Head of Strategic Partnerships
The Head of Strategic Partnerships oversees strategic alliances with banks, PSPs, licensed partners and market-entry channels, and is accountable for their revenue and risks.
What a Head of Strategic Partnerships does
The Head of Strategic Partnerships leads the company's major partnership program, including integrations with banks, payment service providers, card issuers, aggregators and other parties that the product either needs to work or to scale. In fintech and payments, these partnerships often determine both market access and unit economics, so the role sits closer to business strategy than to traditional sales.
High-risk companies hire for this role because their partner networks are more complex than usual. Each partner brings regulatory requirements, compliance checks, limits and dependence on another party's technology stack. The Head of Strategic Partnerships decides which alliances to pursue on a long-term basis and which to decline, and makes sure no deal creates unacceptable risk for the group.
The role typically reports to the CEO or the CBDO (Chief Business Development Officer). The team may include several partnership managers, an analyst and a negotiation coordinator. The role works closely with legal, compliance, finance, product and engineering, because the final agreement touches all of these functions.
Responsibilities
- Build the partnership strategy: target segments, priority banks and providers, and a dependency map for the next two to three years
- Lead negotiations on strategic agreements: commercial terms, SLAs, exclusivity, liability and termination conditions
- Coordinate partner due diligence with compliance and security teams: license checks, financial stability and AML procedures
- Align technical integrations with product and engineering teams: timelines, priorities and resources on both sides
- Manage the portfolio of active partners: regular business reviews, incident analysis and renegotiation of terms
- Own partnership KPIs and revenue forecasts for channels that depend on external parties
- Build relationships with partner leadership, including C-level meetings and participation in industry events
- Prepare analytics on the partnership portfolio for management and the board: concentration, dependencies and regulatory risks
- Work with legal to structure agreements, including restrictions on data, territories and product types
- Set up internal processes for the partnership lifecycle, from first contact to launch and periodic review
Skills
- C-level negotiation with banks, regulators and major providers
- Understanding of payment infrastructure: acquiring, issuing, processing, tokenization and settlement
- Working knowledge of unit economics: fees, interchange, revenue share and acquisition costs
- Assessing a partner's regulatory and compliance risks without replacing legal counsel
- Deal structuring: revenue share, minimum guarantees, exclusivity and penalties
- Working with engineering teams on API architecture, integration timelines and constraints
- Managing several parallel projects with different stakeholders
- Presenting strategy and risks to the board and investors
- Building trust-based relationships with partners and understanding their internal constraints
Tools
- CRM for B2B deals (Salesforce, HubSpot)
- Spreadsheets and BI for deal and portfolio modeling (Excel, Google Sheets, Power BI, Tableau)
- Document management and e-signature for agreements
- Jira or Asana for tracking integrations and joint tasks with partners
- Data room for due diligence and document exchange
- Presentation and reporting tools for leadership (Google Slides, PowerPoint)
How performance is measured
- Revenue and gross margin from partnership channels
- Number of active strategic partners and share of revenue from the top five partners
- Time from first contact to integration launch
- Share of partnerships passing due diligence without critical findings
- Delivery against plan for transaction volume or active customers through partners
- Number of incidents and outages on the partner side and their response time
- Partner retention: share of agreements renewed at term end
By vertical
FinTech
In fintech, the role is almost always tied to banking infrastructure and licenses. The partner may be a licensed bank or an EMI, and the product cannot launch without its participation. The Head of Strategic Partnerships agrees on the liability model, the split of compliance functions and settlement terms, and makes sure the partner does not become a single point of failure for the entire company.
Levels
Head of / Director
Head / Director level: owns the strategy of the partnership function as a whole, makes decisions on entering and exiting alliances, and defends the budget and risks before leadership. Personally leads key C-level negotiations, aligns terms with legal and finance, and reports to the CEO or board of directors. Responsible not only for hiring but also for shaping the team's structure and processes.
How to get there
People rarely enter this role directly. They usually arrive after several years in adjacent functions: partnership managers or business development roles at payment companies, banks, PSPs and aggregators; deal work with providers in product teams; or legal and compliance roles that worked closely on partnership agreements. Valued experience includes negotiating integrations and understanding how settlement and licensing work.
Study in advance: principles of card issuing and acquiring, the roles of participants in the payment chain (card schemes, issuing bank, acquirer, PSP, merchant), basic revenue share models and partnership unit economics, and AML and KYC requirements at the process level. It is useful to understand APIs and to know why technical integration timelines often determine deal timelines.
Growth usually comes from managing larger and more complex partners, then from owning the full portfolio and strategy. To move up to Head level, it is essential to build relationships with partner leadership independently and to present results to the board, rather than only running negotiations within a defined assignment.
Next steps: Chief Business Development Officer (CBDO), VP Business Development, Head of Business Development, Director of Partnerships, Chief Partnerships Officer
FAQ
How is a Head of Strategic Partnerships different from a partnerships manager?
A partnerships manager runs specific agreements and partner relationships according to set rules. The Head of Strategic Partnerships decides which partners to work with at all, which risks are acceptable, and how the entire portfolio is structured. The role is accountable for the strategy and results of the function, not only for individual deals.
Do I need a legal or finance degree to get this role?
There is usually no formal requirement, but the role is hard to perform without an understanding of contract logic and financial models. Many people come from business development, product or finance roles. Practical experience with deals, integrations and regulatory constraints matters more than any specific degree.
What determines income in this role?
Compensation usually depends on company scale, product complexity and regulatory context, and on whether the position includes a variable part tied to partnership channel revenue. Questions about specific amounts are best discussed with the employer or checked against market data for your region and experience level.
What experience is especially valued at fintech companies?
Experience with banks, PSPs and issuers is most valuable, along with an understanding of settlement schemes and AML and KYC requirements. In high-risk verticals, it is important to explain to both the partner and internal lawyers why a deal is acceptable from a regulatory and reputational standpoint.
Is it hard to move into this role from sales?
It is possible if your sales work was large-scale, B2B and complex, with long cycles and several parties involved. However, a Head-level role requires experience structuring deals, working with lawyers and understanding the technical side of integrations. Sales experience alone is usually not enough.
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