Sr. Strategic Partner Manager at Mercor

Senior Strategic Partner Manager – Payments | $70–95/hr | San Francisco, CA (On-Site)

Join a prestigious tech company's Global Payments Partnerships team, where you'll own high-impact partner relationships end-to-end—from strategy and business case development through negotiation, execution, and ongoing performance management. This is a senior, cross-functional leadership role for a payments professional who thrives in ambiguity and drives results at scale.

This role is employed through Cincinnatus (W-2), placed directly within the client's internal team.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead major partner workstreams with key payments ecosystem partners (networks, processors, issuers, PSPs), including quarterly planning, executive reporting, and issue resolution.
• Develop and drive partnerships strategy: identify opportunities, prioritize initiatives, define success metrics, and align internal stakeholders.
• Structure and negotiate complex agreements covering commercials, technical scope, performance expectations, privacy/data terms, and operational readiness.
• Collaborate closely with Product & Engineering to translate strategy into executable roadmaps with clear tradeoffs and business-grounded recommendations.
• Run cross-functional execution across Product, Engineering, Legal, Finance, Tax, Operations, and Marketing to launch and scale initiatives.
• Build decision frameworks and operating mechanisms to improve partner selection, sequencing, and ongoing performance management.
• Communicate effectively up and down the organization with concise leadership updates, clear asks, and thoughtful escalation.
• Leverage AI tools (drafting, summarizing, analysis, workflow automation) to increase speed and quality of work.

Qualifications

• 12+ years of relevant payments and/or partnerships experience, including ownership of complex, multi-threaded negotiations.
• Proven track record of leading cross-functional initiatives and influencing without direct authority.
• Experience structuring and negotiating commercial agreements, including financial modeling, pricing, and key contractual terms.
• Background in payments cost optimization.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills; ability to tailor messaging to executives, cross-functional teams, and external partners.
• Strong operational rigor: goal-setting, quarterly business reviews, and driving accountability.
• Demonstrated ability to leverage AI tools to improve productivity with sound data-handling judgment.
• Experience working with large global partners and C-level stakeholders.

Work Authorization: Applicants must be located in the United States. Visa sponsorship is not available for this role.