Morningstar is seeking a Global Head of AI Platform Strategy & Partnerships to lead our enterprise level partnerships with major AI platforms to maximize strategic leverage, manage risk, and accelerate growth across business units. This role serves as the central orchestrator of AI platform strategy—ensuring alignment across the company and strategic authority to define “enterprise-preferred/endorsed” execution strategies while preserving BU autonomy. This position will report to our Chief Revenue Officer with strong enterprise sponsorship and Morningstar ELT access and maintains regular engagement and dotted‑line connectivity with BU leaders and commercial leads/BU heads of sales.  

The role will be based in our Chicago or Seattle office.  

Key Responsibilities: 

• Platform Leadership 

• Serve as Morningstar’s primary owner for Tier 1 AI platforms (e.g., Microsoft, OpenAI, Anthropic, Google; updated quarterly). 

• Define partnership goals, operating models, and success metrics for each platform in close coordination with BU leaders, including revenue/sales targets. 

• Evaluate emerging platforms and expand Morningstar’s ecosystem where strategically relevant. 

• Evaluate AI-related strategic opportunities alongside Corporate Strategy and Executive leadership. 

• Cross-BU Alignment (Enable, Not Control) with Strategic Governance Authority 

• Align AI platform engagements across all BUs while preserving BU ownership of commercial terms and execution speed. 

• Ensure consistency in how Morningstar “sells to” and collaborates with platforms, avoiding duplication or misalignment. 

• Partnership & GTM Development 

• Build sell‑through, co‑sell, and joint go‑to‑market motions with BUs and key sales teams. 

• Identify partnerships that expand distribution, accelerate growth, and amplify Morningstar’s data and research. 

• Maintains regular engagement with BU marketing leadership, with particular emphasis on GTM and Engagement leadership functions. 

• Develop “Innovation Hub” resource with validated partnership motions, commercial templates, legal terms, and integration patterns based on proven approaches across the enterprise. Make BU execution faster and more profitable. 

Executive Engagement 

• Develop senior‑level relationships with platform leadership. 

• Represent Morningstar at the enterprise level to Secure roadmap visibility, early‑access programs, joint communications, and strategic alignment across teams. 

• Report quarterly (or as appropriate) to Morningstar ELT on partnership performance, landscape opportunities and risks, and strategic opportunities. 

Internal Enablement (Tech & Product and Marketing) 

• Promote reuse of integrations, best practices, and architectural patterns across teams.  

• Partner with central and BU technology leaders to ensure platform alignment with Morningstar’s AI strategy and product roadmaps. 

• Translate platform capabilities into actionable guidance for product and engineering teams. 

• Sales Enablement and Product Marketing: Ensure capabilities are consistently and correctly positioned across BU go-to-market motions, avoiding conflicting narratives or missed commercialization opportunities. 

• Central Marketing: Develop ecosystem partner narrative, partner-, client-, and investor-facing communications that represent Morningstar’s enterprise AI story. 

Success Metrics will be measured by the strength and impact of Morningstar’s strategic AI platform relationships, including: 

• Expansion of Morningstar data, content, and capabilities across AI platforms, spanning multiple BUs. 

• Achievement of agreed upon BU commercial outcomes – revenue from platform, revenue from end clients, etc.. 

• Consistent and scalable terms and conditions across partnerships, with room for continuous expansion. 

• Clear relationship ownership, governance, and coordination across all AI platform engagements. 

• Increased sell‑through and distribution leverage while maintaining controlled risk. 

• Faster execution enabled by shared templates, guardrails, and platform alignment. 

• KPI‑driven performance tied to major partnership opportunities (e.g., MSFT-focused initiatives). 

• Months 1-6: Establish baseline “current state” of AI Partnerships to determine awareness, commercial availability and value of current capabilities across the AI landscape. 

• Months 7-12: Set targets against the baseline to inform specific improvement measurements. KRs on the above success metrics will be set in consultation with the CRO and Morningstar ELT. 

Required Skills and Experience: 

Platform & Partnership Expertise 

• Direct experience managing Tier 1 technology platform relationships (Microsoft, Google, OpenAI-level partners)  

• Fluency in partnership structures: co-sell, sell-through, joint GTM motions, revenue sharing models 

• Understanding of AI platform ecosystems — how LLMs, APIs, and enterprise AI products are commercialized and distributed 

Commercial & Strategic Acumen 

• Experience defining and negotiating commercial terms across complex, multi-stakeholder deals 

• Proven experience building GTM strategies  

• Experience with revenue metrics, pipeline attribution, and BU-level P&L dynamics  

• Proven ability to align and drive consensus across Sales, Product, Tech, Legal, and Marketing  

• Executive presence to represent Morningstar credibly in senior external meetings 

• 10+ years of sales experience; sales leadership experience preferred 

Organizational & Governance Skills 

• Ability to build and adapt operating models, frameworks, and playbooks in ambiguous environments 

• Experience creating shared templates, guardrails, and scalable processes across decentralized organizations 

• Risk management knowledge — specifically around commercial and strategic risks; must understand how and when to escalate concerns and involve key stakeholders 

Domain Knowledge 

• Understanding of how AI capabilities translate into financial data, content, and research products across Morningstar & Pitchbook businesses 

• High tolerance for ambiguity  

• Credibility with both technical audiences (product, engineering) and commercial ones (sales, BU heads, C-suite) 

• Strong written and verbal communication — this person will be drafting strategy docs, executive briefings, and partner communications regularly