---
title: 'Partnership Manager at Zania'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/partnership-manager-zania-palo-alto-y284r635m228'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-10-13'
---

# Partnership Manager at Zania

- **Company:** Zania
- **Location:** Palo Alto, CA
- **Compensation:** $140k–$190k
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-10-12
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-13
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/zania/5a1141b8-8772-4018-a3bb-bbe57340c154

## Job description

## Why Zania

Every enterprise spends millions of dollars on Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC). It's one of the most critical, yet universally painful, parts of running a business. For decades, this industry has been dominated by legacy systems with notoriously low NPS scores, making it totally ripe for disruption. Zania is building agentic AI for Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) to solve this massive problem. We are on a rocketship trajectory, creating intelligent agents that automate and augment the most complex risk and compliance workflows. We have found exceptional product-market fit and are scaling our team very quickly. Some reasons to join Zania are:

- Dream Customers: Our customers are the most notable enterprises in the world, including FAANG, Big 4 firms, and a portfolio of top customers.
- Tier 1 Backing: Funded by a leading Tier 1 venture capital fund. Series A led by NEA, with Anthropic and Menlo Ventures. $18M raised to build a generational company.
- World-Class Team: Zania is hiring the best. Our team includes AI and Security leaders from Airbnb, Microsoft, Bain & Company, Deloitte, PwC, Brex, and Instacart.
- Hyper-Growth: We have seen 10x ARR growth in the last year and are rapidly expanding.
- Competitive Compensation & Equity.

## The Role

As Partnership Manager, you will build the partner channel that puts Zania's GRC agents in front of enterprises we can't reach alone. This is a founding partnerships role: you will define the strategy, sign and launch the first partners, and turn those relationships into sourced and influenced revenue. The GRC ecosystem runs on trusted advisors and platforms: Big 4 and advisory firms, audit and assessment firms, MSSPs, GRC and security platforms, and cloud marketplaces. You will work with the founders and sales team to build partnerships that create pipeline, speed up deals, and make Zania part of how compliance work gets delivered.

## What You'll Do

- Build the partner strategy: Define which partner types matter most (advisory and audit firms, MSSPs, resellers, technology partners, and cloud marketplaces), and focus on the ones that will move revenue.
- Recruit and launch partners: Source, negotiate, and sign partnerships, then run enablement, joint go-to-market plans, and the first co-sold deals.
- Drive partner-sourced pipeline: Own partner-sourced and influenced pipeline targets, working closely with AEs on account mapping, co-selling, and deal registration.
- Technology and integration partnerships: Work with product and engineering on integrations with the GRC, ticketing, and security tools our customers already use.
- Marketplace motion: Launch and grow Zania's listings and co-sell programs with cloud marketplaces such as AWS and Azure.
- Build the playbook: Set up partner agreements, tiers, incentives, deal registration, and reporting so the program can scale.

Representative Projects

- Sign an advisory firm's risk practice as a delivery partner, co-design a joint offering for third-party risk assessments, and close the first joint customer within a quarter.
- Launch Zania on AWS Marketplace and co-sell with AWS account teams on Fortune 500 opportunities.
- Build a referral program with audit and assessment firms that become a repeatable source of qualified pipeline.

## What You Have

- Ecosystem knowledge: You understand how the security, risk, and compliance ecosystem works, including advisory firms, auditors, MSSPs, and platform vendors, and how they make money.
- Deal-making skills: You can find the mutual value in a partnership, negotiate terms, and get to signature.
- Revenue focus: You measure partnerships by pipeline and closed revenue, not logos on a slide.
- Builder mentality: You have built or scaled a partner program from little or nothing and are comfortable owning it end to end.
- Relationship management: Executive presence and a proven ability to build trust with partner leaders and internal sales teams.

## Minimum Qualifications

- Bachelor's degree in Business, Information Security, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
- 5+ years of experience in partnerships, channel, alliances, or business development at a B2B SaaS company.
- Experience working with cybersecurity, GRC, or enterprise software partners such as advisory firms, resellers, MSSPs, or technology alliances.
- Proven track record of generating partner-sourced pipeline and closed revenue.
- Strong structured written and verbal communication skills.

## Nice to Have

- Experience at a Big 4 or advisory firm, or managing alliances with one.
- Experience launching on AWS or Azure Marketplace and running co-sell motions.
- Familiarity with GRC frameworks (SOC 2, ISO 27001, NIST) and platforms (ServiceNow IRM, OneTrust, Archer, AuditBoard).
- Experience as an early partnerships hire at a startup.

## Compensation & Benefits

- Competitive salary + significant equity
- Flexible PTO
- Medical, dental, and vision insurance
- Meals and snacks in the office
- Relocation and immigration support

Zania is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, national origin, disability, age, genetic information, veteran status, marital status, pregnancy or related condition, or any other basis protected by law.

## About Zania

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Zania provides an autonomous AI agent platform that executes Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) work, including controls testing, risk assessments, audits, and security questionnaires.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series A)
- **Headquarters**: Palo Alto, California, USA
- **Founded**: 2023
- **Founders**: Shruti Gupta

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: AI-powered Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) / Cybersecurity
- **Target customers**: B2B, Enterprise (Fortune 500, Big Four audit & advisory firms, CISOs, Heads of GRC, TPRM leaders)
- **Mission or purpose statement**: To automate and execute complex GRC work with provable accuracy, replacing manual processes with autonomous AI agents.

