Senior Director, Product Partnerships

About the Role

This is a role for an exceptional product partnerships operator. The mandate is to unlock enterprise value in direct support of Product, Risk, and Finance strategic priorities: building the deepest understanding at Flex of the capability landscape — who does what, at what economics, and where the market is headed — and converting that insight into new capabilities, new commercial relationships, and best-in-class terms on the agreements that drive Flex's unit economics. The portfolio spans payment networks, payment processors, credit bureaus, data providers, and any capability partner that is highly strategic or has a major impact on Flex's unit economics.

You'll own the full partner lifecycle — from opportunity identification through negotiation, integration, launch, and portfolio optimization — along with the most senior relationships with Flex's key partners, setting Flex up for strong long-term growth. This is also a zero-to-one build: you will stand up the Product Partnerships function — the strategy, the playbooks, and, as the portfolio scales, the team. This role reports to the SVP of Business Development & Strategic Partnerships.

What You'll Do

Own the strategy that unlocks enterprise value

• Develop and maintain the deepest understanding at Flex of the capability landscape — providers, economics, emerging entrants, and market shifts — across payments, money movement, credit and bureau data, identity, risk, and data
• Partner with Product, Risk, and Business leadership to understand their strategic priorities — then map Flex's capability stack against gaps, margin opportunities, and strategic risk, and drive clear build-buy-partner decisions
• Identify and execute on the partnership opportunities that unlock enterprise value — new product surface area, stronger risk capabilities, better economics, or durable strategic advantage
• Build the business cases — unit economics modeling, market sizing, competitive analysis, and risk assessment — that earn executive conviction and cross-functional investment
• Pressure-test opportunities quickly and kill the ones that don't clear the bar, so the team's energy concentrates on the biggest levers

Negotiate best-in-class terms

• Lead complex, multi-stakeholder negotiations with payment networks, processors, credit bureaus, data providers, and other strategic capability partners
• Structure creative economics — incentive agreements, volume commitments, tiered pricing, revenue shares, and exclusivity mechanics — while protecting Flex's flexibility and long-term optionality
• Own the full deal cycle from thesis to term sheet to executed contract, in tight partnership with Legal, Finance, and Product
• Run renewals and renegotiations with the same rigor as new deals: benchmark the market, model the alternatives, and negotiate from a position of prepared leverage

Own the partner relationships that power long-term growth

• Own the most senior relationships with Flex's key partners across the portfolio — building the executive trust and multi-year strategic alignment that earn Flex preferential terms, early access to new capabilities, and durable advantage
• Partner closely with Product, Design, and Engineering to translate agreement terms and partner capabilities into product roadmaps, integration plans, and launch-ready experiences
• Define success metrics for each partnership, instrument them, and own the operating cadence — QBRs, performance reviews, escalation paths — that keeps partners delivering against their commitments
• Monitor portfolio health continuously: economics versus model, performance versus SLA, and capability versus an evolving competitive landscape

Build the machine, not just the wins

• Stand up the Product Partnerships function from zero to one — the operating model, the playbooks, and, as the portfolio scales, the team you hire and lead
• Create repeatable playbooks for evaluating, negotiating, launching, and managing product partnerships across their full lifecycle
• Report portfolio economics, pipeline health, forecasts, and strategic priorities to executive leadership
• Serve as a connective-tissue leader across BD, Product, Design, Engineering, Finance, Legal, and Risk & Compliance

Key Qualifications

• 12+ years of experience spanning product partnerships, business development, product management, or corporate development — ideally in fintech, payments, credit, or platform technology companies
• Fluent in the economics of at least one major capability domain — payments (interchange, network incentives, processing costs), credit and bureau data, or data infrastructure — and a fast study across the rest: you know where margin and leverage live, and how to negotiate for them
• A track record of negotiating complex agreements with networks, processors, bureaus, financial institutions, or major data providers, and carrying them through integration and launch to measurable P&L impact
• Demonstrated success identifying a new capability or commercial relationship before it was obvious — powered by a deep, current map of the provider ecosystem — and driving the cross-functional execution that captured the value
• A proven team builder and leader — you have hired, developed, and led high-performing teams, and you're equally effective operating hands-on as a function of one while the team takes shape
• Fluent collaborator with Product, Engineering, Risk, and Finance — you can engage credibly on APIs, integration scope, underwriting requirements, and unit economics, and you know how to earn the trust of technical and analytical teams
• Commercially creative with strong financial rigor: comfortable building the model, stress-testing the assumptions, and defending it to a CFO
• An exceptional relationship-builder with a track record of owning C-suite and senior executive relationships at strategic partners — and converting that trust into better terms, earlier access, and long-term growth
• Thrive in ambiguity and high-velocity environments; equally strong at strategic thinking and hands-on execution
• Excellent communicator and storyteller — able to turn analysis into narrative and narrative into organizational momentum
• Disciplined operator with strong portfolio management and forecasting instincts
• Deeply curious about financial technology, payments, credit, and the rental ecosystem