Principal Program Manager, Vendor Sales Growth & Excellence

At LinkedIn, our approach to flexible work is centered on trust and optimized for culture, connection, clarity, and the evolving needs of our business. The work location of this role is hybrid, meaning it will be performed both from home and from a LinkedIn office on select days, as determined by the business needs of the team. The GTM Vendor Solutions team is searching for a Principal Program Manager to identify, create, and scale new vendor-supported sales opportunities across LinkedIn. This role will combine deep sales experience, business development, and program leadership to build new sales motions that generate measurable customer and business impact. The Principal Program Manager will own vendor sales pilots from opportunity identification and business case development through launch, performance management, and scale recommendations. They will proactively build relationships across the company, identify business needs that could be addressed through vendor sales capabilities, and secure stakeholder support for new pilots. The role will also serve as a Sales Excellence leader across the global vendor sales portfolio. They will establish scalable standards, share best practices, and advise Program Managers and business partners on sales performance, pipeline management, forecasting, and program design. In addition to these horizontal responsibilities, the Principal Program Manager will directly manage at least one established vendor sales program. This will keep the role connected to seller, customer, partner, and operational realities while maintaining continuity across the existing portfolio. Responsibilities: 1. Vendor Sales Growth and Pilot Ownership Proactively identify and develop new opportunities where vendor sales teams can create incremental customer and business impact. Build relationships across Sales and cross-functional organizations to uncover unmet needs and originate new vendor-supported sales motions. Develop compelling pilot business cases, including customer opportunity, expected business impact, resource requirements, risks, and success measures. Own vendor sales pilots end to end, from initial concept and stakeholder alignment through design, launch, performance management, and final recommendation. Establish clear commercial and operational success criteria and maintain accountability for pilot performance. Use customer, seller, and performance insights to refine pilot strategy and execution. Recommend whether pilots should scale, iterate, or stop based on measurable evidence. Create repeatable frameworks that improve the speed, quality, and consistency of future pilot development. Help advance the team’s long-term ability to take greater accountability for vendor-driven sales outcomes. 2. Sales Excellence and Portfolio Leadership Serve as a horizontal Sales Excellence leader across the global vendor sales portfolio. Establish and champion standards for sales performance management, pipeline inspection, forecasting, governance, and vendor accountability. Identify effective practices across programs and translate them into scalable frameworks, tools, and operating rhythms. Advise Program Managers, Sales leaders, and cross-functional partners during program design, launch, and periods of performance risk. Diagnose systemic gaps and lead initiatives that improve execution across multiple vendor programs. Build greater consistency in how programs define, measure, report, and address performance. Strengthen knowledge sharing across the team so lessons and successful practices are applied beyond individual programs. Influence senior stakeholders and vendor leaders to align priorities, resolve barriers, and improve business outcomes. 3. Vendor Sales Program Leadership Maintain accountability for sales performance, operating health, vendor execution, and stakeholder alignment. Ensure vendor teams are appropriately staffed, enabled, governed, and measured against clear expectations. Lead performance review