The Role: Vice President Lifestyle Content Business DevelopmentLevel: Vice PresidentLocation: New YorkReports to: SVP of Financial Institution Business Development
The Role: Ascenda is building something genuinely new: a lifestyle content ecosystem that connects merchants across categories like pets, fitness, beauty, wellness, fashion, and gaming with the world's leading financial institutions.
As VP, Lifestyle Content Business Development, you will own the merchant side of this business. Your primary focus is building and scaling the network of lifestyle merchant partners that sit at the heart of Ascenda's coalition model, defining who's in, shaping the commercial structure, and developing the go-to-market approach that sells this into financial institutions and banks.
This is a builder role. You'll be creating from scratch, not inheriting a playbook. The brief will evolve, the verticals will expand, and the model will shift as we learn. You'll need to move with it.
Your Impact- Build and scale Ascenda's lifestyle merchant partner network across multiple content verticals (pets, fitness, beauty, wellness, fashion, gaming, sports entertainment)
- Define the merchant strategy for each vertical; who to recruit, how to position the coalition model, and what the unique value proposition is for merchants in each segment
- Develop commercial structures and partnership frameworks that work for merchants and financial institutions alike
- Own go-to-market development for lifestyle content, working in concert with the BD, Financial Institutions counterpart
- Translate merchant and category insights into a clear, compelling selling narrative
- Drive the expansion of Ascenda's lifestyle content footprint identifying new merchant categories and geographies to enter as the programme scales
- Collaborate with the BD, Financial Institutions lead where merchant content strategy is part of the conversation
- Work closely with internal product and technical teams (who own integration and personalization infrastructure) to ensure merchant content can be delivered effectively through Ascenda's platform
Who You Are- Proven BD and partnership leader; you have deep experience managing complex, multi-stakeholder partnerships and closing commercial deals that required building relationships from scratch
- Track record of building partner ecosystems or commercial models from zero; not optimising what exists, but creating what doesn't
- Experienced in a scale-up environment: you've developed and shipped new products or propositions and know what it takes to move from concept to market
- Deep background in advertiser-publisher relationships, merchant development, or content partnership ecosystems; you understand how to recruit and structure a merchant network
- Thrives when the brief changes and the structure doesn't exist yet; you're energised by ambiguity, not slowed by it
- Commercially minded with strong category instincts; you understand what makes a merchant segment tick and can build a selling message around it
- Strong communicator and storyteller who can sell a vision internally and externally
- Traditional loyalty and rewards experience is a plus
Ascenda offers a unique opportunity to build a new product category within an established, high-growth platform. You'll have the backing of world-class infrastructure and issuer relationships and the mandate to build something that doesn't yet exist.
We offer competitive compensation, flexible working, comprehensive benefits, and genuine career growth in a team that moves fast and values hands-on ownership.
