Strategic Partnerships Director - Digital

At Early Warning, we’ve powered and protected the U.S. financial system for over thirty years with cutting-edge solutions like Zelle®, Paze®, and so much more. As a trusted name in payments, we partner with thousands of institutions to increase access to financial services and protect transactions for hundreds of millions of consumers and small businesses.

Positions located in Scottsdale, San Francisco, Chicago, or New York follow a hybrid work model to allow for a more collaborative working environment.

Candidates responding to this posting must independently possess the eligibility to work in the United States, for any employer, at the date of hire. This position is ineligible for employment Visa sponsorship.

About the Team

Paze’s Strategic Partnerships team develops and manages relationships with Issuers, Networks, and Digital (i.e., big tech/agentic) partners, with a remit spanning partner strategy, business development, and sales. Positioned at the intersection of Paze and the broader payments ecosystem, the team activates these relationships to bring Paze’s value proposition to life, translating partner capabilities, priorities, and market developments into opportunities for the business. The team works across the organization and alongside senior leadership to optimize Paze performance and drive adoption, transaction growth, and loyalty – while helping shape what Paze builds, how it scales, and where it invests next.

Overall Purpose

The Strategic Partnerships Director – Digital – is responsible for developing and managing strategic partnerships with big tech and leading AI companies to expand Paze acceptance across digital commerce and help position Paze at the forefront of agentic commerce. This role drives partner strategy for priority partnerships and develops trusted relationships with senior decision-makers to identify, advance, negotiate, and launch strategic partnership opportunities.

The Strategic Partnerships Director works across Paze and the broader payments ecosystem to align digital partners, payment networks, issuers, EWS owner banks, and internal stakeholders around product capabilities, commercial opportunities, risk considerations, and operating requirements. The role serves as a key voice of the partner and market, bringing digital-commerce and agentic-commerce insights into Paze to inform partnership priorities and product decisions. The primary objective of the role is to expand Paze capabilities, acceptance, adoption, and transaction growth through high-impact digital partnerships.

Essential Functions

- Develops trusted, influential relationships with senior leaders and key decision-makers at big tech, AI companies, and other prospective and established digital commerce partners.
- Serves as the primary owner for priority strategic partnership opportunities and relationships, maintaining deep knowledge of partner organizational structure and decision-making, strategic priorities, business models, product roadmaps, competitive environment, and opportunities relevant to Paze.
- Identifies, develops, recruits, launches, and grows strategic partnerships that expand Paze acceptance, enable differentiated digital commerce experiences, and address evolving consumer and partner payment needs.
- Develops strategic partnership and account plans in coordination with Paze cross-functional teams and senior leadership, establishing priorities and driving execution against agreed-upon objectives.
- Builds and advances a pipeline of strategic business development opportunities with technology platforms, AI companies, and emerging agentic-commerce participants.
- Leverages Paze's bank-owned model by working with business development and product teams at EWS owner banks to identify opportunities, leverage established relationships, and jointly advance strategic pursuits.
- Coordinates complex, multiparty opportunities across Paze's issuer and network partnership teams, digital partners, payment networks, issuers, and internal stakeholders to align product capabilities, risk considerations, operating requirements, and commercial commitments necessary to bring new experiences to market.
- Partners with Product, Engineering, Operations, Risk, Legal, Finance, Marketing, and other functions to develop commercially compelling solutions for digital and agentic-commerce use cases, build internal alignment, and provide partner and market insights that inform product priorities.
- Owns assigned partnership opportunities through the deal lifecycle, including opportunity development, business-case creation, commercial and financial analysis, negotiation, contracting, launch coordination, and ongoing relationship development.
- Drives performance against partnership objectives and Paze KPIs, including pipeline development, partnership conversion, new acceptance capabilities, adoption, customer experience, and transaction growth.
- Evaluates partnership, market, competitive, digital-commerce, and agentic-commerce trends and provides analysis and recommendations to management.
- Serves as a voice of the partner and market, identifying opportunities to improve product-market fit and informing Paze product, partnership, and innovation priorities.
- Monitors competitor activity and broader industry developments and implements approaches to strengthen Paze's position within assigned partnerships and strategic pursuits.
- Provides leadership and subject-matter expertise to colleagues supporting digital strategic partnerships and contributes to the development of repeatable partnership practices as the portfolio grows.
- Supports the company's commitment to effective risk management and protects the integrity and confidentiality of systems and data.

