Founding Partnership Lead (Ecosystem / Product Partnerships)

Terminal (YC S23); Toronto; On-site; CAD 80,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Terminal (YC S23) is hiring a Founding Partnership Lead to establish its ecosystem partnership motion from the ground up in Toronto. In this strategic role, you will build supply-side partnerships that convert telematics feeds into broad, auditable distribution.

The ideal candidate will possess 5-7 years in ecosystem partnerships, proven technical fluency, and a results-driven approach. You will work closely with cross-functional teams to ensure successful integrations and operational excellence.

Qualifications

• 5-7 years in ecosystem partnerships, platform partnerships, or BD in a technical product environment.
• Demonstrated ability to close and operationalize partnerships.
• Proven technical fluency in APIs and data schemas.

Responsibilities

• Build the partner supply pipeline and close strategic partnerships.
• Define partner ICPs/segmentation and build a targeted sourcing plan.
• Negotiate data rights and drive product-led integrations.

Skills

Ecosystem partnerships

Cross-functional leadership

API and data fluency

Results-driven approach

Job description

About the Role

We're hiring a Founding Partnership Lead to establish Terminal’s ecosystem partnership motion from the ground up. This is a product-focused partnerships role: you will build supply-side partnerships that convert telematics feeds into broad, auditable distribution for application-ready telematics - without partners losing ownership, attribution, or control.

Partner Focus

• Telematics service providers (TSPs)


• Original equipment manufacturer (OEMs)


• Enrichment Data providers

What You’ll Do

• Build the partner supply pipeline and close strategic partnerships (hands-on).


• Define partner ICPs/segmentation and build a targeted sourcing plan across TSPs, OEMs, and data providers.


• Run partner deals end-to-end: discovery - technical diligence - commercial negotiation - signed agreement - launch plan.


• Negotiate data rights, attribution/provenance, permissioning/consent, auditability, SLAs, and commercialization (where applicable).


• Create crisp partner-facing materials (deck, one-pager, standard deal constructs) and internal deal review cadence.


• Drive product-led integrations and partner activation (distribution outcomes).


• Liaison between partner needs and Terminal roadmap to ensure smooth onboarding path: technical scoping, integration approach (API/webhooks/file), auth/rate-limit alignment, mapping readiness, testing, and go-live.


• Work tightly with the Product & Integration Engineering team to ensure integrations are production-grade (retries, rate limits, schema drift handling, diagnostics, freshness/SLA reporting).


• Ensure integrations translate into real downstream consumption (insurers, fleet platforms, fuel cards, logistics/transportation platforms).


• Build the playbook and scale the function (repeatability > heroics).


• Codify a repeatable partner operating model: lifecycle stages, onboarding checklist, standard timelines, templates, escalation paths, and partner enablement assets.


• Build lightweight instrumentation and reporting: onboarding funnel, time-to-live, activation, incident/support load, and expansion.


• Establish cross-functional rhythms so partner friction turns into product improvements (not recurring fire drills).


• Define the scaling plan (partner ops / solutions / partner engineering) and participate in hiring over time.

What We’re Looking For

• 5-7 years in ecosystem partnerships, platform partnerships, API/data partnerships, or BD in a technical product environment.


• Demonstrated ability to close and operationalize partnerships (not just perform relationship management).


• Proven technical fluency: APIs/webhooks/file exports, data schemas, normalization / versioning, provenance/attribution, permissioning/consent concepts, and production reliability.


• Strong cross-functional leadership with Engineering / Legal / Commercial; you can translate ambiguity into execution.


• High ownership, bias to action, and a results-driven approach (you run to measurable outcomes).

Bonus points

• Entrepreneurship / founder experience; built a function 0 to 1 at an early-stage company.


• Domain familiarity: telematics, OEM data ecosystems, fleet/logistics software, insurance data workflows.


• Experience designing partner programs and standard deal constructs that scale.

What Success Looks Like

In the first 90 days

• Build a prioritized target list and open a repeatable outreach and qualification motion.


• Drive 10-15 partner opportunities into active diligence and sign 2-3 initial partners.


• Ship v1 partner "kit": partner deck, one-pager, standard terms outline, and onboarding checklist.


• Establish weekly pipeline and onboarding cadence, and baseline metrics (time-to-sign, time-to-live, activation).

In 6-12 months

• Close 12-15 supply-side partners total (mix depends on strategy) and establish a predictable quarterly signing cadence.


• Bring median time-to-live down to 45 days or less and achieve 60% or more activation within 90 days consistently.


• Demonstrate partner program repeatability: standard terms, standard onboarding, and reduced support escalations per partner.


• Build the plan (and optionally hire) for the next function layer (partner ops / partner engineering).

Practical details

• Location: Toronto-based.


• Travel: As needed for partner meetings and industry events (up to 15-25% usually to the U.S.).


• Reports to: COO; tight day-to-day partnership with Engineering and other functions.