Senior Program Manager, Partner Programs

P2P; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 145,000 - 195,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health, dental & vision coverage

Flexible time off & holidays

Parental leave

Gym reimbursement

Life insurance

Disability coverage

401K match

Commuter benefits

HSA contributions

Company retreats

Job summary

The Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) is seeking a Senior Program Manager, Partner Programs to coordinate across Engineering, BD, Marketing, Product, and Account Management. You will manage partner integrations, own integration roadmaps, and drive multi-stakeholder meetings to align technical and business goals.

With 7+ years in software program management and a strong blockchain/crypto background, you will translate complex technical concepts for diverse partners while steering initiatives

Qualifications

• 7+ years of experience managing software development programs in financial services, with blockchain startup or small company exposure.
• Comfort discussing APIs, integration flows, and system dependencies with engineers and business stakeholders.
• Familiarity with blockchain/crypto concepts and ability to ramp quickly in a complex domain.
• Ability to leverage AI tools to draft docs, accelerate research, and automate workflows.
• Excellent written and verbal communication and leadership skills.
• Organized, detail-oriented, with strong multitasking and process discipline.
• Experience with Jira, Airtable, Asana, Confluence, and Google Suite.
• Independent, results-driven, and comfortable in a dynamic, multi-hat startup environment.
• Willingness to travel to Americas/Europe as needed.

Responsibilities

• Manage, plan, and direct software and product development activities from launch to completion, ensuring on-time delivery and high quality.
• Own long-term partner integration roadmaps and success of multiple partners within the Stellar ecosystem.
• Host and drive partner meetings with technical and business stakeholders.
• Identify and manage technical dependencies and blockers across partner and internal engineering teams.
• Maintain partner-related documentation including milestone plans, dependencies, schedules, risks, and meeting notes.
• Measure program performance against OKRs and report actionable insights.
• Define process frameworks, templates, tools, and best practices for organization-wide adoption.

Skills

Program management

Blockchain familiarity

APIs knowledge

Leadership

Communication

Independent thinker

Problem solving

Partner advocacy

Travel readiness

Tools

Jira

Airtable

Asana

Confluence

Google Workspace

Job description

Interested in working on cutting-edge blockchain technology and creating equitable access to the global financial system? Since 2014, the mission-driven team at the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) has helped fuel the tremendous growth of the Stellar blockchain network, an open-source platform that operates at high-scale today. Developers and companies around the world build on it, and the SDF team is expanding to support the rapidly growing and changing Stellar ecosystem.

The Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) is looking for a talented and experienced Senior Program Manager, Partner Programs to help key partners integrate with the Stellar Network. In this role, you will coordinate across our partners and internal stakeholders (Engineering, BD, Marketing, Product, Account Management) to build innovative blockchain solutions. SDF's partners span the globe and include some of the most innovative software and financial companies in the world.

In this role, you will:

• Manage, plan, and direct software and product development activities from launch to completion, with overall responsibility for delivering on time and at high quality.

• Own long-term partner integration roadmaps and the success of multiple partners in the Stellar ecosystem.

• Host and drive partner meetings with technical and business stakeholders.

• Identify and manage technical dependencies and blockers across partner and internal engineering teams.

• Maintain partner-related documentation, including milestone plans, dependencies, schedules, risks, and meeting notes.

• Measure program performance, analyzing the successful completion of short- and long-term goals against company and team OKRs.

• Define process frameworks, program plan templates, tools, and best practices that can be adopted throughout the organization.

You have:

• 7+ years of experience managing software development programs in the financial services industry, some of which took place in a blockchain startup or small-company environment.

• Comfort engaging in technical discussions — APIs, integration flows, system dependencies — enough to coordinate credibly with engineering, track technical risks and blockers, and translate fluidly between technical and business stakeholders. You don't need to write the code, but you need to understand what's being built well enough to drive it.

• Familiarity with blockchain/crypto concepts, or a demonstrated ability to ramp quickly on a complex, unfamiliar technical domain.

• A habit of using AI tools to work smarter — you look for ways to apply AI to your day-to-day, whether that's drafting and summarizing documentation, accelerating research, streamlining reporting, or automating repetitive workflows, and you're eager to help the team do the same.

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

• Excellent leadership skills, with the ability to communicate effectively with partners from various backgrounds and positions.

• Great organizational skills, including attention to detail, multitasking, and creating and instituting processes to streamline workflows.

• Experience with program and project management tools like Jira, Airtable, Asana, Confluence, and Google Suite.

• An independent nature and results-driven attitude — you're good at identifying priorities and working in an environment with dynamic objectives.

• A knack for problem-solving — you have an eye for untold problems in the program life cycle and create solutions to minimize or mitigate them.

• An aptitude for advocating for partners while supporting the company's mission.

• Willingness to travel as needed (mostly to the Americas/Europe).

• Enthusiasm for working in a startup environment with some level of ambiguity and wearing multiple hats.

Bonus Points if (optional):

• You have a deeper curiosity about new blockchain technologies (for example, DeFi, Earn, contract tokens) and cryptocurrencies.

• You have worked directly with external partners in the capacity of program manager, project manager, delivery manager, technical program manager or consultant.

We offer competitive pay with a base salary range for this position of $145,000 - $195,000 depending on job-related knowledge, skills, experience, and location. In addition, we offer lumen-denominated grants along with the following perks and benefits:

USA Benefits/Perks:

• Competitive health, dental & vision coverage with most plans covered at 100% for the employee + any dependents
• Flexible time off + 15 company holidays including a company-wide holiday break
• Generous paid parental leave for all parents, plus paid pregnancy disability leave for birthing parents
• Gym reimbursement ($80 per month)
• Life & ADD (up to $50K)
• Short & Long term disability
• 401K with 4% match
• Health & Dependent Care FSA Accounts
• Commuter benefits with $250/month employer contribution
• Health Savings Account (HSA) with monthly employer contribution
• Family building benefits through Kindbody
• Wellbeing benefits (One Medical, Rightway, Headspace)
• L&D budget of $1,500/year
• Daily lunch and snacks in the office
• Company retreats

#LI-Hybrid

About Stellar

Stellar is more than a blockchain. Powered by a decentralized, fast, scalable, and uniquely sustainable network made for financial products and services and a thriving and passionate ecosystem that includes a non-profit organization driven by a mission, Stellar is paving the path to unlock the world’s economic potential through blockchain technology. Built with speed and low costs in mind, the Stellar network provides builders and financial institutions worldwide a platform to issue assets, and to send and convert currencies in real time creating real world utility. Founded in 2014, the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) supports the continued development and growth of the Stellar network and also serves the ecosystem of NGOs, corporations, universities, small businesses, governments, and solo entrepreneurs building on the Stellar network through tooling, funding and strategic collaborations. Together, Stellar is where blockchain meets the real world.

About the Stellar Development Foundation

The Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) is a non-profit organization focused on working with and supporting change-makers to create equitable access to the global financial system through blockchain technology. SDF provides grants, investments, funding, and other awards to builders and organizations. SDF also develops resources and tooling on the Stellar network to help unlock real world utility. As a nonprofit foundation, SDF puts the health of the Stellar network and the Stellar ecosystem and its mission above all else.

We look forward to hearing from you!

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