Minimum Qualifications

- Education and experience typically obtained through completion of a bachelor's degree in business, finance, or related field.
- 12+ years of experience or demonstrated portfolio consistent with experience required of the role, including experience in partnership management, business development, relationship management, strategic accounts, and/or consulting.
- 4+ years working with or, ideally for, big tech, fintech, and/or AI companies on financial services or payments products
- Experience managing complex strategic accounts or business development opportunities involving multiple decision-makers, stakeholders, and workstreams.
- Proven ability to develop and foster impactful relationships with senior leaders and key external decision-makers.
- Track record of driving change and accomplishing strategic objectives within partner organizations.
- Consultative, conceptual, and strategic selling skills, with strong influencing capabilities and the ability to build alignment around complex concepts internally and externally.
- Demonstrated leadership skills with the ability to lead complex initiatives, influence cross-functional teams, mentor colleagues, and drive results through others.
- Executive communication skills, including experience leading impactful meetings, developing clear written communications and presentations, and communicating effectively with senior internal and external stakeholders.
- Strong analytical skills with the ability to evaluate opportunities from quantitative and qualitative perspectives, develop business cases, and assess partnership performance.
- Ability to operate effectively and deliver results within the dynamic environment of a growing business.
- Ability to travel up to 30%.
- Background check and drug screen.

Preferred Qualifications

- Deep payments expertise, including digital wallets, tokenization, eCommerce, and NFC payments.
- Experience with emerging digital commerce models including AI-enabled/agentic commerce, or partnerships involving identity as a core service.
- Established relationships with important contacts at key big tech or AI companies
- Experience developing or launching new partnership constructs involving multiple participants across the payments ecosystem.
- Product development experience and a strong understanding of consumer financial products and digital commerce experiences.
- MBA.

Physical Requirements

Working conditions consist of a normal office environment. Work is primarily sedentary and requires extensive use of a computer and involves sitting for periods of approximately four hours. Work may require occasional standing, walking, kneeling and reaching. Must be able to lift 10 pounds occasionally and/or negligible amount of force frequently. Requires visual acuity and dexterity to view, prepare, and manipulate documents and office equipment including personal computers. Requires the ability to communicate with internal and/or external customers and travel.

Employee must be able to perform essential functions and physical requirements of position with or without reasonable accommodation.

The above job description is not intended to be an all-inclusive list of duties and standards of the position.   Incumbents will follow instructions and perform other related duties as assigned by their supervisor.

The base pay scale for this position in:
New York, NY/ San Francisco, CA in USD per year is: $178,000-$236,000

Additionally, candidates are eligible for a discretionary incentive plan and benefits.This pay scale is subject to change and is not necessarily reflective of actual compensation that may be earned, nor a promise of any specific pay for any specific candidate, which is always dependent on legitimate factors considered at the time of job offer. Early Warning Services takes into consideration a variety of factors when determining a competitive salary offer, including, but not limited to, the job scope, market rates and geographic location of a position, candidate’s education, experience, training, and specialized skills or certification(s) in relation to the job requirements and compared with internal equity (peers). The business actively supports and reviews wage equity to ensure that pay decisions are not based on gender, race, national origin, or any other protected classes.

#LI-AV

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Some of the Ways We Prioritize Your Health and Happiness

- Healthcare Coverage – Competitive medical (PPO/HDHP), dental, and vision plans as well as company contributions to your Health Savings Account (HSA) or pre-tax savings through flexible spending accounts (FSA) for commuting, health & dependent care expenses.
- 401(k) Retirement Plan – Featuring a 100% Company Safe Harbor Match on your first 6% deferral immediately upon eligibility.
- Paid Time Off – Flexible Time Off for Exempt (salaried) employees, as well as generous PTO for Non-Exempt (hourly) employees, plus 11 paid company holidays and a paid volunteer day.
- 12 weeks of Paid Parental Leave
- Maven Family Planning – provides support through your Parenting journey including egg freezing, fertility, adoption, surrogacy, pregnancy, postpartum, early pediatrics, and returning to work.

And SO much more! We continue to enhance our program, so be sure to  check our Benefits page here  for the latest. Our team can share more during the interview process!

Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

Early Warning Services, LLC (“Early Warning”) considers for employment, hires, retains and promotes qualified candidates on the basis of ability, potential, and valid qualifications without regard to race, religious creed, religion, color, sex, sexual orientation, genetic information, gender, gender identity, gender expression, age, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, protected veteran or disability status or any factor prohibited by law, and as such affirms in policy and practice to support and promote equal employment opportunity and affirmative action, in accordance with all applicable federal, state, and municipal laws. The company also prohibits discrimination on other bases such as medical condition, marital status or any other factor that is irrelevant to the performance of our employees.