Director, Business Development (Remote within USA)

WHO WE ARE

Hi, we're DuckDuckGo, the online protection company and remote-first team of 300+ on a mission to raise the standard of trust online. Founded in 2008 and profitable since 2014, annual revenue now exceeds $100m USD and millions use our browser on Mac https://spreadprivacy.com/introducing-duckduckgo-for-mac/, Windows https://spreadprivacy.com/windows-browser-open-beta/, iOS https://spreadprivacy.com/duckduckgo-privacy-browser-ios14/, and Android https://spreadprivacy.com/introducing-app-tracking-protection/, our search engine https://duckduckgo.com/, and the latest — Privacy Pro https://spreadprivacy.com/meetprivacypro/. Our culture https://duckduckgo.com/how-we-work of trust, inclusivity, and empowered project management underpins everything we do, where each team member takes full ownership of their projects, from scoping and execution to postmortem. If you're seeking end-to-end ownership of your work — you've come to the right place!


YOUR TEAM AND ROLE

As a Director, Business Development on the Partnerships team, you’ll lead DuckDuckGo’s most complex AI partnerships and drive strategy — sourcing, negotiating and scaling high-impact deals with model providers, AI infrastructure partners, and emerging players in the agentic ecosystem. These partnerships don't have a playbook yet — you'll be structuring deals where the product, the economics, and the strategic value need to be figured out together, working cross-functionally with Product, Engineering, and Finance to make them real.

You'll manage a portfolio of competing and complementary AI provider relationships, forging partnerships with leading organizations while navigating the strategic tradeoffs of a market where pricing, capabilities, and competitive dynamics shift quarterly. Your work will directly shape how Duck.ai and our AI-powered products evolve and reach millions of users — and how a privacy-first search company competes in the AI landscape.

What Projects Might Look Like

- Figuring out further partnerships that could enhance our Duck.ai and Search Assist offerings

- Creating new distribution channels to help grow our AI related services


ABOUT YOU

- 10+ years of Business Development, Partnerships, or Strategic Partnerships experience.

- 5+ years of cross-functional leadership on partnership projects and teams, including legal and engineering.

- Experience with consumer internet or user-facing software business with an understanding of the AI/LLM ecosystem and how AI capabilities are being integrated into consumer products.

- Significant experience leading complex product partnerships end-to-end — from identifying the opportunity through deal close and beyond. These should be partnerships where you've created something new together and navigated real product and technical complexity, not sales deals or API licensing.

- Self-sufficiency on the commercial details — you don’t wait for someone else to draft terms, build financial models, or pressure-test dea