## Products & Services
- **Autonomous Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM)**: AI agents that handle vendor risk tiering, evidence collection, validation, follow-ups, and continuous monitoring end-to-end.
- **First-Party Risk**: AI-driven qualitative and quantitative risk evaluations based on a company's unique systems, controls, and data.
- **Continuous Compliance**: Agents that continuously collect evidence, identify gaps against any framework (SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, PCI DSS, NIST CSF, GDPR, etc.), and assist with remediation.
- **Controls Testing**: Autonomous testing of 100% of controls for both design and operating effectiveness, with actionable recommendations.
- **Security Questionnaires**: AI that leverages a company's security context to answer incoming vendor questionnaires with precision in minutes.
- **Self-Governing Policies**: Policies that update themselves to stay in sync with a company's compliance and tech stack.
- **Agent-Driven Risk Intelligence**: Continuous monitoring of vendors using data from integrations, incidents, supply chain, threat intel, breach history, and company profiles.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly disclosed
- **Key Metric**: Total Funding of $18.0M (Series A, led by NEA, announced October 2025)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: NEA (lead), Menlo Ventures, Anthropic, Palm Drive Capital, AWS ISV Accelerate Program. Advisors include Mike Curtis (Ex-Head of Eng, Airbnb), Anand Deshpande (Founder & Chairman, Persistent Systems), and George Kurtz (Founder & CEO, Crowdstrike).
- **Growth Signals**: Trusted by Fortune 500 companies and Big Four audit & advisory firms. Launched "Autonomous TPRM" in February 2026. Headcount grew 17.6% YoY. Active job postings grew 125% YoY. LinkedIn follower count grew 85.7% yearly.

## Competitive Advantages
- **Purpose-built AI agents** for GRC, not a general-purpose LLM wrapper — trained on domain-specific GRC workflows.
- **Provable accuracy and explainability**: Features like confidence scores, visible reasoning, source references, and deep research make outputs audit-ready.
- **Enterprise-grade security**: SOC 2 Type 2 compliant, private models with no training on customer data, and a reported hallucination rate of <0.01%.
- **End-to-end workflow automation**: Agents handle the entire GRC process from evidence collection to remediation, not just individual tasks.
- **Founder-led domain expertise**: CEO Shruti Gupta previously led AI at Microsoft and held founding security/CISO roles at Airbnb, Instacart, and Brex.

## Strategic Focus
- **Autonomous execution**: Shifting GRC from human-led processes with AI assistance to agent-led execution with human oversight.
- **Expanding TPRM capabilities**: Launched "Autonomous TPRM" in February 2026 to fully automate vendor risk management.
- **Continuous compliance**: Moving from point-in-time audits to 24/7 continuous monitoring and evidence collection.
- **Enterprise scale**: Targeting deeper penetration into Fortune 500 and Big Four firms.

## Why Work Here
- **Rocketship growth**: Early-stage, well-funded startup ($18M Series A) with strong investor backing from top-tier VCs (NEA, Menlo Ventures) and strategic partners (Anthropic).
- **Compelling mission**: Opportunity to build the future of AI-driven GRC, a massive market with high demand.
- **Compensation**: Top-of-market pay with meaningful equity ownership.
- **Perks**: Flexible PTO, free catered meals and snacks, relocation and immigration support.
- **Work environment**: In-office presence in Palo Alto, CA, with a presence in India. The team is small (~11 employees) and technical (25% of staff in technical roles).
- **Leadership**: Founded by Shruti Gupta, a former AI leader at Microsoft and founding security/CISO at Airbnb, Instacart, and Brex. Backed by world-class advisors from Crowdstrike, Airbnb, and Persistent Systems.
- **Growth trajectory**: Rapidly growing with 9 active job postings, 125% YoY increase in job postings, and strong revenue growth signals.

## Sources
1. [zania.ai](https://zania.ai/)
2. [zania.ai/careers](https://zania.ai/careers)
3. [zania.ai/about-us](https://zania.ai/about-us)
4. [linkedin.com/company/zaniaai](https://www.linkedin.com/company/zaniaai)
5. [cbinsights.com](https://www.cbinsights.com/company/zania)

## Other roles at Zania

- [Director of Engineering](https://feeny.ai/job/director-of-engineering-zania-palo-alto-31v8c50rhpjr) — Palo Alto, CA
- [Director of Marketing](https://feeny.ai/job/director-of-marketing-zania-palo-alto-txw3h771kr9y) — Palo Alto, CA
- [Executive Assistant to the CEO](https://feeny.ai/job/executive-assistant-to-the-ceo-zania-palo-alto-hvm71441b8sx) — Palo Alto, CA
- [Founding Enterprise SDR](https://feeny.ai/job/founding-enterprise-sdr-zania-palo-alto-avagb6jpshwp) — Palo Alto, CA
- [Engineering Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/engineering-manager-zania-palo-alto-8n4xxwd00hej) — Palo Alto, CA
- [Growth Marketing Lead](https://feeny.ai/job/growth-marketing-lead-zania-palo-alto-rmnzg5wgajdv) — Palo Alto, CA
- [Staff Software Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/staff-software-engineer-zania-palo-alto-exkya0ggm5jz) — Palo Alto, CA
- [Head of Engineering](https://feeny.ai/job/head-of-engineering-zania-palo-alto-bpt37pjsyjye) — Palo Alto, CA
- [Ex Founder](https://feeny.ai/job/ex-founder-zania-palo-alto-0y2683te77vr) — Palo Alto, CA
- [Senior GRC Lead: Risk & Compliance](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-grc-lead-risk-compliance-zania-palo-alto-r7cjfd25ady5) — Palo Alto, CA