Head of Partnerships
Head of Partnerships is a leader who builds and manages partner relationships with media buyers, networks and traffic suppliers in dating, and is accountable for their contribution to revenue and traffic quality.
What a Head of Partnerships does
The Head of Partnerships owns the company's external partnerships: agreements with media buyers, affiliates, payment and technical providers, integrators and other parties that bring in users or revenue. In dating, where third-party acquisition and payment terms matter a great deal, this role sits close to the commercial core of the business.
The role usually reports to the CEO, CCO or commercial director. In larger teams it oversees partnership managers, account managers and sometimes a dedicated group that works with partner networks. The Head of Partnerships agrees terms with legal and finance, and works with product and marketing to decide which integrations and creatives partners need.
Responsibilities
- Setting the partnership strategy by segment: which partner types to acquire, in which geos, and on which payment models.
- Sourcing, qualifying and negotiating with new partners: media companies, networks, webmasters, verification services and payment providers.
- Agreeing deal terms: CPA and RevShare rates, holds, caps, and rules for traffic and bonuses.
- Monitoring traffic quality together with the risk team: fraud, irrelevant registrations, and violations of platform rules.
- Managing the partner portfolio: allocating budgets, running regular performance reviews, and deciding whether to scale or cut partners.
- Setting goals for and developing the partnership management team, including hiring and managing account workload.
- Working with product and marketing on integrations, tracking, landing pages and joint campaigns.
- Forecasting partner-driven revenue and preparing reports for leadership.
- Resolving disputes with partners over payouts, statistics and chargebacks.
Skills
- Negotiating at the level of business owners and deal terms
- Understanding unit economics: LTV, CPA, RevShare and channel ROI
- Reading tracking data and analytics and verifying partner figures
- Knowledge of traffic rules and the risks specific to the dating vertical
- Structured thinking when building a partner portfolio
- Team management and workload distribution
- Working with lawyers on contracts and offers
- Prioritization and decision-making with incomplete data
- Communication with technical and product teams
Tools
- Partner CRM (for example, HubSpot or Pipedrive)
- Tracking platforms (for example, Keitaro or Binom)
- Google Analytics and BI tools for reporting
- Google Sheets and Excel for models and forecasts
- Jira or Trello for integration tasks
- Admin panels of partner programs and affiliate networks
How performance is measured
- Revenue and margin generated through partners
- Share of partner traffic in registrations and paying users
- Cost of acquisition and LTV for partner channels
- Share of partners that have passed traffic quality checks
- Delivery against the partnership revenue forecast
- Speed of onboarding new partners
By vertical
Dating
In dating, partners are most often media sites, dating websites, mobile apps and webmasters working on CPA and RevShare. The Head of Partnerships personally oversees registration quality and the fight against fake profiles and bots, because low-quality traffic quickly damages retention and reputation. Creatives and age restrictions are agreed with lawyers.
Levels
Head of / Director
At the Head of / Director level, the role owns the partnership channel strategy as a whole and is accountable for its results to owners or the board of directors. Decisions on major partners, budgets and terms are made here. The responsibility includes hiring and developing the team, agreeing risks with leadership, and protecting the channel from regulatory and reputational risks.
How to get there
People usually enter the profession from affiliate management, media buying, partner sales or digital business development. Experience with tracking, deal terms and negotiations with webmasters or media companies is valuable. Experience in banking or payment partnerships also works well if you understand integration processes.
To prepare, learn the CPA, RevShare and hybrid deal models, practice reading tracker reports, and understand holds, fraud and payment provider requirements. Skills in building a financial model for a partner program and experience working with lawyers on offers are also useful.
Growth usually goes from partnership manager to senior manager and then to head of the function. It is important to show results in money: how much revenue and margin the portfolio brings, how you close complex negotiations and build the partner management process, not just how many contracts you have signed.
Next steps: Chief Revenue Officer (CRO), Commercial Director, Head of Business Development, Head of Affiliate
FAQ
How is a Head of Partnerships different from a partnership manager?
A partnership manager runs specific partners and closes deals within agreed terms. The Head of Partnerships sets the strategy for the entire partner channel, allocates budgets, is responsible for overall results and manages the team of managers.
Is a technical background required?
Development skills are not required, but it is important to understand how tracking, postbacks, integrations and APIs work. Without this it is hard to assess traffic quality and negotiate with partners' technical teams.
What determines income in this role?
Income usually depends on the scale of partner revenue, the type of company, markets and bonus model, including a share of channel results. Specific levels vary by company and situation, so rely on current vacancy data.
How are risks managed in dating?
The Head of Partnerships, together with the risk team and lawyers, sets rules for partners: vetting media, creative restrictions, KYC where it applies, and responses to complaints. All arrangements must comply with regulator and payment provider requirements.
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