Step 1. Choose your partner program

Picking the wrong program puts you on the wrong set of requirements. A consultancy that applies as a Connected partner ends up chasing integration validation and spend commitments it never needed. Settle this before you open the application.

1. Go to the Databricks Partner Program page.

2. Scroll down to the section called “Programs built for how you build.”

3. Click through all four tabs. Each one has a short description from existing partners.

4. Note which program matches how your company makes money. Hold off on the Apply button for now.

The simplest test is where your revenue comes from. Billable project work points to C&SI. Licences or subscriptions for your own software point to Connected or Built-On. Selling datasets points to the Data partner program.

That test gets messy for firms with a services arm and a product. In that case, apply to the services program first. Add the product program once the integration actually exists and can pass validation. If you still can’t tell which fits, the Databricks partner team answers program questions at partners@databricks.com.

Step 2. Submit the partner application

The application decides how Databricks routes you. For ISVs, the partner path and category you pick here set where you appear in the Partner Finder and which Databricks teams you work with. Answer it with that in mind.

Gather these before you open the form.

• Your company’s legal name, website and headquarters details

• A work email address for the person who will own the partnership

• The technical expertise your team brings to Databricks, including any certifications already held

• The industries and customer types you target

• For ISVs, your partner path (Connected, Data or Built-On) and the category your product fits, such as BI, data engineering, governance or AI agents

Click Apply now on the Partner Program page, or go straight to the partner application form. Fill in your organisation details, technical expertise and target customers. Use the work email from your list, since this account becomes your Partner Portal login.

The last part is a click-through partner program agreement for the program you chose. Signing it is what puts you at Bronze. Read it before you click, especially if you’re an ISV. Built-On partners sign a spend commitment as part of onboarding, and that number deserves a conversation with your finance team first.

Approval isn’t always instant. Databricks can ask for extra diligence information before it confirms enrolment, which is spelled out in the Data Partner Program terms. Keep an eye on the inbox you applied from.

Step 3. Log in to the Partner Portal and set up at Bronze

Bronze on its own does little for your pipeline. A named partner manager, co-sell support and the financial incentive programs all start at Silver. So treat Bronze as setup time for everything your score will need later.

Log in to the Databricks Partner Portal with the work email you applied with. Almost everything from here happens inside it, from training and use case registration to program updates.

Bronze gives you a short list of starting resources.

• Partner Portal access

• Free Databricks training

• Demo and sandbox credits for a test environment

• A listing in the Databricks partner directory

• The right to use the Databricks partner badge and logo

Start with your partner profile. Databricks’ field teams use it to understand what you do and to decide when to pull you into a customer conversation. A half-filled profile gives them nothing to work with. Write a clear value proposition, name the industries you serve and add your key contacts.

Then put the badge to work. Add it to your website and email signatures, following the Databricks brand guidelines in the portal. When you announce the partnership on LinkedIn, tag Databricks and use the #DatabricksPartner hashtag.

The sandbox credits are for building demos and training your team. Keep client workloads off them. Those belong in the client’s own Databricks account.

Step 4. Train and certify your team through Partner Academy

Certifications are the fastest lever you control on the Partner Value Score. Silver asks for a certified team and Gold asks for certified professionals across a proven practice. A partner with zero certified engineers stays at Bronze no matter how many projects it delivers.

Sign up for Partner Academy with a work email

Your engineers should register at Databricks Partner Academy, which is separate from the Customer Academy. The two look almost identical. Picking the wrong one is a common mistake, and moving an account across later means raising a support ticket. Have everyone sign up with their company email so their progress links to your firm.

Courses inside Partner Academy are free for partners. The free Lakehouse Fundamentals accreditation is a sensible first badge for anyone new to the platform.

Pick certifications by role

Each Databricks certification exam costs $200. Most C&SI teams get the most out of the data engineering track.

Skip the data engineering default if your practice is mostly dashboards and reporting. Analyst certifications will match your delivery work better.

Request a partner voucher before booking an exam

Partners can get discounted exam vouchers, but nothing applies them automatically. Databricks handles requests through a support ticket.

1. Open the Databricks Help Center and raise a Training ticket.

2. Choose “Certifications” as the training issue.

3. Use the subject line “Partner Certification Voucher Request” followed by the certification name.

4. In the message, name your partner company, the certification and the course you completed with its date.

The full steps are on the Databricks voucher request page. Book the exam only after the voucher arrives.

ISV partners have one more requirement here. Silver needs your sellers to earn the ISV Fundamentals Sales Badge, which sits in Partner Academy as well.

Step 5. (ISVs only) Validate your integration against the Partner Well-Architected Framework

C&SI partners can skip this step. Brilworks hasn’t gone through it either, since validation applies to products and our partnership is services-led. Everything here comes from Databricks’ own ISV program guide.

