Senior Manager, Strategic Payment Partnership

Expedia Group; Seattle (WA); On-site; USD 146,000 - 205,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, Dental, Vision

Paid Time Off

Employee Assistance Program

Wellness and Travel Reimbursement

Travel Discounts

IATAN membership

Job summary

Expedia Group is seeking a Senior Manager, Strategic Payment Partnerships in Seattle. You will manage a portfolio of payment partners and drive platform opportunities within Expedia Global Payments, coordinating with marketing, banking, legal, and product teams.

You will shape regional strategies, oversee negotiations, and track KPI-driven performance while leveraging AI/ML concepts to optimize partner solutions and outcomes. This role offers substantial scope in a global payments ecosystem.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in business, finance, economics, technology, or related field, or equivalent practical experience in payments or partnerships.
• Extensive experience in payments, financial services, or technology, with focus on managing or owning strategic partnerships, commercial agreements, or payment products.
• Demonstrated ownership of complex partner portfolios or multi‑market payment initiatives, including commercial performance, operational excellence, and stakeholder alignment.
• Proven ability to work with technical and product teams on payment capabilities, data‑driven performance analysis, and implementation of partner solutions, including familiarity with AI‑driven systems, tools, or workflows and applying AI/ML concepts to real world products.

Responsibilities

• Stay abreast of commercial, regulatory and innovative trends in the payment industry.
• Ensure our payment business benefits from partners’ expertise and innovations.
• Drive strategic alignment between payment vendors/partners and Expedia Group teams.
• Serve as Expedia Inc’s go‑to person for payment vendors/partners for enterprise engagement.
• Define and execute partner/vendor strategy by region, method, and levels; align with EGP goals.
• Increase partner/vendor performance while maximizing financial benefits through reviews and calls.
• Conduct partner/vendor benchmarking, RFI, RFP or similar.
• Perform contract negotiations and monitor contract performance.
• Escalate issues at executive level and resolve high‑impact matters.
• Establish KPIs to identify opportunities to optimize performance.

Skills

Strategic partnerships

Contract negotiation

Payments domain knowledge

Data-driven performance analysis

AI/ML concepts

Education

Bachelor’s degree in business/finance/economics/tech

Equivalent practical experience in payments/partnerships

Job description

At Expedia Group, we help travelers explore the world, one journey at a time. As a global travel company powered by passionate people, trusted partnerships, and leading technology, we connect travelers, partners, and advertisers through our consumer brands, B2B network, and travel advertising business. Here, you’ll do meaningful work that helps millions of people discover, book, and experience travel with more ease, confidence, and joy. Our five Behaviors—Traveler First, Think Big, Operate with Excellence, Ownership Mindset, and Succeed Together—help foster a supportive environment where people can grow their careers and have the flexibility, benefits, and support to do their best work. Join us and build for travelers everywhere.

Senior Manager, Strategic Payment Partnerships

The Strategic Partnerships team manages critical payment relationships and is part of the Expedia Global Payments (EGP) organization. EGP is responsible for enabling $100 Billion of customer and supplier payments for a large portfolio of global online travel brands under Expedia Group.

The Senior Manager, Payment Strategic Partnerships will drive significant platform and commercial opportunities for EGP. The role will be responsible for a portfolio of existing and potential payment partners, including gateways, acquirers, issuers and card networks.

The Senior Manager will be driving the following areas for the assigned vendors or partners.

