Partner Program Manager

Encore Talent Solutions; St. Louis (MO); On-site; USD 70,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

Encore Talent Solutions is seeking a Partnerships Lead in St. Louis. The candidate will manage and nurture partner relationships, prospect new partners, and ensure successful onboarding processes. Strong organizational skills and experience in partnerships or account management are essential.

The role involves collaboration with Sales, Marketing, and Customer Success to create a more predictable partner program and enhance partner engagement.

Qualifications

• 2–5+ years in partnerships, channel sales, or account management.
• Experience managing multiple relationships and tasks.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Manage existing partner relationships with various stakeholders.
• Prospect and recruit new partners for the company.
• Coordinate with Sales to ensure timely follow-ups.

Skills

Relationship management

Organizational skills

Communication

Prospecting

Detail-oriented

Education

2–5+ years in relevant fields

Tools

CRMs

Referral tracking tools

Job description

About the Company

The company helps merchants, multi-location businesses, software platforms, and enterprise operators reduce payment costs, select better payment solutions, and manage payments more strategically. A large portion of the company’s pipeline already comes from partners, including banks, CPAs, software platforms, consultants, individual experts, and other organizations with trusted relationships with merchants.

Role

The company is hiring a Partnerships Lead to manage, nurture, organize, and grow the partner ecosystem. The role is for a highly organized, relationship-driven leader to run the partner program day-to-day. This person will manage existing partners, prospect new partners, onboard them into a repeatable referral process, keep partners engaged, track referrals, coordinate with Sales, and help turn partnerships into a larger, more predictable source of pipeline. This is a great role for someone who has experience in partnerships, channel sales, referral programs, account management, business development, or partner success. The candidate must be organized, proactive, polished, follow-up obsessed, and comfortable managing many relationships at once. The role is based in the company’s St. Louis office and partners closely with Sales, Marketing, Customer Success, and Leadership.

What You’ll Do

• Manage existing partner relationships across banks, CPAs, software platforms, consultants, referral partners, and individual experts.
• Build a repeatable partner management cadence, including outreach, check‑ins, updates, referral tracking, follow‑ups, partner enablement, and reporting.
• Prospect and recruit new partners who have relationships with merchants and can refer businesses to the company.
• Help build different partner motions, from lightweight website/referral‑link partners to larger strategic partners with deeper collaboration.
• Own partner onboarding, including partner education, referral process setup, tracking links, CRM records, expectations, and communication rhythm.
• Use partner tools such as Referral Rock or similar referral/partner management software to track referrals, manage partner activity, and improve visibility.
• Coordinate with Sales to ensure referred opportunities are followed up quickly and partners receive timely updates.
• Create and maintain partner-facing materials such as one‑pagers, email templates, referral instructions, pitch language, and partner FAQs.
• Help partners understand the company’s value proposition, including payment cost savings, merchant services consulting, processor/gateway selection, statement audits, implementation support, and long‑term payment strategy.
• Organize partner campaigns, co‑marketing opportunities, webinars, lunch‑and‑learns, and referral pushes.
• Track partner performance, including active partners, referrals submitted, qualified pipeline, closed revenue, referral fees, conversion rates, and partner engagement.
• Identify high‑potential partners and recommend ways to deepen those relationships.
• Keep internal systems clean, organized, and up to date.

What We’re Looking For

• 2–5+ years of experience in partnerships, channel sales, partner success, referral programs, account management, sales development, business development, or customer success.
• Experience managing many relationships, follow‑ups, tasks, and moving pieces at once.
• Familiarity with partner programs, referral programs, affiliate/referral tracking tools, CRM systems, or partner relationship management software.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Comfortable prospecting new partners through email, LinkedIn, calls, events, and warm introductions.
• Ability to build trust with CPAs, bankers, software platforms, consultants, and business professionals.
• Detail‑oriented and process‑driven; someone who creates structure, keeps clean notes, and follows through.
• Friendly, polished, and easy to talk to.
• Comfortable working with Sales and Leadership to keep partner‑generated pipeline moving.
• Willingness to learn the payments industry and the company’s value proposition quickly.
• Based in or willing to work from St. Louis.

Ideal Backgrounds – Candidates May Come From

• B2B SaaS partner programs.
• Channel partnerships or referral partnerships roles.
• Financial services, banking, merchant services, fintech, payroll, accounting technology, insurance, benefits, ERP, POS, or vertical SaaS companies.
• Account management or customer success roles where they owned partner/client relationships and drove expansion or referrals.
• Sales development or business development roles with strong organization and relationship‑building ability.
• Local St. Louis professional services, software, banking, or fintech networks.

Nice to Have

• Experience with Referral Rock, PartnerStack, impact.com, Impartner, HubSpot, Salesforce, or similar partner/referral/CRM tools.
• Experience managing referral fees, partner agreements, or co‑marketing campaigns.
• Familiarity with payments, merchant services, SaaS, banking, CPAs, franchising, or software platforms.
• Event, webinar, lunch‑and‑learn, or local business community experience.
• Experience working with both small referral partners and larger strategic partners.

Success Looks Like

In the first 90 days, you will:

• Learn the company’s partner ecosystem and existing partner relationships.
• Build a clean partner database with owners, status, referral history, next steps, and partner tiering.
• Implement or help operationalize a referral tracking system such as Referral Rock.
• Establish a consistent communication cadence with active partners.
• Create a simple partner onboarding process and partner enablement kit.
• Reactivate dormant partners and identify top partner opportunities.
• Increase the visibility and speed of partner‑referred pipeline.

In the first year, you will:

• Help grow partner‑sourced pipeline beyond its current baseline.
• Build a more predictable and measurable partner program.
• Recruit new CPAs, banks, software platforms, consultants, and referral partners.
• Create clear partner tiers and repeatable partner playbooks.
• Become the go‑to internal owner for partner relationships and referral operations.

Encore Talent Solutions is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We respect and seek to empower each individual and support the diverse cultures, perspectives, skills, and experiences within our workforce.