Enterprise Account Executive - Banking

Chift; Madrid; Hybrid; EUR 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary & benefits

Meal voucher

Insurance

Phone budget

Mobility budget

Flexible days off

ESOP

Ownership stake

Wellness allowance

Flexible hours & remote mix

Job summary

Chift is hiring a Senior Partnerships/Business Development lead focused on banks. You will run discovery with European banks, shape the banking offer with founders and product teams, and build long-term relationships to drive multi-stakeholder deals.

You’ll own the pipeline from first meeting to signed contract and represent Chift at key fintech/bank events. The role requires 5+ years in or around banking, fluency in English, and a proactive, startup-ready mindset.

Qualifications

• Experience in or around banking (5+ years) with banking fluency and understanding of procurement, compliance and security reviews.
• Experience in strategy, business development or partnerships inside a bank or selling to banks helpful.
• AI-native mindset and comfort with AI agents and data integrations.
• Startup-ready: comfortable with ambiguity, changing priorities and wearing multiple hats.
• Languages: fluent English; French, Spanish or Dutch a real plus.

Responsibilities

• Run discovery with banks across Europe to understand roadmap and value points.
• Shape the banking offer by translating learnings into a clear proposition with product/engineering.
• Build long-term relationships and guide procurement, compliance and complex multi-stakeholder deals.
• Own the pipeline and drive partnerships from first meeting to signed contracts.
• Represent Chift in the banking ecosystem at events and drive market education.

Skills

Banking experience

Strategy

Business development

Partnerships

Banking fluency

APIs

AI familiarity

Startup mindset

English fluency

French/Spanish/Dutch

Job description

We just closed our €10.5M Series A, and banks are the next frontier for Chift. SMEs run their business on 20+ tools, and the banks that serve them increasingly need to plug into that stack: accounting, invoicing, POS, payments. Neobanks like Revolut and Qonto already rely on Chift. Traditional banks haven't cracked it yet, and we've already started conversations with several of them.

E-invoicing mandates are rolling out across Europe, but the opportunity goes far beyond compliance. The banks that win will automate credit scoring, bill payments, SME financial health checks and accounting workflows for their clients. In short, they'll become fintechs. Chift makes that possible, and behind every bank we connect, thousands of SMEs get faster credit and less admin.

Your mission is to open that market. You'll be the first person at Chift fully dedicated to banks, and you'll figure out, with them, what the right Chift offer looks like before scaling it into real partnerships and revenue.

This isn't a classic sales seat. Banks move on long cycles, and the first months are about discovery, trust and shaping the offer. Then it becomes full business development.

• Run discovery with banks: Meet SME banking, product and innovation teams across Europe. Understand their roadmap, their constraints, and where connectivity to their clients' financial tools creates real value.

• Shape the banking offer: Turn what you learn into a clear proposition. Work hand in hand with our founders, Product and Solution Engineering to adapt packaging, pricing and use cases to how banks actually buy.

• Build long-term relationships: Become Chift's face in the banking ecosystem. Build trust with decision-makers, navigate procurement, compliance and security reviews, and keep complex, multi-stakeholder deals moving.

• Own the pipeline and close: Once the offer is right, drive partnerships from first meeting to signed contract, and grow them afterwards.

• Represent Chift in the ecosystem: Be our voice at Banktech Day, Sibos and other key events. Educate the market on why unified financial connectivity matters for SME banking.

Attractive package (competitive salary, meal voucher, insurance, phone budget, mobility budget, flexible days off etc.)

ESOP, because we want you to own a piece of what you're building

Real ownership: you'll open a whole new market for Chift and work directly with the founding team

Wellness/sport allowance with Gymlib

A small, high-trust team that moves fast and celebrates wins properly (apéros, lunches, off-sites)

Flexible working hours and office/remote mix

Experience: 5+ years in or around banking, ideally with exposure to SME or business banking. Experience in strategy, business development or partnerships inside a bank (or selling to banks) is a strong plus. Banking fluency: You speak the language of banks. You know how decisions get made, who needs to be convinced, and why a good idea can still take six months to get approved. Technical appetite: Comfortable discussing APIs, data flows and integrations with a bank's product and IT teams, and translating them into business value for an executive committee. Languages: Fluent in English. French, Spanish or Dutch is a real plus. AI-native: You already use Claude (or other), AI agents, and similar tools in your daily work. Startup-ready: You're comfortable with ambiguity, changing priorities, and occasionally wearing more than one hat. You see that as a feature, not a bug. Builder mindset: You've outgrown corporate politics and want to be a doer again. There's no playbook for banks at Chift yet. You'll write it.