gets built and run, we want to talk.

## POSITION SUMMARY

As Senior Channel Manager, you will own CIQ’s channel-led revenue as an individual contributor, reporting directly to the company’s sales leadership. You will build and run CIQ’s partner motion across three fronts: recruiting new channel partners, developing and enabling existing partners, and managing distributor relationships. Every partner activity ties back to sourced and influenced revenue. Additional responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

- Identify, qualify, and recruit new channel partners (resellers, VARs, SIs, MSPs) whose customer base and technical focus align with Rocky Linux, RLC, and the broader CIQ portfolio; build the recruitment pipeline, run outreach, and close partner agreements directly.
- Develop existing partners into producing partners through seller and SE enablement, joint business planning, co-marketing and demand-generation coordination, and accountability to mutually agreed targets; diagnose why partners are not selling and fix it.
- Own distributor relationships and economics, including transactional flow, margin, and incentive structures, and using distributor reach to extend partner recruitment without CIQ carrying all the overhead.
- Define and run the program mechanics: partner tiers, deal registration, the margin model, enablement, and the metrics that govern them.
- Work cross-functionally with direct sales (to manage channel conflict and run co-sell), marketing (partner demand generation), and product (to feed partner and market signal back).
- Carry and forecast a channel-sourced and influenced pipeline contribution.

## NEEDED TO SUCCEED

Successful candidates will have:

- A genuine self-starter mindset, comfortable operating with ambiguity, and a near-blank slate.
- Strong commercial instincts, with the ability to negotiate partner economics and defend margin.
- Credibility with both partner executives and partner field reps.
- The discipline to run their book on numbers, not relationships alone.
- A hands-on operator’s approach, doing the work directly (outreach, partner conversations, enablement sessions, negotiations) rather than delegating it.
- A friendly, collaborative, humble, honest, and always striving to be better attitude.

## EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE

- Bachelor’s degree or equivalent relevant work experience.
- 8+ years of experience in channel, partner, or alliances sales, ideally in infrastructure, open source, or enterprise software.
- A track record of personally building partner relationships that produced real revenue (not solely managing a team that did).
- Experience standing up or materially growing partner program mechanics: tiering, deal registration, margin models, and enablement.

## BENEFITS

- Medical, dental, and vision insurance.

- Flexible paid time off.

- Employee stock options.

- Remote work; no travel required for most positions.

## About CIQ

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: CIQ provides enterprise-grade, FIPS-validated software infrastructure for AI, HPC, and regulated environments, built around Rocky Linux and open-source orchestration tools.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series A; raised $26M total funding)
- **Headquarters**: Reno, Nevada, USA
- **Founded**: 2020
- **Founders**: Gregory Kurtzer (CEO)

## Core Business
- **Primary industry/industries**: Enterprise infrastructure software, AI/HPC orchestration, Linux and open-source support.
- **Target customers**: Large enterprises, research institutions, and government agencies requiring secure, compliant, and scalable Linux-based infrastructure. B2B, Enterprise.
- **Mission or purpose statement**: “Simplify and unify software infrastructure, enabling you to craft groundbreaking technologies for the generations to come.” [ciq.com](https://ciq.com/company/about)

## Products & Services
- **RLC Pro (Rocky Linux Commercial Pro)**: The commercial, enterprise-grade binary-compatible Linux distribution based on Rocky Linux. Includes LTS, FIPS 140-3 validated cryptography, and CAVP-certified post-quantum algorithms. Tiered versions include RLC Pro Hardened (for CMMC, CNSA 2.0) and RLC Pro AI (pre-integrated with NVIDIA CUDA/DOCA and AMD ROCm).
- **Fuzzball**: A high-performance orchestration platform for AI and HPC workloads across on-premises and multi-cloud environments.
- **Warewulf Pro**: Stateless cluster provisioning at scale, ensuring every node boots from a known state.
- **Ascender Pro**: An open, enterprise-grade IT automation platform for managing complex workflows across the entire stack.
- **Enterprise Support & Consulting**: Direct access to Linux and HPC engineers for production support, custom training, and hands-on consulting.
- **Training**: Customized training on Linux, IT automation, HPC, and AI infrastructure, available in-person or virtually.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly disclosed.
- **Key Metric**: Total funding of $26M (Series A). Reported 2.75M+ Rocky Linux instances and 250k average monthly downloads. [ciq.com](https://ciq.com/)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Key partners include NVIDIA and AMD (pre-integrated GPU stacks). Investors not fully detailed on public site.
- **Growth Signals**: 90% of Fortune 100 companies are reported users. Headcount growth trends show +66.7% yearly increase in job postings. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/ctrliq) Amazon Linux 2 end-of-life (June 2026) provides a significant market migration opportunity to Rocky Linux.

## Competitive Advantages
- **Rocky Linux Ownership**: As the founding commercial support and services partner of Rocky Linux, CIQ has direct influence and deep expertise in the most popular CentOS replacement.
- **Full-Stack Integration**: Pre-validated NVIDIA and AMD GPU stacks (CUDA, DOCA, ROCm) eliminate driver matching and kernel conflicts, offering a ready-to-run AI infrastructure.
- **Compliance and Security**: FIPS 140-3, CAVP, and CMMC certifications make CIQ a go-to for regulated industries and government contracts.
- **Open-Source Core**: Built on open-source communities (Rocky Linux, Warewulf, Fuzzball), ensuring transparency and community innovation while providing enterprise-grade support.

## Strategic Focus
- **AI Infrastructure**: Optimizing the OS and orchestration layers specifically for GPU-accelerated AI workloads, targeting the growing enterprise AI market.
- **Regulated Environments**: Deepening compliance capabilities (CNSA 2.0, CMMC) to serve federal and defense sectors.
- **Migration from Amazon Linux 2**: Capitalizing on the June 2026 end-of-life deadline to attract AWS-native enterprises seeking a stable, compliant alternative.
- **Open-Source Ecosystem**: Continuing to invest in and lead the Rocky Linux and related open-source communities to drive adoption and innovation.

## Why Work Here
- **100% Remote**: Full remote flexibility is a core offering. [ciq.com](https://ciq.com/company/careers)
- **Culture of Ownership**: Emphasis on accountability, “startup mode” efficiency, and a “customer first” philosophy.
- **Work with Industry Pioneers**: Collaborate with the creator of Rocky Linux and other open-source and HPC veterans.
- **Comprehensive Benefits**: Healthcare, vision, dental, flexible PTO, and growth opportunities.
- **Open and Humble Environment**: Culture built on mutual respect, diversity, and constructive feedback, with a “no-drama” policy.

## Sources
1. [ciq.com](https://ciq.com/)
2. [ciq.com - About](https://ciq.com/company/about)
3. [ciq.com - Careers](https://ciq.com/company/careers)
4. [ciq.com - Leadership](https://ciq.com/company/leadership)
5. [linkedin.com - CIQ](https://www.linkedin.com/company/ctrliq)

## Other roles at CIQ

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