"If they're hiring a bunch of salespeople to replace my sales team, that's not good for me, but a bunch of inside salespeople can help me with orders. That allows me to spend more time with the customer helping them with a solution and less time with paperwork. That would be a great thing for us. If they're channel folks, that's a good thing. It gives us more access on Dell's dime. Any company is hiring if it's looking to grow, and Dell is looking to grow."

Byrne's unified Dell EMC Partner Program rolled out at the start of the company's fiscal year in early February. It splits partners into Gold, Platinum and Titanium tiers, and has an exclusive Titanium Black designation for elite partners. The program boosts rebates for storage, server and PC gear and provides significant incentives for selling services, new business and for partners that sell Dell EMC exclusively.

Overall, Dell EMC is advertising more than 3,000 open positions. In addition to the nearly 170 North America channel-focused jobs, the company is seeking to fill dozens of channel jobs in the EMEA region, China and Europe, as well as several in India, Africa and Central and South America.