Bank Partnerships Lead - Co-Brand Card Launch

Cardless; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 200,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Meaningful startup equity

100% health, vision & dental coverage

75% dependent coverage for family

Catered lunches

$250/month commuter benefit

Parental leave

Team building events & happy hours

Flexible PTO 15+ days/year

Apple equipment

401k plan

Job summary

Cardless is seeking a Strategic Partnerships Manager to own day-to-day relationships with issuing bank partners and drive new co-brand card programs from signed deal to live launch. You’ll coordinate with Compliance, Legal, Product, and Engineering to translate workstreams into partner-ready updates and manage stakeholder expectations.

This in-office role in San Francisco requires 10+ years in fintech partnerships.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of partnerships, account management, program management, or a related client-facing role.
• Ability to manage complex, multi-stakeholder relationships where technical, legal, and business considerations all need to be balanced.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills — comfortable distilling complicated, cross-functional work into clear updates for partner audiences.
• A bias toward proactive communication; you’d rather over-communicate a risk early than let a partner be surprised later.
• Experience working cross-functionally with compliance, legal, product, and engineering teams.
• Comfort operating in ambiguity and building process where none exists yet.
• Based in or willing to work on-site in San Francisco

Responsibilities

• Own ongoing relationship management with bank partners (e.g., First Electronic Bank, Column N.A.), serving as a primary point of contact for program status, open issues, and escalations.
• Manage bank partner expectations across active programs — proactively communicating risk, delays, and open items rather than letting them surface as surprises.
• Lead or support new program launches end-to-end: kickoff coordination, drafting partner-facing materials, tracking legal/compliance milestones, and driving alignment on launch timelines.
• Partner closely with Compliance, Legal, Product, and Engineering to translate internal workstreams into clear, partner-ready updates.
• Build and maintain trackers, status reports, and governance cadences (e.g., regular partner check-ins, steering committees) to keep programs on track.
• Represent Cardless in partner meetings, including with senior stakeholders at bank partners, and help prepare internal teams for those conversations.
• Identify and help resolve friction points between Cardless and partners on rewards, payments, disputes, and other program mechanics before they become escalations.
• Support due diligence and onboarding for new bank and brand partners as Cardless’s portfolio grows

Skills

Partnerships

Account management

Program management

Fintech experience

Cross-functional collaboration

Communication

Job description

Cardless is seeking a Strategic Partnerships Manager to own day-to-day relationships with issuing bank partners and drive new co-brand card programs from signed deal to live launch. You’ll coordinate with Compliance, Legal, Product, and Engineering to translate workstreams into partner-ready updates and manage stakeholder expectations.

This in-office role in San Francisco requires 10+ years in fintech partnerships.