Partner Growth Manager

Check; San Francisco (CA); Remote; USD 120,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Check is transforming how businesses pay people by providing embedded payroll API infrastructure. We are seeking a Partner Growth Manager to scale a diverse set of startup partners and own end-to-end engagement from onboarding to renewal.

You will partner with Sales, R&D, Marketing, Enablement, and Product teams to identify blockers, drive execution, and deliver measurable growth. This role offers remote/hybrid options across the US and opportunities to travel for partner on-sites.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent in a related field.
• 5+ years of relevant work experience in SaaS, fintech, or payroll space.
• Experience in strategic partner or account management for high-volume accounts.
• Comfort owning and resolving escalations with partners.
• Demonstrated success managing portfolios with complex technical/product needs.

Responsibilities

• Own and be the primary contact for a portfolio of growing startup partners and act as their executional partner inside Check.
• Build trust by understanding partners' business goals across stakeholders.
• Consult on payroll business blockers and outline strategies to unblock revenue.
• Create and refine the startup playbook from onboarding to renewal and graduation to enterprise.
• Identify patterns to improve approach and accelerate partner growth with cross-functional input.
• Collaborate on communication plans across releases, roadmaps, compliance, and incidents.
• Own portfolio reporting and flag risks and trends to leadership.
• Introduce and evaluate new products with partners and collect feedback for product teams.

Skills

Strategic partner management

Account management

Analytical thinking

Executive communication

Documentation

Cross-functional collaboration

Empathy

Playbook mentality

Prioritization

Adaptability

Travel readiness

SaaS experience

Financial/Payroll domain awareness

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent

Tools

Zendesk

Google Workspace

Notion

Job description

About Check

Payroll is broken. It's still running on decades-old infrastructure. We're rebuilding it.

We don't run payroll ourselves — we power the businesses that do. As the inventors of embedded payroll, we're redefining how people get paid and making it easier for those businesses to launch, grow, and thrive.

On our team, you'll use creative problem-solving, critical thinking, and grit to simplify the complexity of payroll for thousands of employers of every size, across all industries. We ignore conventional role boundaries in favor of the unique strengths and values each builder brings to our mission: make paying people simple. Check out our origin story!

Check is far more than just API infrastructure. We’re a springboard for building and scaling payroll businesses. See how it works for our partners.

About this role

Check is looking for its next Partner Growth Manager. This is a highly tactical role responsible for scaling a broad portfolio of high-growth startup partners.

You’ll be their primary point of contact, helping to build and refine a repeatable playbook for onboarding, launching, growing, and supporting them at scale. You'll also exercise careful judgment around when something outside our standard approach is needed, and when a partner is ready to transition to an alternative support model.

We expect our team to roll up their sleeves and execute with a high degree of autonomy, sharing information and knowledge early and often with peers and stakeholders. You will work closely with cross-functional internal and external teams, including Sales, R&D, Marketing, Enablement, Product and others. Together, you'll identify trends, risks, and opportunities, and execute on targets with determination and precision. The role demands real executive presence and follow-through.

Candidates ideal for this role are tenacious, goal-oriented, and experienced with building detailed strategic plans with Partners/customers. You must have a knack for ruthless prioritization, and comfort operating in technical and commercially complex environments.

In this role, you will:

• Own and be the primary point of contact for a portfolio of dozens of growing startup partners, serving as their day-to-day advocate and executional partner inside Check

• Earn the trust of our Partners and build in-depth relationships by maintaining a complete understanding of their business goals and objectives across various stakeholders

• Consult on our Partners' payroll business by investigating the root cause of blockers, outlining and selling Partners on the appropriate strategies to unblock inefficiencies and revenue

• Build, execute, and refine Check's startup playbook, from onboarding to milestone tracking to renewal; define and track criteria for when a partner is ready to graduate to our enterprise portfolio

• Identify and surface patterns across your portfolio to improve our approach and accelerate our partners' growth; bring cross-functional attention to focus areas related to Partner needs and pain points

• Partner with cross-functional teams to build appropriate communication plans including but not limited to releases, roadmap updates, compliance updates, and incident management

• Own communication cadence and reporting for your portfolio, keeping leadership informed on status, risk, and trends

• Introduce and implement new products and features to your Partners, evaluate their success, and navigate feedback channels with them and Check's Product team

Many backgrounds could fit this role, but ideal candidates will have most or all of the following:

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent, in a related field

• 5+ years of relevant work experience, including:

  • Experience in the SaaS space - experience in the fintech or payroll space a plus

  • Strategic partner management, or account management experience, ideally supporting a high-volume, fast-moving portfolio of accounts

  • Comfort owning and resolving support escalations directly, including hard conversations with partners

  • Demonstrated success owning a portfolio of customer or partner relationships with complex technical/product needs

• Real analytical chops and pattern recognition instincts - you can see across your portfolio: what's working, what isn't, and when a new approach is needed

• Strong documentation muscle - you default to written record as a regular practice and maintain clean notes in tools like CRMs

• Empathy and genuine care for partners - you view their success as your own and build strong, lasting relationships

• Playbook mentality - you default to building repeatable processes instead of one-off solutions

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to communicate complex ideas concisely in live partner calls, escalation conversations, and executive settings

• Flexibility, ability to adapt and learn quickly, and to capably balance multiple priorities and projects (internally and externally) in a fast-paced environment

• Fluency or familiarity with Check's primary software applications i.e. Zendesk, Google Workspace, Notion, etc.

• Familiarity with AI tools and curiosity about how they can improve partner workflows

• Enthusiasm for planning, adjusting, executing, winning, and celebrating as a team

• Ability to travel to team on-sites 1-2x a year plus an occasional partner visit (as needed, 1x/quarter on average)

Travel & Office Policy

The Check team is distributed across the US. Roles can be remote, hybrid, or based in one of our offices in New York City or San Francisco. We offer ample opportunities and encourage employees to attend team offsites, events, and hackathons throughout year. All Checketeers gather in the spring for our annual 3-day company retreat.

For our in-office and hybrid employees, our offices are open all week. We provide meals on Tuesdays and Thursdays and there are regular happy hours, game nights, and other in-person events.

Remote work at Check requires the ability to perform all responsibilities without distraction or disruption, while maintaining quality, effective communication, and productivity.

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Check is proud to be an Equal Opportunity employer. We do not discriminate based on race, religion, color, national origin, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, transgender status, sexual stereotypes, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. We also consider qualified applicants with criminal histories, provided they are consistent with applicable federal, state, and local laws. Check is committed to providing reasonable accommodations for candidates with disabilities in our recruiting process.

Check participates in E-Verify and will provide the federal government with Form I-9 information from all new employees to confirm that they are authorized to work in the U.S. Check does not use E-Verify to pre-screen applicants.