Strategic Partnerships Relationship Manager

About the role

The Strategic Partnerships Relationship Manager manages and governs the business and contractual relationships with Velera's largest card issuer processing vendors and payment network partners. The role involves developing, influencing, and directing vendor-partner strategy to align with Velera goals and priorities, negotiating, governing, and owning multi-million-dollar vendor contracts, and fostering in-depth and productive relationships to position Velera as a partner of choice.

Responsibilities

• Direct and manage vendor-partner relationships to ensure they focus on growing Velera's business and providing quality execution for our members.
• Collaborate with all levels across the company to optimize vendor-partner relationships, maximizing the level of priority our business partners offer to our employees and member credit unions.
• Review, monitor, and report vendor-partner performance against contractual Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and enterprise-wide delivery expectations; hold partners accountable for corrective action and process improvements, collaborating with internal stakeholders at all levels.
• Maximize value through negotiation of vendor contracts for products and services, identifying negotiation strategy, price, rebates, incentives, and penalties; define delivery expectations, risk considerations, business issues, gaps, and business opportunities; coach business owners on strategy and positioning throughout the product review process.
• Work directly with key internal stakeholders, executives, and senior partner executives to negotiate, escalate, and resolve issues; establish priorities with partners to ensure focus on most critical issues and member needs.
• Maintain oversight of multi-million dollar vendor partner expenses ensuring contractual compliance of pricing, rebates, incentives, and penalty payments.
• Influence internal stakeholders to implement process improvements and processes to maximize vendor performance and positive impact.
• Provide ongoing education and communication to all levels of partner support to communicate Velera mission, goals, objectives, and priorities.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree Required in Business or related field, MBA Preferred, or combination of education and experience required.
• Ten (10) years of experience in business development, product management, partner management, or strategic account management within the card issuing ecosystem.
• Direct experience working with or managing relationships involving Fiserv, FIS, Visa or Mastercard (or comparable processors/networks).
• Ten (10) years of experience negotiating complex commercial agreements, including processor services agreements, network incentive agreements, pricing schedules, and SLAs.
• Demonstrated ability to lead negotiations as an individual contributor, including the ability to coordinate with internal legal, finance, product, and procurement teams.
• Deep understanding of issuer processing platforms, card networks, and the associated services provided to financial institutions.
• Experience creating and executing joint business plans, performance reviews, and Quarterly Business Reviews (QBRs).