Head of Partnerships

Fairlo; Stockholms kommun; Hybrid; SEK 900,000 - 1,300,000; Full time

Job summary

Fairlo, based in Stockholm, is hiring a Head of Partnerships to build a scalable pipeline with strategic partners across industries. You’ll own the end-to-end partnership lifecycle from identification to onboarding, pricing, and ongoing value realization.

You’ll collaborate with CEO, Product, Credit, Legal and Risk to shape propositions, commercial direction, and the economics of partnerships. The role blends strategic thinking with hands-on dealmaking and relationship building.

Qualifications

• Experience building and closing partnerships with measurable impact.
• Strong negotiation and deal-closing track record.
• Ability to translate commercial goals into actionable partnerships.

Responsibilities

• Identify and prioritize partnerships across industries and geographies.
• Own pricing, volumes, exclusivity, and risk discussions with partners.
• Lead onboarding and launch, then measure ongoing partnership value and ROI.
• Collaborate with CEO, Product, Credit, Legal and Risk to shape propositions.
• Design the partner journey to integrate Fairlo into the customer path.

Skills

Partnerships

Negotiation

Commercial thinking

Strategic planning

Analytical

Stakeholder management

Job description

About Fairlo

The story of Fairlo began when our founders, Jimmy and Shamon, saw first-hand how unfair and predatory lending practices can trap people in cycles of debt. Their mother had been misled by a large bank, and instead of being offered a lifeline, she was pushed further into financial difficulties. That injustice sparked something: to build a company that reimagines credit - rooted in transparency, flexibility, and respect. That company became Fairlo.

Where we are now

Since launching in 2018, Fairlo has helped tens of thousands of customers access responsible credit when life happens. With 50,000+ active users, a 4.8 Trustpilot rating from 4,700+ reviews, and an incredibly low churn rate, we’re proving that transparency and flexibility are not only the right thing to do - it’s a winning model.

We’re a tight team of 50 people based in Stockholm, Crete, and the UK. Backed by some of Sweden’s most experienced investors and driven by a culture that prizes kindness, courage, collaboration and common sense - we’ve come a long way.

But what we’re building next is bigger.

Where we’re going

Fairlo is becoming a bank. It opens up an entirely new chapter for us: more products, more markets, more ways to help customers - and a much bigger opportunity to challenge how traditional financial services work. And as Fairlo evolves, so does the way people find us. Until now, much of our growth has come from customers looking for credit and finding Fairlo. We now want to turn that around.

What if Fairlo could be there exactly when the need arises? At the checkout. When someone is improving their home. Investing in something important. Making a purchase they want to spread over time. That’s the opportunity behind partnerships.

Here is how it works in practice. A home security company sells an alarm for around 18,000 kr. Almost nobody pays that in one go, so the sale stalls at the price. With Fairlo, the customer takes the alarm home and repays us over time flexibly and transparently, on terms we have built together with the partner. The partner sells more. The customer gets something they needed without emptying their account. And we reach someone at the exact moment credit is genuinely useful, instead of waiting for them to come searching for a loan.

This is closer to classic point of sale financing than to buy now pay later. The ticket sizes are bigger, the credit decision matters more, and the conversation with a partner is a proper commercial negotiation rather than a plugin.

Our first partnership is live today. Customers are buying through it and repaying us, and the economics hold. It is also exactly one partnership, the playbook is half written, and almost everything about how this becomes a real business is still open. That is the job.

The role

As our Head of Partnerships, you’ll build a new way for Fairlo to grow. Your first mission is Sweden: find the right industries, companies and propositions where Fairlo can create genuine value, turn those opportunities into partnerships and make them work in practice. But signing deals is only part of it.

You’ll think about the entire business behind a partnership: Who should we partner with? What should we offer their customers? How should the credit product work? What does the customer experience look like? How do we price it? How is risk shared? And ultimately - does this create sustainable value for Fairlo, our partner and the customer?

