Strategic Payments Partnerships Director

Hi there! Thanks for stopping by 👋 Are you actively looking for a new opportunity? Or just checking the market? Well… you might just be in the right place! The Strategic Payments Partnerships Director will own the relationships with Lightspeed’s key financial services partners, including all major card brands and the world’s largest payments acquirers. These relationships underpin Lightspeed Payments, Capital, and many other key products our customers rely on to run their businesses. This role is focused on creating and executing strategies that further the adoption of Lightspeed Payments and Capital, not solely relationship management. Representing the connective tissue between Lightspeed and our financial services partners, this individual will play a critical role in growing and optimizing relationships that represent the majority of Lightspeed’s revenue. Reporting to the Head of Payments, this is a high-impact individual contributor role for someone who can operate strategically, drive cross-functional initiatives, and operate through influence. What you’ll be doing: - Develop and execute strategies that increase Lightspeed’s ability to win new merchants and convert existing merchants into Lightspeed Payments and Capital users. - Own the relationships with major card brands and key financial services providers globally, building joint business plans with clear priorities and accountability. - Collaborate with Strategy, Product, Legal, Compliance, Finance, Marketing, and Sales to translate company objectives into actionable partnership initiatives. - Set priorities with partners and push for innovation, product development, geographic expansion, co-marketing opportunities, and incremental revenue streams. - Identify and execute opportunities to improve payments economics, including margin expansion, approval performance, partner efficiencies, and commercial terms. - Lead complex negotiations and commercial structuring with card brands, acquirers, and strategic payment partners, balancing growth, economics, risk, and execution feasibility. - Serve as Lightspeed’s subject-matter expert on the payments ecosystem by monitoring scheme rules, regulatory developments, and market trends. - Represent Lightspeed externally and cultivate new strategic partner relationships. How you’ll know you’re thriving in this role: - Financial services partners are aligned to Lightspeed’s business goals, motivated to support our priorities, and operating within clear and measurable success metrics. - Financial services margin, approval performance, and revenue continue to improve across existing and newly launched products. - Partner roadmaps, launches, and cross-functional initiatives are executed on time and deliver measurable business impact. - Merchant satisfaction and retention increase across Lightspeed’s financial services products. - Partner relationships generate tangible strategic value through improved economics, new capabilities, expanded market access, co-marketing, and new growth opportunities. What you need to bring: We're looking for candidates who have experience with the following: - Managing major payments providers (5+ years): Building and deepening relationships with payments providers such as Fiserv, Stripe, Adyen, PayPal, and Worldpay. - Managing card-brand relationships (3+ years): Owning or co-developing growth strategies with card brands such as Visa, Mastercard, and American Express. - Financial services strategy (5+ years): Shaping strategy in a financial services, fintech, card-network, acquiring, or payments context. - Product launches and market expansion (3+ years): Supporting the launch of new financial services products, capabilities, or geographies. - Payments economics and ecosystem knowledge (5+ years): Applied understanding of card network dynamics, acquiring models, economics, and the broader payments value chain. - Fluency in engaging at an executive level, with strong written and verbal communication skil…