Strategic Partnerships Manager, Bank & Program Launch

cardless; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 200,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Meaningful Start-up equity

100% health, vision & dental primary覆盖

75% health, vision & dental dependent

Catered lunches

$250/month Commuter benefit

Parental leave

Team building events & happy hours

Flexibl

Job summary

Cardless is seeking a Strategic Partnerships Manager to own the day-to-day relationship with issuing bank partners and drive co-brand card programs from signed deal to live launch.

You’ll coordinate with Compliance, Legal, Product and Engineering to deliver partner-ready updates, manage risk and timelines, and represent Cardless in meetings with bank stakeholders in San Francisco. This on-site role requires strong cross-functional collaboration and a proactive, structured approach.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in partnerships, account management, program management, or a related client-facing role.
• Demonstrated ability to manage complex, multi-stakeholder relationships balancing technical, legal, and business considerations.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills; ability to distill cross-functional work into clear updates for partner audiences.
• Bias toward proactive communication; over-communicate risks early to avoid surprises.
• Experience working cross-functionally with compliance, legal, product, and engineering teams.
• Comfort operating in ambiguity and building processes where none exist yet.

Responsibilities

• Own ongoing relationship management with bank partners, serving as primary contact for program status, open issues, and escalations.
• Manage partner expectations across active programs by proactively communicating risks, delays, and open items.
• Lead or support new program launches end-to-end: kickoff coordination, drafting partner-facing materials, tracking milestones, and aligning launch timelines.
• Translate internal workstreams into clear, partner-ready updates with Compliance, Legal, Product, and Engineering.
• Build and maintain trackers, status reports, and governance cadences to keep programs on track.
• Represent Cardless in partner meetings, including with senior stakeholders at bank partners.
• Identify and help resolve friction points between Cardless and partners on rewards, payments, and disputes.
• Support due diligence and onboarding for new bank and brand partners as Cardless grows.

Skills

Partnerships management

Account management

Program management

Job description

About Cardless

Cardless is a Series C consumer fintech that uses AI to make it easy for the world's largest brands to build credit cards into their ecosystems. Think Shopify, but for credit cards. Brands use Cardless to configure, launch, and grow credit card programs that delight their customers and strengthen their core business.

Customers include Coinbase, Bilt Rewards, Alibaba, Qatar Airways, and LATAM Airlines. Cardless powers cards on all three major networks (Visa, Mastercard, and American Express) and uses agentic servicing to operate at a fraction of the headcount and cost that traditional card issuers require.

The company has scaled from $10 million to $150 million in run rate revenue in the past 12 months. Cardless raised a $60 million Series C led by Spark Capital in September 2025, bringing total funding past $170 million. The team is past 70 people and scaling toward profitability by year-end 2026.

About the Role

We're looking for a Strategic Partnerships Manager to own the day-to-day relationship between Cardless and our issuing bank partners, and to help drive new co-brand card programs from signed deal to live launch.

This role sits at the center of Cardless's most consequential relationships - our bank partners, who ultimately issue every card program we build. You'll manage their expectations, keep them aligned as new programs move through development, and act as the connective tissue between Cardless's internal teams (compliance, product, engineering, operations) and our partners' teams on the other side of the table. You'll also help launch new programs, working cross-functionally to make sure bank partners are informed, comfortable, and bought in at every stage - from kickoff through go-live.

This is a strong fit for someone who's comfortable operating in a regulated, high-stakes environment, who can translate between technical/compliance detail and partner-facing narrative, and who wants ownership over how Cardless shows up to the banks that make our business possible.

What you'll do

• Own ongoing relationship management with bank partners (e.g., First Electronic Bank, Column N.A.), serving as a primary point of contact for program status, open issues, and escalations
• Manage bank partner expectations across active programs - proactively communicating risk, delays, and open items rather than letting them surface as surprises
• Lead or support new program launches end-to-end: kickoff coordination, drafting partner-facing materials, tracking legal/compliance milestones, and driving alignment on launch timelines
• Partner closely with Compliance, Legal, Product, and Engineering to translate internal workstreams into clear, partner-ready updates
• Build and maintain trackers, status reports, and governance cadences (e.g., regular partner check-ins, steering committees) to keep programs on track
• Represent Cardless in partner meetings, including with senior stakeholders at bank partners, and help prepare internal teams for those conversations
• Identify and help resolve friction points between Cardless and partners on rewards, payments, disputes, and other program mechanics before they become escalations
• Support due diligence and onboarding for new bank and brand partners as Cardless's portfolio grows

What we're looking for

• 10+ years of experience in partnerships, account management, program management, or a related client-facing role - ideally in fintech, banking, or another regulated industry
• Demonstrated ability to manage complex, multi-stakeholder relationships where technical, legal, and business considerations all need to be balanced
• Strong written and verbal communication skills - comfortable distilling complicated, cross-functional work into clear updates for partner audiences
• A bias toward proactive communication; you'd rather over-communicate a risk early than let a partner be surprised later
• Experience working cross-functionally with compliance, legal, product, and engineering teams
• Comfort operating in ambiguity and building process where none exists yet
• Based in or willing to work on-site in San Francisco

Bonus Points

• Experience with card issuing, co-brand credit card programs, or working directly with issuing banks
• Familiarity with the regulatory considerations that shape bank/fintech partnerships (e.g., third-party risk management, program governance)
• Experience launching a new product or program from contract signing through go-live

Compensation

This role has an annual starting salary range of $150,000-$200,000 + equity + benefits. Actual compensation is influenced by a wide array of factors including but not limited to skills, experience, and specific work location.

Benefits

• Meaningful Start-up equity
• 100% health, vision & dental primary coverage
• 75% health, vision & dental dependent coverage
• Catered lunches
• $250/month Commuter benefit
• Parental leave
• Team building events & happy hours
• Flexibl