Role

Channel Sales Director, Strategic Partnerships

Why You’ll Love Working Here

Highly competitive salary with flexibility based on experience, plus additional incentive compensation tied to company growth. Fast-paced, entrepreneurial environment with strong ownership and impact. Direct access to the CEO and company leadership. Opportunity to help shape the future of a rapidly evolving payments and technology company. Significant visibility, autonomy, and influence within a small, high-performing team.

The Opportunity

The Channel Sales Director will be responsible for building and growing strategic channel partnerships that generate leads, drive revenue, increase processing volume, and expand brand awareness. Reporting directly to the CEO, this individual will own the partner ecosystem strategy and execution across ISVs, SaaS platforms, professional service firms, referral partners, centers of influence, and industry influencers.

This role requires a strong understanding of embedded payments, software integrations, and partnership development. The ideal candidate can comfortably engage in technical conversations regarding APIs, integrations, and payment workflows while also driving commercial partnership outcomes.

The Channel Sales Director will manage the entire partnership lifecycle, from sourcing and negotiation through onboarding, activation, optimization, and long-term growth. Success will be measured through merchant acquisition, processing volume, partner engagement, and revenue generation.

The position is ideal for a hands-on operator who has experience building partnerships within the payments industry and thrives in a high-growth, entrepreneurial environment.

The Company

An established eCommerce payments company processes approximately 500 applications per month and primarily serves mid-risk merchants including high-ticket, future-delivery, supplements, and general eCommerce businesses.

The company has built extensive proprietary infrastructure through APIs and webhooks, including merchant onboarding tools, fraud screening, identity verification, bank account verification, KYC systems, compliance workflows, underwriting visibility tools, and risk controls.

Historically operating on top of third-party payments infrastructure, the company is launching a proprietary commerce and payments platform that is currently in closed beta with live merchants onboarded. A public launch is planned, with future opportunities potentially including white-label offerings, Visa Direct integration, registration, and additional vertical expansion.

The company is not currently underwriting in-house or taking direct risk but operates with extensive compliance, auditing, and risk-management processes. Leadership expects the business to move further in that direction over time.

The organization operates like a large payments agent group and emphasizes technology, adaptability, execution, and operational excellence in a rapidly changing regulatory and payments environment.

Work Environment

·      Remote position within the United States. Preference for candidates located in major payments industry hub states.

·      Travel required for events, partner meetings, conferences, and public speaking engagements as needed.

·      Fast-paced, entrepreneurial startup environment.

·      High ownership and accountability.

·      Strong culture of execution and results.

·      Direct access to leadership and decision-makers.

·      Hands-on CEO who is highly engaged in company operations.

·      Collaborative team environment with meaningful individual impact.

·      Company values adaptability, initiative, problem-solving, and continuous improvement.

·      Comfortable with direct feedback and high performance expectations.

·      Employees have visible influence on company growth and direction.

Reports to

CEO

Employment Type

Full-Time, W2, Direct Hire

Benefits

·      Health Insurance.

·      Dental Insurance.

·      401(k) with company match.

·      PTO.

·      Sick days.

Responsibilities

·      Partner directly with the CEO to develop and execute channel growth strategy.

·      Identify, prospect, negotiate, and close new strategic partnerships.

·      Meet or exceed set quotas after initial 3 month ramp period.

·      Build and manage relationships with ISVs, SaaS platforms, software providers, and embedded payments partners.

·      Develop partnerships with professional service firms including CPA firms, law firms, wealth planners, marketing agencies, consultants, and software development firms.

·      Build relationships with influencers and industry thought leaders who can drive awareness and demand.

·      Own payments-related partnerships from initial outreach through activation and long-term growth.

·      Lead discussions around embedded payment solutions and software integrations.

·      Collaborate with technical stakeholders regarding APIs, integrations, and implementation requirements.

·      Manage the full partner lifecycle including sourcing, onboarding, integration, activation, engagement, optimization, and retention.

·      Develop scalable partner and referral programs.

·      Create and share best practices, success stories, case studies, and partner enablement materials.

·      Monitor partnership performance and identify opportunities for growth and optimization.

·      Resolve partner issues and remove obstacles to success.

·      Define, track, and report on partnership KPIs and performance metrics.

·      Build repeatable frameworks for evaluating partnership opportunities.

·      Represent the company at conferences, industry events, partner meetings, and speaking engagements.

·      Drive merchant acquisition and processing volume through partner channels.

·      Achieve performance goals related to boarded merchants, generated processing volume, and partner productivity.

Requirements

·      Experience managing payments partnerships, embedded payments partnerships, or channel partnerships.

·      Payments industry sales experience required.

·      Experience managing ISV partnerships or other payments-related partnerships.

·      Strong understanding of embedded payments and partner ecosystems.

·      Familiarity with API implementation and software integrations.

·      Experience sourcing, negotiating, launching, and managing strategic partnerships.

·      Experience driving partner activation and engagement.

·      Proven ability to build and grow referral or channel programs.

·      Experience operating in small to mid-sized companies.

·      Experience working in high-growth environments.

·      Strong communication skills across written, verbal, virtual, and in-person channels.

·      Ability to work independently with minimal oversight.

·      Strong business development, relationship management, and negotiation skills.

·      Strategic thinker capable of evaluating partnership opportunities and structuring complex deals.

·      Hands-on operator who can execute as well as develop strategy.

·      Results-oriented with a strong sense of ownership and accountability.

Preferences

·      Public speaking experience.

·      Experience working with influencers and content creators.

·      Experience building partner ecosystems.

·      Experience working with CPA firms, law firms, wealth planners, marketing agencies, or other professional service organizations.

·      Experience supporting SaaS partnerships and software integration partnerships.

·      Background in eCommerce payments, mid-risk payments, or alternative payments environments.

Miscellaneous

·      Must be legally authorized to work in the United States.

·      Visa sponsorship not available.

·      Individual contributor role.

·      Remote position within the United States.

·      Preference for candidates located in payments industry hub states.

·      Travel required as needed for partner meetings, conferences, events, and speaking engagements.