That means moving constantly between the commercial and the strategic, the external and the internal. You’ll initially work closely with our CEO as we shape the proposition and commercial direction for this new business. One day you might be sitting across the table from the leadership team of a potential partner. The next, you’re working with Credit on the economics, Product on the customer journey or Legal and Risk on how the proposition should work. You’ll have the backing of an established company and experienced teams around you - but plenty of space to build.

What you’ll own

You’ll have end-to-end responsibility for turning partnerships into a scalable business for Fairlo.

You’ll:

• Set the direction. Identify the categories and partners with the greatest potential and decide where we should - and shouldn’t - spend our time.

• Create opportunities. Build relationships with ambitious companies and turn those conversations into meaningful commercial partnerships.

• Get deals across the line. Own negotiations around pricing, volumes, exclusivity, subvention, responsibilities and risk.

• Shape the financing offer. Work with Product and Credit to create the right financing solution for each partnership - one that works for the partner, makes commercial sense for Fairlo, and gives customers a fair and flexible way to finance their purchase.

• Make the experience brilliant. Design how Fairlo fits naturally into the partner’s customer journey, from the first mention of financing through application and repayment.

• Know the economics. Build a clear view of what each partnership creates after funding costs, credit losses and other relevant costs - not just how much volume it generates.

• Turn agreements into real businesses. Lead partners through onboarding and launch, develop the relationship and continuously find ways to make it stronger.

• Protect what Fairlo stands for. Together with Legal and Risk, make sure Fairlo and credit are always presented responsibly, transparently and in a way we’re proud of.

• Figure out what comes next. Use what you learn to define the technology, people and capital needed to scale the channel further.

And because we’re building Fairlo to be an AI-native company, you’ll have the opportunity to completely rethink how partnership work gets done. Map an entire industry and identify promising partners in an afternoon. Build partner business cases and economics in hours rather than days. Use AI to uncover opportunities, prepare smarter negotiations and automate the repetitive stuff — freeing up more time for what matters most: building relationships, making great deals and creating partnerships that move the business forward.

Who you are

We’re looking for someone who can see the big picture without needing someone else to handle the details. You’ve built and closed partnerships in this industry before and understand what it takes to turn a promising conversation into something commercially meaningful. You understand consumer credit well enough to know that volume alone means very little - the product, customer experience, economics and risk all need to work together.

You’re credible in a room with senior decision-makers. You’re curious. Commercial. Analytical. Persuasive. And when you see an opportunity, your instinct is to figure out how to make it happen. You’ll probably have experience from consumer lending, embedded finance, fintech, payments or another credit-related business. Experience from SME or business lending is valuable too, but consumer credit is at the heart of what we do.

Most importantly, we’re looking for a builder, someone who doesn't need a perfect strategy or a well designed deck to get moving. Someone excited by the fact that there isn’t already a playbook - because you’d rather write it.

Why now?

There are moments when joining a company means stepping into something already built. This isn’t one of them. Fairlo is profitable, growing internationally and preparing to become a bank. We have the customers, technology, credit expertise and teams to build from - while still being small enough that one exceptional person can fundamentally change the direction of the business. Partnerships are at that exact point. The first proof points are there. The potential is there. What it becomes from here is still unwritten.

Where you’ll work

You’ll be based mainly in our Stockholm office, with the flexibility that comes with how we work at Fairlo. Relationships are central to this role, so you should enjoy being where things happen - whether that’s with the Fairlo team in Stockholm, visiting colleagues in Crete and the UK, or sitting down with a potential partner somewhere new. And as Fairlo grows into new markets, the world around the role will grow too.

Different perspectives build better things

We’re trying to change an industry. We won’t do that by surrounding ourselves with people who all look, think and work the same way. Fairlo is a place where different experiences, backgrounds and perspectives are valued, where people are treated fairly and with respect, and where everyone has the opportunity to contribute, challenge and grow.

So if this role excites you but your experience doesn’t match every line of a traditional job description, we still want to hear from you. Bring your perspective. Bring your ideas. Bring what makes you different.

Come help us build what’s next for Fairlo - and move us closer to a fair world, even when it comes to money.