Growth Partnerships Lead

About the role

You will architect and own the end-to-end strategy for affiliate and referral partnerships that fuel Found's small business acquisition engine. You will act as the primary external growth partner for key platforms, marketplaces, and creator ecosystems that small business owners already trust. You will design and negotiate high-impact deals that align incentives and drive scalable, measurable revenue growth. You will translate complex fintech products into simple, compliant partner experiences that feel native and valuable. You will build and manage a portfolio of partnerships with clear accountability for performance and continuous optimization. You will work hand-in-hand with product, engineering, and analytics to iterate quickly on offers and flows that convert. This role is for a builder who wants to create a new growth channel from scratch and see it compound over time.

Key facts

What you'll do

• Lead the discovery and validation of high-potential growth partners within the small business ecosystem, defining hypotheses for new channels and testing them rapidly.
• Own the full deal cycle for affiliate and referral partnerships, from initial outreach and pitch through negotiation, contracting, and launch.
• Design and negotiate commission structures, referral fees, and incentive models that optimize acquisition volume while protecting unit economics.
• Collaborate with product and engineering teams to create low-friction onboarding flows, tracking implementations, and partner enablement tools.
• Establish clear goals, forecasts, and budgets for every partner in your portfolio, and own the ongoing analysis of performance against those plans.
• Monitor partner health and ROI in real time, identifying underperformers, diagnosing root causes, and deciding whether to scale, pivot, or sunset relationships.
• Build and own co-marketing plans, creative assets, and partner enablement programs that give partners the confidence and tools to promote Found effectively.
• Partner with Analytics and Marketing Ops to implement and validate tracking in platforms such as Impact, ensuring data integrity across the funnel.
• Define and report on core partnership metrics including conversion, customer acquisition cost, and revenue to executive stakeholders.
• Represent Found in external discussions, ensuring brand consistency and compliance with fintech marketing and regulatory expectations.
• Recruit, develop, and mentor internal team members as the channel scales, creating a repeatable playbook for growth.
• Identify adjacent partner categories and run experiments to expand the footprint of Found's small business financial stack.
• Maintain a rigorous feedback loop with partners to surface product insights and inform roadmap priorities.
• Balance short-term revenue wins with long-term brand and trust building across all partner relationships.
• Own the documentation and operational playbooks that make the partnership function scalable and transparent.

Requirements

• 4-6+ years in partnerships, affiliate/channel marketing, business development, or sales, with a track record of sourcing and closing partnerships that produced measurable revenue.
• A hunter's instinct: You are energized by finding new partners, getting the meeting, and closing the deal.
• Negotiation and relationship skills: You build trust fast, structure deals that work for both sides, and can hold executive-level relationships as easily as you can send the first cold email.
• Analytical rigor: You don't just report the numbers - you understand why one partner outperforms another, and you know what to do about it. You are comfortable in affiliate platforms and funnel metrics.
• Ownership: This isn't a "set it and forget it" role. You see the data, form a hypothesis, test it, and know the next move. You flag the problem and bring the solution.
• Builder energy: You do your best work in an open field with ambiguity, and you'd rather build the channel than inherit it.
• Experience working with small business owners and understanding their financial workflows, pain points, and decision processes.
• Familiarity with CRM and partnership management tools, including how to track touchpoints and outcomes at scale.
• Comfort with financial compliance and regulatory considerations in marketing and communications.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to translate technical product details into clear partner-facing narratives.

Nice to have

• Fintech experience
• Experience marketing to small business owners
• Familiarity with regulatory considerations for marketing content in fintech or banking

Practical notes

Hours, travel, visa, or deadlines stated in SOURCE.