AffiniPay Business Operations Manager, Partnerships at Affinipay1 owning a portfolio of multinational partners and embedded finance fintech product initiatives. Accountable for strategy, commercial outcomes, and cross-functional alignment.
Responsibilities
This is a senior strategic individual contributor role with high visibility across 8am’s executive team, spanning both external partner relationships and internal fintech product initiatives. You’ll be the face of 8am to your partners, the owner of 8am’s embedded finance and fintech roadmap, and the internal quarterback who aligns Product, Engineering, Operations, Finance, Marketing, Legal, Risk, Compliance, and other cross-functional teams behind a shared partner strategy.
At 8am, our vision is to power a world where professionals thrive. We start every day on a mission to empower professionals with the most trusted, innovative technology to deliver world-class outcomes for their clients and exceptional financial results for their business. They count on our purpose-built solutions to simplify operations, ensure compliance, and fuel profitable growth, so they can focus on their clients and do more of the work that matters.
Founded in 2005, 8amTM (formerly AffiniPay) is the professional business platform built to help legal, accounting, and other client-focused professionals run stronger, more profitable businesses. Today, more than 250,000 professionals across the U.S. trust 8am to help them work smarter, serve clients better, and unlock their full potential. We have been recognized as one of Inc 5000’s fastest growing companies in the U.S. for 13 years in a row, and as a result, our teams continue to grow as well!
Own and grow a portfolio of NAPI+ partners — serving as the single accountable owner for strategy, commercial outcomes, escalations, and internal/external alignment across partners such as Adyen, Affirm, Visa, sponsor banks, and other critical third parties.
Own and scale 8am’s embedded finance and fintech product initiatives — including outgoing payments, capital lending, and credit products — as the accountable owner for strategy, roadmap, and cross-functional delivery, partnering closely with Product, Engineering, Risk, and Compliance to bring new financial capabilities to market.
Establish a world-class engagement model — architect the overarching strategy, commercial roadmaps, and QBR rhythms. Define collaborative objectives, executive reporting, and streamlined escalation protocols while fostering deep, multi-level stakeholder connectivity to accelerate partnership momentum.
Negotiate and execute commercial agreements — including new deals, renewals, amendments, and incentive structures. Partner with Legal, Finance, and others to land economics that meaningfully improve 8am volume growth, unit economics, and unlock new capabilities.
Drive coordinated cross-functional execution — design, advocate, and ensure partner-driven initiatives are prioritized, resourced, and delivered on plan.
Identify and unlock new commercial and product opportunities within existing partnerships — new payment methods, fraud/risk capabilities, co-marketing, and joint go-to-market motions — and drive them from idea to launch.
Build executive-level visibility and trust with partner leadership through top-to-top engagement, joint planning, and a consistent communication cadence.
Measure and report on partnership performance — build the scorecards, dashboards, and operating reviews that give 8am leadership a clear view of partner health, risks, and opportunities.
Anticipate and manage through critical events — proactively mitigate risks to core revenue streams.
Qualification
Experience with embedded financeHighly autonomousExperience with SalesforceBachelor’s degree in Business
Required
10–12+ years of progressive experience in strategic partnerships, business development, or commercial partner management in payments, embedded finance, or a related high-growth technology environment, including experience operating at a senior/Director level.
Demonstrated experience owning relationships with large, multinational payments companies including one or more of: card networks, acquirers/processors, issuer-processors, BNPL or embedded finance providers, sponsor banks, etc.
Experience with embedded finance, lending, or credit products — such as BNPL, working capital or capital lending, card issuing, or credit underwriting — including partnering with Risk, Compliance, and Legal to launch new regulated financial products, strongly preferred.
Proven track record of leading complex commercial negotiations end-to-end and delivering measurable growth, revenue, and cost outcomes through partnerships — expanding scope, restructuring economics, and turning partner relationships into measurable product and growth wins.
Strong commercial instincts and comfort with financial models — able to read a partner P&L impact, pressure-test interchange and revenue-share economics, and structure incentive deals in partnership with Finance.
Strong cross-functional leadership and the ability to influence partners and internal stakeholders at all levels.
Excellent written and verbal communication — able to move from a working session with engineers to a QBR with a partner’s SVP without missing a beat.
Highly autonomous, organized, and outcome-driven — comfortable operating in ambiguous, fast-changing environments with a strong sense of ownership and urgency.
Experience with Salesforce, Slack, Tableau or Sigma, and modern AI/productivity tools.
Bachelor’s degree in Business, Economics, Finance, or a related field; advanced degree a plus.
Willingness to travel periodically (~20%) for partner meetings, on-sites, summits, and industry events.
Legal and/or Accounting industry experience is a plus.
