Manager, Partner Program Operations (Payments)

Our client is a high growth fintech company delivering embedded finance and digital wallet solutions for the regulated gaming, sports entertainment, and hospitality sectors. The Manager of Partner Program Operations will manage critical vendor relationships and sponsor banking networks across daily business continuity, external integrations, vendor escalations, and cross functional alignment. This role sits at the intersection of program management, commercial operations, and alliance management, working closely with leadership across Product, Risk, Finance, and Client Success to ensure partner performance supports company growth.  

What You Will Do

• Act as the primary operational liaison and central point of communication for key external platform partners and vendors.
• Monitor partner deliverables, implementation timelines, milestones, and service level agreements.
• Support leadership with vendor agreement evaluations, renewals, contract amendments, and operational challenges.
• Design and optimize workflows to streamline vendor onboarding and partner integration processes.
• Provide project management support for new features, core services, client onboarding, and technical issue resolution.
• Monitor fintech industry trends and partner platform updates, and communicate operational or regulatory impacts to internal stakeholders.
• Coordinate with Product Deployment and external vendors to support specialized program features, system customizations, and co branded rollouts.
• Lead and participate in Quarterly Business Reviews, status meetings, and operational strategy sessions.

What You Bring

• 5 to 8 years of experience in fintech partner management, program operations, commercial management, or related consulting.
• Practical understanding of payment card issuance, transaction processing, merchant acquiring, and core card network flows.
• Experience with closed loop networks, embedded banking, or BaaS models is a major plus.
• Bachelor's degree or equivalent deep, relevant industry experience.
• Experience building and scaling relationships with internal executives and external client or vendor leadership.
• Track record driving complex, multi stakeholder business projects from discovery through final execution.
• Strong analytical skills with the ability to audit operational reports and assess partner KPIs.
• Familiarity with PowerBI or similar reporting platforms is a plus.
• Experience operating independently and managing workflows with minimal oversight.
• Prior exposure to highly regulated, transactional environments such as digital wagering, sports betting, casinos, or large scale hospitality operations is highly preferred.