Strategic Partnerships Manager, Personal Loans

About the role

The Strategic Partnerships Manager, Personal Loans, will oversee key external partners supporting Happen Bank's personal loan business. Key responsibilities include managing these relationships, evaluating partner proposals, and implementing changes across various departments.

Responsibilities

• Own and manage relationships with critical external partners, including regular business reviews, performance tracking, issue escalation, and strategic planning
• Serve as the internal business lead for partner initiatives affecting growth, credit performance, customer experience, operations, and compliance
• Evaluate partner proposals related to decisioning, verification, reporting, data sharing, commercial structures, operational workflows, and integration design, and make clear recommendations on trade-offs and priorities
• Build business cases to assess the impact of new partner strategies, process changes, or commercial arrangements on approvals, conversion, fraud, losses, cost, and member experience
• Lead cross-functional execution across Product, Engineering, Risk, Compliance, Legal, Operations, Finance, and Analytics to implement partner-related changes
• Translate strategy into clear business requirements, process flows, KPI definitions, reporting needs, and technical requirements for APIs, data payloads, and downstream workflows
• Develop and maintain performance reporting for critical partners across funnel conversion, credit outcomes, verification outcomes, fraud trends, SLA adherence, and unit economics
• Drive governance around partner operating models, including decision rights, control points, escalation paths, and data-sharing boundaries
• Partner with Credit and Risk teams to assess the impact of partner strategies on underwriting, verification, fraud prevention, and portfolio performance
• Support quarterly planning, executive updates, and leadership materials related to partner performance and strategic priorities
• Use AI and automation tools where appropriate to accelerate analysis, synthesize partner inputs, improve reporting, and increase the efficiency and quality of cross-functional execution
• Identify opportunities to improve partner reporting, business case development, and operating workflows through the thoughtful use of AI, while maintaining strong judgment around accuracy, confidentiality, and data sensitivity

Requirements

• 4+ years of experience in lending partnerships, business operations, product management, credit decision platform or analytics within consumer lending, fintech, banking
• Experience in personal loan product management, consumer credit decisioning platforms, or consumer lending acquisition / growth is strongly preferred
• Knowledge of pre-screen processes, direct mail programs, or consumer lending acquisition will be a plus
• Candidates with experience owning or optimizing the personal loan funnel, including pre-screen, application, decisioning, verification, offer acceptance, and funding, will be especially well suited for this role
• Experience translating credit strategy into execution within decisioning platforms, policy engines, or partner-integrated workflows is a strong plus
• Strong analytical skills, with the ability to structure ambiguous problems, build KPI frameworks, size opportunities, and make data-driven recommendations
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including experience creating executive-ready materials and leading discussions with senior stakeholders
• Strong stakeholder management skills and the ability to influence across teams without direct authority
• Familiarity with technical integrations and data flows, with the ability to work effectively with Product and Engineering on APIs, reporting, and process design
• Understanding of data governance, privacy, PII handling, and third-party data-sharing considerations
• You use AI tools thoughtfully to improve analysis, reporting, and problem-solving, and you apply strong judgment to verify outputs and protect sensitive partner, customer, and company information
• You are comfortable using AI to work more effectively and improve output quality, and you know when human judgment, validation, and data-sensitivity considerations should override speed

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or higher, or equivalent combination of education and experience
• Preferred qualifications include experience in unsecured personal loans or adjacent consumer credit products, experience in consumer credit decisioning platforms, pre-screen, or direct mail program management, and experience in personal loan product management, consumer credit decisioning platforms, or consumer lending acquisition / growth