Senior Director of Strategic Partnerships

CSI; United States; Remote; USD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

CSI is seeking a Senior Director of Strategic Partnerships to lead and optimize a portfolio of third-party relationships that CSI resells or refers. You will coordinate with Product, Sales, Marketing, Finance, Legal, Risk, and Operations to drive partner execution and portfolio performance.

The role demands strong negotiation, financial acumen, and executive communication skills, with a proven track record in managing complex vendor relationships and strategic partnerships within fintech or SaaS

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required; advanced degree preferred.
• 7+ years in strategic partnerships, business development, or related fields.
• Fintech, banking tech, SaaS, payments, or financial services experience preferred.
• Proven ability to manage complex vendor, referral, reseller, and strategic partner relationships.
• Experience negotiating commercial agreements and working with pricing, revenue-sharing, reseller models.
• Strong analytical, financial, negotiation, communication, and executive-presentations skills.
• Experience using CRM, reporting, and analytics tools to manage partner activity.

Responsibilities

• Lead day-to-day strategic partnership function and provide direction to partnership team members.
• Develop and execute partnership strategies aligned with corporate and product objectives.
• Manage executive-level relationships with assigned strategic partners.
• Identify, evaluate, and prioritize new partnership opportunities.
• Lead or coordinate partner due diligence, business-case development, selection, negotiation, and contracting.
• Oversee partner onboarding, integration coordination, launch readiness, renewals, and exits.
• Establish partner governance practices, performance standards, scorecards, and reviews.
• Monitor partnership revenue, profitability, performance, and customer impact.
• Coordinate with Product, Sales, Marketing, Finance, Legal, Risk, Technology, and Operations to drive execution.
• Identify and resolve issues affecting partner performance, internal execution, or customer outcomes.
• Support partner enablement, go-to-market planning, and joint growth initiatives.

Skills

Strategic partnerships

Cross-functional leadership

Negotiation

Vendor management

CRM & analytics

Financial acumen

Education

Bachelor’s degree in business/fin/related field

Advanced degree preferred

Tools

CRM software

Data analytics tools

Job description

Job Description:

The Senior Director of Strategic Partnerships provides day-to-day leadership for CSI's strategic partnership function and is responsible for developing, managing, and optimizing relationships with third-party providers whose products CSI resells or refers, as well as organizations that distribute CSI solutions. This role leads a portfolio of strategic partner relationships and ensures that partnerships align with CSI's corporate strategy, product portfolio, customer needs, and revenue-growth objectives.

The Senior Director serves as a primary point of coordination among partners and CSI's Product, Sales, Marketing, Finance, Legal, Risk, Technology, and Operations teams. Responsibilities include evaluating partnership opportunities, supporting business cases and due diligence, negotiating and structuring agreements, coordinating partner onboarding and launches, overseeing renewals and partner exits, monitoring financial and operational performance, and resolving cross-functional issues that could affect partner or customer outcomes.

The Senior Director monitors partnership revenue, profitability, contractual obligations, customer feedback, market trends, and other key performance indicators to identify opportunities, address risks, and improve portfolio performance.

The Senior Director also leads the day-to-day work of the Strategic Partnerships team, assigns and prioritizes partner responsibilities, develops team members, and ensures appropriate coverage across CSI's partner portfolio. The role works closely with executive and business leadership to communicate partnership performance, recommend strategic actions, and advance partnerships that expand CSI's product capabilities, market reach, and long‑term value.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the day-to-day strategic partnership function and provide direction to partnership team members.
• Develop and execute partnership strategies aligned with CSI's corporate and product objectives.
• Manage executive-level relationships with assigned strategic partners.
• Identify, evaluate, and prioritize new partnership opportunities.
• Lead or coordinate partner due diligence, business-case development, selection, negotiation, and contracting.
• Oversee partner onboarding, integration coordination, launch readiness, ongoing management, renewals, and exits.
• Establish partner governance practices, performance standards, scorecards, and recurring business reviews.
• Monitor partnership revenue, profitability, performance, contractual commitments, and customer impact.
• Coordinate with Product, Sales, Marketing, Finance, Legal, Risk, Technology, and Operations to drive partnership execution.
• Identify and resolve issues affecting partner performance, internal execution, or customer outcomes.
• Support partner enablement, go‑to‑market planning, sales readiness, and joint growth initiatives.
• Maintain awareness of industry trends, competitive partnerships, emerging technologies, and potential market opportunities.
• Prepare partnership recommendations, portfolio updates, and decision materials for senior leadership.
• Represent CSI in partner meetings, industry events, conferences, and other external forums.
• Coach and develop partnership team members and ensure effective allocation of partner responsibilities.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in business, finance, marketing, technology, or a related field. An advanced degree is preferred.
• Seven or more years of experience in strategic partnerships, business development, channel management, product partnerships, or a related discipline.
• Experience within financial technology, banking technology, SaaS, payments, or financial services is preferred.
• Demonstrated ability to manage complex vendor, referral, reseller, and strategic partner relationships.
• Experience negotiating commercial agreements and working with pricing, revenue-sharing, and reseller models.
• Strong understanding of partnership lifecycles, including evaluation, contracting, onboarding, performance management, renewal, and termination.
• Proven ability to lead cross‑functional initiatives without direct authority over all participating teams.
• Experience managing or developing employees is preferred.
• Strong analytical, financial, negotiation, communication, and executive‑presentation skills.
• Ability to manage competing priorities, resolve ambiguity, and exercise sound business judgment.
• Experience using CRM, reporting, and analytics tools to manage partner activity and measure performance.

As a forward‑thinking software provider, Computer Services, Inc. (CSI) helps community and regional financial institutions solve their customers' needs through open and flexible technologies. In addition to its award‑winning core banking platform, these include the latest in lending, digital banking, payments, financial crime prevention and cybersecurity. Building on its 60‑year track record of personalized service, CSI is shaping the future of banking and empowering its customers to rival their competition. For more information about CSI, visit www.csiweb.com

CSI provides rewarding and challenging career opportunities for our employees. When determining your pay, we consider various factors such as your skills, qualifications, experience and location. Along with a competitive salary, this position includes eligibility for incentive awards based on both individual and business performance. We also offer a comprehensive range of benefits. To learn more about our benefits, visit Benefits Summary

CSI is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, physical and mental disability, marital status, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law. If you need an accommodation during the recruitment process, please email us at [e-mail] and we will work with you to meet your accessibility needs.

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Visa Sponsorship: We are unable to offer visa sponsorship for this position. Applicants must be authorized to work in the United States without the need for sponsorship now or in the future.