How To Become An Alliance Manager: What It Is and Career Path

What is an alliance manager and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted expert

Parfait Kouassi PhD.

As an Alliance Manager, you are responsible for adding value to the industry by coordinating and negotiating with company partners. Your main job is to increase long-term revenue as well as upgrade the performance of the company. Alliance Managers are the critical component of how companies find R&D; partnerships. An Alliance Manager's main position is to create synergy between two groups and enabling the partnership to be on the same goals. The Alliance Manager leads the efforts to keep everyone in the partnership happy and goal-oriented.

As an Alliance Manager, you will contact management and collaborate with participants in the contract negotiations. You will monitor the progress of the mergers, manage how the company is perceived by its partnerships, and build relationships.

You will need at least a bachelor's degree in business, finance, or management. A higher degree is often needed. You will need negotiation and communication skills and have business understanding. You will be managing the work and report to the management of two or more companies. You will also need experience in the latest technologies.

As an Alliance Manager, you may make an average yearly salary between $110,000 and $170,000.

What general advice would you give to an alliance manager?

Parfait Kouassi PhD.

Associate Teaching Professor, Drexel University

In the next 3-5 years, bilingual and multicultural skills will likely become as indispensable as having access to transportation. Just as individuals without access to a personal vehicle can rely on public transit or ridesharing services, those lacking multilingual abilities will find themselves at a severe disadvantage in their careers. The world is becoming increasingly interconnected, and the ability to communicate across languages and navigate different cultural contexts will be essential for professional growth, success, and mobility.

ScoreAlliance ManagerUS Average

Salary

8.7

Avg. Salary $141,424

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

7.5

Growth rate 10%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

3.1

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.23%

Asian 8.15%

Black or African American 3.04%

Hispanic or Latino 8.67%

Unknown 5.32%

White 74.58%

Gender

female 34.47%

male 65.53%

Age - 38

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 38

Stress level

7.5

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

9.0

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

3.5

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become an alliance manager

Explore alliance manager education requirements

Most common alliance manager degrees

Bachelor's

69.5 %

Master's

20.9 %

Associate

6.6 %

Start to develop specific alliance manager skills

Skills	Percentages
Cloud	12.16%
Business Development	11.84%
Business Plan	7.32%
GTM	7.20%
CRM	6.24%

Complete relevant alliance manager training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New alliance managers learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as an alliance manager based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real alliance manager resumes.

Research alliance manager duties and responsibilities

Manage vendor certification process for certain vendors; attain certifications for Cisco, IBM and VMWare among others.
Lead the integration and GTM for solutions develop jointly with EMC's leading technology partners.
Manage the strategic business relationship for the WWLP and OEM segments to ensure sales readiness for the business.
Manage company intellectual portfolio and develop key relationships with vendors and clients including leading global technology companies.

Prepare your alliance manager resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your alliance manager resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on an alliance manager resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

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