Validation is where your consumption starts to count. The Partner Well-Architected Framework (PWAF) review includes lightweight telemetry that lets Databricks measure how customers use your integration. Until that’s in place, the usage your product drives doesn’t feed your tier. An ISV that delays validation is effectively building without a score.

Build against the framework

Start at the Partner Architecture Center. It holds the PWAF guidance for each partner path, along with reference architectures, sample code and the validation requirements. Build in your sandbox workspace, and bring in a Databricks Partner Solutions Architect early for design reviews. The review checks security, performance, telemetry and reliability.

Submit for review

Submission happens inside the Partner Portal, which has the current instructions. Expect questions from the Solutions Architect before approval.

Finish onboarding once you pass

Databricks emails you the final setup steps after validation. Have these ready so the listing doesn’t stall.

• A ZIP file of your logo as a PNG with a transparent background

• A 50-word description of your company and integration

• A link to a Databricks-specific page on your own website

• Public technical documentation, reviewed and approved by a Databricks Solutions Architect, stating which clouds you support among AWS, Azure and Google Cloud

• A completed partner profile covering your value proposition, architecture, target customers and key contacts

One validated path is enough for Silver. Gold needs two, chosen from Connected, Data and Built-On. Databricks’ own tip is that Connected and Built-On partners usually reach a second path fastest through a Delta Sharing use case.

Step 6. Register use cases and grow your PVS to reach Silver

Unregistered work doesn’t count toward your tier. A team can deliver ten Databricks projects and still sit at Bronze if none of them went into the Partner Portal.

Register every deal in the Partner Portal

In the Partner Portal, go to Sales and click Register a New Deal. This is how you submit a customer use case to Databricks. The same menu has a how-to page with a tutorial, and a Deal Dashboard to track what you’ve submitted. 

Have these ready before you start.

• Customer company and contact details

• Opportunity summary and expected business outcome

• Databricks products and cloud provider

• Budget and timeline

Register early, but keep it honest. Speculative leads that never progress add little to your score and waste the Databricks account team’s time.

Collect CSAT and reference stories

When a use case goes live, ask the client to complete the Databricks CSAT survey. When a client is happy to go public, submit their story as a customer reference through the portal. Both feed your PVS.

What Silver asks of ISV partners

ISVs get a published checklist for Silver.

• A named partner manager and an executive sponsor

• A signed commitment of $100K or more

• At least one seller with the ISV Fundamentals Sales Badge

• A First Call Deck for Databricks sales teams

• Two GTM activities and two win wires a year

• Two use cases progressing each quarter

C&SI partners don’t get a public checklist. Databricks shares thresholds on request, so ask your partner contact for your current PVS gap.

Step 7. Earn a Brickbuilder specialization to reach Gold

Gold has one requirement you can’t buy or grind your way into. Databricks asks for at least one Brickbuilder specialization, and each one is awarded only after an independent assessment. Partners who reach Silver without planning for this often stall there.

Specializations, solutions and accelerators

The Brickbuilder name covers three different things, and they’re easy to mix up.

What an assessment usually asks for

Each specialization has its own checklist, found under Sales then Brickbuilder Specializations in the Partner Portal. A Databricks solution architect describes the typical requirements as follows.

• Being at Silver tier or above

• A minimum number of technical delivery badges and sales or presales badges

• Live customer implementations on Databricks

• Named customer success stories

Some go further. The Security and Governance specialization includes a live technical walkthrough in front of Databricks’ Unity Catalog specialists.

Pick the specialization your references can support

Choose based on where you already have live customers and stories you can publish. A firm doing regular Databricks migration work has a natural route through a migration specialization. Avoid chasing a vertical where you have no referenceable clients yet. The assessment will expose it. 

Once you’ve picked one, ask your Databricks partner contact for the current checklist and book the assessment through them.

Databricks partner tiers compared

Each tier asks for more and gives more back. The table pulls together the requirements and benefits from Databricks’ Partner Program page and its 2026 ISV program guide.

Tiers aren’t permanent. Databricks reassesses partners on a regular cadence. A partner that slips below its tier’s requirements gets a grace period to recover before losing it.

Conclusion

Becoming a Databricks partner takes one form and a signed agreement. Moving past Bronze takes steady work. The order that works is to pick the right program, get your engineers certified under company emails, register every deal in the portal, and plan a Brickbuilder specialization early enough that your customer references can support it by the time you reach Silver.

The 2026 tier change makes the score the thing to manage. Certifications, registered deals, CSAT responses and published stories all count toward it, and none of them count if they never reach the Partner Portal. Teams that record their work from the first project move up faster than teams that deliver more but log less.

If you’d rather work with a team that has already been through this process, Brilworks is a certified Databricks partner delivering lakehouse, migration and data engineering projects for clients in fintech, healthcare and manufacturing.