What we are looking forThread Bank is looking for a Director, Partner Management to drive growth across the partners in its merchant acquiring program. This is not a traditional account management role. The Director measures success by how much each partner's merchant portfolio grows, and gets there through joint growth plans and by improving the payment settings that shape a partner's results, such as approval rates, interchange qualification, and risk settings. The Director connects each partner's leadership with Thread's product and technology teams, so every partner uses the full range of Thread's embedded payment services to grow revenue and run efficiently. The Director joins each embedded acquiring partner as part of the deal team in the late stages of the deal, stays with the partner through diligence, contracting, launch, and growth, and builds the partner management team as the partner base grows.
What you'll do- Join each deal as part of the deal team in its late stages, then lead diligence, contracting, implementation, and launch with a 30, 60, and 90 day plan for training the partner's team, boarding merchants, and reaching first processing volume. Escalate any partner that misses an early milestone to the deal team.
- Set an annual growth plan with each partner focused on processing volume, merchant adoption, and use of new products, and cross-sell the Bank's deposits, card issuing, lending, and value-added services such as tokenization and payment orchestration.
- Own partner results, including gross processing volume, net take rate, and partner retention.
- Rate each partner each month on volume, activity, and risk, and act early on partners at risk of slowing or leaving.
- Monitor each partner's volume, chargebacks, fraud, and reserves, and keep each partner within the Visa and Mastercard risk programs (Visa VAMP and Mastercard ECP) and the Bank's underwriting policy, working with Risk.
- Study each partner's market and adjust partner strategies before growth slows.
- Improve each partner's approval rates, interchange qualification, and risk and fraud settings, working with Risk and Product.
- Answer partner questions on residual payments, pricing, and contract renewals, working with Finance and Sales.
- Give partner sales teams training and materials, and coordinate joint marketing with Marketing.
- Bring partner needs back to Product as clear requirements, and advise partner teams on Thread's integration options and processing features.
- Serve as the primary contact for partner leadership and partner escalations, and coordinate answers with Sales, Implementation, Risk, and Customer Service.
- Lead quarterly business reviews that use performance results to show progress and next steps.
- Define the partner coverage model and service tiers, build the case for future partner manager headcount, and lead the partner management team as the partner base grows.
- Perform cross-functional or cross-departmental responsibilities based on need.
Qualifications- Bachelor's degree required, in business, finance, economics, or a related field.
- Two or more years in payments, including one or more years managing payments partners such as software platforms, independent software vendors, or processors, with the ability to explain the players in payments and how partners, banks, and acquirers make money.
- Working knowledge of acquiring economics, including interchange, dues and assessments, sponsor bank responsibilities, and card brand risk programs.
- Experience leading a team of partner or account managers.
- Working knowledge of payment gateways, integrations, and settlement, including how a card transaction moves from authorization to funding.
- Proven record of growing partner accounts through planning and proactive outreach, not reactive support.
- Ability to use performance reports to build clear, practical growth plans.
- Experience leading quarterly business reviews with partner executives.
- Strong presentation skills with both executives and technical teams.
- Experience working with risk, compliance, and commercial teams inside a regulated bank.
- Ability to travel to partner sites as needed.
- Preferred: sponsor bank, card network, or processor experience; familiarity with the Fiserv platform; ETA CPP or NACHA AAP certification.
Physical requirements and accommodations
The employee must be able to perform the essential functions of this position. If requested, Thread Bank will make reasonable accommodations to enable employees with disabilities to perform the essential functions of their job, absent undue hardship, in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA").
