VP of Partnerships and Business Development, Payments Ecosystem
Overview
Our client is seeking a VP of Partnerships and Business Development to design and execute a scalable, partner driven growth strategy within the payments and fintech ecosystem. This is a senior individual contributor role focused on structuring strategic partnerships that unlock one to many distribution and long term revenue leverage. The role requires deep payments expertise, hands on execution, and the ability to navigate complex ecosystems to embed products into platforms that serve large merchant bases.
This role is not focused on direct merchant sales. The mandate is to identify, negotiate, and operationalize partnerships that lead to repeatable, scalable adoption through platforms, processors, and payments infrastructure providers.
Key Responsibilities
Partnership Strategy and Market Development
• Develop and execute a partnerships strategy that drives adoption of payment optimization and recovery products
• Identify high leverage partnership opportunities across the payments value chain including processors, gateways, PSPs, ecommerce and subscription platforms
• Design partnerships that create one to many distribution rather than single merchant wins
• Identify where and how products can be embedded into partner ecosystems to solve failed payment and revenue recovery challenges
Deal Execution and Relationship Management
• Source, structure, negotiate, and close complex strategic partnerships
• Build executive level relationships with partners across payments, fintech, and ecommerce
• Own partnerships from initial concept through contract execution and early rollout
• Focus on deals that lead to downstream opportunities, additional integrations, and expanded merchant access
Platform Integrations and Enablement
• Lead the development of technical and commercial integrations with partner platforms
• Partner with product, engineering, and go to market teams to ensure integrations are viable, scalable, and adopted
• Support enablement efforts post integration including partner training, sales enablement, and ecosystem education
• Participate in partner events, SKOs, and internal enablement sessions as needed
Pipeline Creation and Long Term Growth
• Generate pipeline through strategic partner relationships rather than direct selling
• Establish measurable partnership goals and milestones tied to adoption and distribution
• Help define early success metrics for new partnerships where revenue may lag initial integration
• Support long term growth planning by identifying ecosystem level expansion opportunities
Market Expertise and Strategic Input
• Maintain deep knowledge of payments infrastructure, regulations, and ecosystem dynamics
• Provide strategic input into product direction based on partner and market feedback
• Stay current on payments and ecommerce trends that impact partner opportunity and product positioning
Role Characteristics
• Senior individual contributor role with full ownership of strategy and execution
• Hands on and execution focused, not a figurehead or team builder role at the outset
• Expected to personally source, negotiate, and drive partnerships end to end
• Potential to build supporting roles over time once partnerships are established
What They Are Looking For
• Extensive experience in the payments ecosystem
• Proven track record building and scaling strategic partnerships in payments, fintech, or ecommerce infrastructure
• Strong understanding of processors, gateways, PSPs, and subscription commerce platforms
• Experience creating indirect, partner driven growth and one to many distribution models
• Ability to structure complex commercial and technical agreements
• Deep understanding of how payments products integrate into broader ecosystems
• Comfort operating in ambiguous environments where partnership ROI develops over time
• Strong executive presence with the ability to engage senior stakeholders internally and externally
Location
Flexible. Open to remote candidates with strong payments ecosystem access.
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