Partnerships Manager

CRS; Greater London; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

CRS is seeking a proactive Partner Manager to accelerate embedded partnerships in the SME lending space. You will work with a tech-enabled lender to manage partner pipelines, drive seamless onboarding, and ensure successful go-lives across payments providers, ISOs, and SaaS platforms.

You will design embedded journeys with Product and Tech, translate commercial goals into API specifications, and monitor performance to optimise lending volumes with strategic partners.

Qualifications

• Experience in partner management or business development in fintech or SME lending
• Strong commercial acumen and negotiation skills
• Understanding of SME finance landscape and lending processes

Responsibilities

• Build and own a partner pipeline across payments, ISO, ISV, PSP, ecommerce and SaaS platforms
• Design embedded customer journeys with Product and Tech from offer to funding and repayment
• Scope integration requirements with partner product and engineering teams and translate goals into API and data-sharing specs
• Lead partners from signed agreement to go-live with plans, milestones, testing and enablement
• Track conversion and volume post-launch and collaborate on joint optimisation to grow lending
• Negotiate partnership terms, revenue share and commercial models balancing partner value with long-term return
• Provide market insight back into product roadmap and proposition

Job description

My client is a profitable SME fintech lender with over 15yrs successful UK trading.

They are best known for speed of delivery, streamlined lending process & accurate credit decisions. Having multiple distribution channels, they are consistently overperforming on lending objectives & now attention is turning to further investment into their strategic partnership division…

After launching embedded partnerships in 2024 - They have 3 flagship partners who now generate over 1/3 of the businesses lending book & therefore looking to continue building out with new partners.

Partners can be broad - Any API Integrated opportunity with a mutual SME customer base is one to consider. Think - Payment provider, acquirer, accounting tech platform, e-comm platform...

We have a brilliant tech team enabling quick & bespoke integrations and a CEO and Director of Partnerships who are dedicated to development of the channel.

We are now looking for talented partner manager to support - This is an attributes based hire, looking for proactivity, commercial acumen and understanding of SME Finance landscape.

If you like acquiring new logo partners or prefer management of existing or maybe a combination of the two? This role can be catered to suit the right candidate as Director of Partnership is hands on to support.

Key responsibilities

• Partner pipeline. Build and own a pipeline of partners across payments providers, ISOs, ISVs, PSPs, ecommerce and SaaS platforms, and open banking players
• Embedded journeys. Design the embedded customer journey with Product and Tech, from offer display and application through to funding and repayment. Keep friction low and the experience on-brand for the partner
• Integration. Scope integration requirements with partner product and engineering teams. Translate commercial goals into clear API, data-sharing and workflow specifications
• Onboarding and go-live. Lead partners from signed agreement to go-live: plans, milestones, testing, launch readiness and partner enablement
• Performance and growth. Track conversion and volume after launch. Run joint optimisation with each partner and grow lending volume over time
• Commercial negotiation. Negotiate partnership terms, revenue share and commercial models. Balance partner value with long-term commercial return.
• Market voice. Bring partner and market insight back into our product roadmap and proposition.

Success for us will be:

Strategic partnerships take time to deliver lending volume, typically 6–9 months from signature. Looking to measure success on:

• By 6 months: A qualified pipeline across target partner segments; first partners signed; at least one integration live or in final testing; a clear embedded journey design agreed with Product and Tech
• By 12 months: Multiple partners live; lending volume flowing and growing from onboarded partners; conversion data driving journey improvements; a repeatable onboarding playbook in place.