Partner Success & Strategic Payments Leader
About the role
Join one of the biggest names in payments as a Partner Success & Strategic Payments Leader on the Global Payments for Platforms team. This role requires deep expertise in payments, partner success, and strategic payments, with a focus on driving partner activation, retention, and growth.
Responsibilities
Design and govern a structured partner onboarding and ramp process to drive 30/60/90-day ramp milestones.
Develop launch playbooks, readiness checklists, and cross-functional coordination and enablement frameworks to ensure every new partner launches with confidence.
Own in-depth analysis of payment cost drivers impacting partner margins, including interchange qualification rates, L2/L3 data pass-through, downgrade patterns, and reclassification exposure.
Analyze, design, and continuously improve operational processes governing the partner payments lifecycle, including KYB/KYC, merchant boarding, payment processing, dispute management, reconciliation, and billing.
Partner with Risk and Compliance to ensure software platforms and merchant portfolios maintain healthy dispute ratios, understand Visa DMP and Mastercard ECP thresholds, and have access to proactive remediation guidance.
Champion automation and AI-assisted workflow across the partner success function, including onboarding process automation, proactive portfolio health alerting, chargeback triage automation, and intelligent enablement content delivery.
Establish and manage a robust KPI framework covering partner activation rates, GMV ramp velocity, chargeback ratios, merchant support ticket volumes, enablement completion rates, and partner NRR.
Lead, mentor, and develop a high-performing team of Partner Success Managers, Partner Experience Managers, and Enablement Specialists.
Requirements
Deep domain expertise in payments, including acquiring, ISO and PayFac models, payment facilitation economics, card network rules and fee structures, interchange categories and qualification logic, and the integrated software platform ecosystem.
Demonstrated command of payments cost analysis, including interchange qualification by card type, industry, and ticket size; L2/L3 data pass-through for B2B and government transactions; downgrade root cause identification; and strategies to reduce reclassification and non-qualified interchange exposure.
Proven track record in partner or customer success leadership within a payment processor, acquirer, or B2B payments platform, with direct accountability for customer success operations.
Experience designing and scaling partner enablement programs, including onboarding curricula, payment certification tracks, go-live playbooks, and self-service knowledge resources tailored to software platforms and their merchant segments.
Strong command of the full payments lifecycle, from integration certification and merchant boarding (KYB/KYC, MID setup) through transaction processing, settlement, dispute management, reconciliation, and billing, with the ability to identify and resolve partner pain points at every stage.
Expertise in chargeback and dispute management, including Visa DMP and Mastercard ECP program thresholds, CDRN and RDR enrollment, chargeback triage frameworks, and partner-level ratio remediation strategies.
Familiarity with PCI DSS compliance requirements and scope reduction strategies, including network tokenization, P2PE, and tokenized credential management in improving partner security posture and authorization rates.
Strong analytical skills with fluency in payments data, able to build interchange margin models, portfolio health scorecards, downgrade analysis waterfall reports, and partner performance dashboards that inform executive-level decisions.
Excellent executive communication and presentation skills, able to translate complex payment economics, interchange exposure, and operational performance into clear, compelling narratives for software platform executives and internal leadership.
Proven ability to lead cross-functional initiatives and drive alignment across Sales, Product, Risk, Compliance, Implementation, and Operations teams in a matrixed organization.
Experience with business process design and optimization in a payments operations context, including SLA governance, escalation routing, ticketing workflows, and partner-facing service delivery models.
Proven ability to build, lead, and develop high-performing teams, selecting talent, setting expectations, coaching performance, and fostering a culture of accountability, continuous improvement, and partner-first thinking.
Qualifications
Bachelor’s degree in Business, Finance, Computer Science, or a related discipline, or equivalent combination of education, training, and work experience. MBA or advanced degree preferred.
Benefits
The good faith estimated annual salary range upon hire is $219,000.00-$330,750.00. This range reflects what we reasonably expect to offer based on the role's responsibilities, level, and geographic location. The actual starting salary will be determined by a candidate's experience, job-related skills, and relevant education or training.
Pay
The actual starting salary will be determined by a candidate's experience, job-related skills, and relevant education or training.
Schedule
This position is eligible for bonus.