In This Role You Will

• Stay abreast of commercial, regulatory and innovative trends in the payment industry.
• Ensure our payment business is benefitted from our partners’ expertise, capabilities and innovations
• Drive strategic alignment between payment vendors/partners and Expedia Group teams including marketing, advertisement, banking, legal and EGP products.
• Serve as Expedia Inc’ go‑to person for the payment vendors and partners to ensure holistic engagement at the enterprise level.
• Define and execute partner/vendor strategy at region, payment method and payment method levels, align partner/vendor strategy roadmap behind EGP goals and priorities, partner with vendors to ensure high‑quality, timely delivery of prioritized initiatives
• Increase partner/vendor performance while maximizing financial benefits for Expedia Group through transparent and effective business reviews including QBRs and weekly calls
• Conduct partner/vendor benchmarking, RFI, RFP or similar kind
• Perform contract negotiations and monitor contract performance
• Executive‑level escalations and resolution for partner/vendor issues that have massive impact
• Establish KPIs to constantly identify opportunities to optimize partner/vendor performance

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in business, finance, economics, technology, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience in payments or partnerships.
• Extensive experience in payments, financial services, or technology, with a focus on managing or owning strategic partnerships, commercial agreements, or payment products.
• Demonstrated ownership of complex partner portfolios or multi‑market payment initiatives, including responsibility for commercial performance, operational excellence, and stakeholder alignment.
• Proven ability to work with technical and product teams on payment capabilities, data‑driven performance analysis, and implementation of partner solutions, including familiarity with AI‑driven systems, tools, or workflows and applying AI/ML concepts to real world products.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in strategic partner or vendor management, contract management and negotiations, with a track record of turning around partner relationships to drive significant results
• Experience in independently negotiating contracts, preferably in an e-commerce or IT services environment·
• Expertise in one of the following industries would be a plus: Travel, Airlines, Hotels, and payments
• Passion for Results: Maintain high standards for the individual, team, and organizational accomplishment; tenaciously work to meet or exceed challenging goals; derive satisfaction from goal achievement and continuous improvement.
• Experience using AI or machine-learning-driven tools (e.g., anomaly detection, forecasting, decision‑support dashboards) in a payments, financial operations, or e-commerce environment, including managing end‑to‑end program delivery, defining and tracking KPIs, and driving continuous improvement through stakeholder and partner relationship management.
• Experience utilizing Agentic AI to improve, operationalize, or automate repetitive processes, including leading program roadmaps, setting and monitoring success metrics/KPIs, and managing vendor contracts and strategic relationships to ensure performance, compliance, and long‑term value.

The total cash range for this position in Seattle is $146,000.00 to $204,500.00. Employees in this role have the potential to increase their pay up to $233,500.00, which is the top of the range, based on ongoing, demonstrated, and sustained performance in the role.

Starting pay for this role will vary based on multiple factors, including location, available budget, and an individual’s knowledge, skills, and experience. Pay ranges may be modified in the future.

Benefits And Perks

Expedia Group offers benefits and perks designed to support employees and their families, including medical, dental, and vision coverage, paid time off, an Employee Assistance Program, wellness and travel reimbursement, travel discounts, and International Airlines Travel Agent Network (IATAN) membership. Learn more about life at Expedia Group at https://careers.expediagroup.com/life.

Accommodation requests

Expedia Group is committed to providing an inclusive and accessible recruiting experience. If you need an accommodation or adjustment due to a disability during the application or recruiting process, please submit a request at https://expedia.service-now.com/askeg?id=job_accommodation.

About Expedia Group

Expedia Group includes three flagship consumer brands - Expedia, Hotels.com, and Vrbo - along with a leading B2B travel business and travel advertising offerings. Across our brands and business, we help travelers explore the world with confidence and ease.

Important notice

Employment opportunities and job offers at Expedia Group will always come from Expedia Group’s Talent Acquisition and hiring teams. Never share sensitive personal information unless you are confident of the recipient. Expedia Group does not extend job offers via email or messaging tools to individuals with whom we have not made prior contact. Our email domain is @expediagroup.com. The official place to find and apply for roles is https://careers.expediagroup.com/jobs/.

Equal Opportunity

Expedia is committed to creating an inclusive work environment with a diverse workforce. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. This employer participates in E-Verify. The employer will provide the Social Security Administration (SSA) and, if necessary, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) with information from each new employee’s I-9 to confirm work authorization.