Partnerships Lead

Cross-border commerce doesn't scale on cold outbound alone. The fastest-growing merchants come through the people who already have their trust — their PSP, their orchestrator, their investors. Outpost needs someone to own that channel. We operate as Merchant of Record, Tax of Record, and Customs of Record across 58+ jurisdictions — becoming the legally liable entity for payments, tax, and customs so our merchants don't have to be. We work alongside the payments stack, never against it. Stripe, Adyen, Checkout.com, Nuvei and Worldpay are partners, not competitors. This is the first partnerships hire. You'll build the partner channel from scratch.

This is a Partnerships Lead role for someone who thinks commercially, moves like an operator, and can turn a network into a repeatable pipeline. Partnerships are already our second-biggest source of customer flow, after the founders' organic outreach. Investor introductions are our single strongest channel — Netflix came through Checkout.com angels, iyzico through Speedinvest, Buyee through Sozo. Today that motion runs through the CEO. Your job is to own it, systematise it, and scale it. You'll work directly with the CEO, engineering, and operations to turn PSPs, orchestrators, and investors into signed merchants — and to build the commercial scaffolding (MSAs, referral agreements, embedded‑API terms) that doesn't exist yet. This isn't relationship‑building for its own sake. Every partner earns its place in GMV.

What You'll Get

Yes, the work is intense. But in return, you'll get exposure most people wait 10–20 years to access. You’ll sit across the table from PSPs, acquiring banks, orchestrators, and top‑tier fintech investors — owning strategic commercial decisions from day one. We won't handhold, but we'll coach you hard. If you're hungry, you'll leave with a world‑class partnerships skillset and a network across the entire cross‑border payments ecosystem.

What You'll Do

• Own the partner channel: Build Outpost's partnerships function from scratch — pipeline, process, and commercial playbook.
• Deepen the PSP and orchestrator relationships that refer us merchants (Checkout.com, Adyen, Nuvei, EBANX, Primer, Airwallex, GoCardless) and open the ones that don't yet.
• Run the investor‑referral engine (Ribbit, BTV, Speedinvest, Sozo, Sony Innovation Fund) — keep them warm, make the asks specific, convert intros into signed merchants.
• Set the strategy for which partners are worth our time and which aren't.
• Close and manage deals: Own referral deals end to end — scope, negotiate, close, and track (up to 1% of GMV over 24–36 months on MoR; up to 20% of net revenue on ToR).
• Drive the Nuvei build‑out: Phase 1 referrals (Papaya, €1.1B GMV), Phase 2 embedded API.
• Handle the commercial conversation and the technical one — you know what you're selling and where the funds flow.
• Build the infrastructure: Build the PSP partner MSA, the referral revenue‑share agreement, and the embedded‑API SLA from a blank page.
• Work with engineering on the Partner Portal (first tenant: Nuvei) so partners can see their merchants and economics without an email thread.
• Create the reporting and playbooks that let the channel scale without adding headcount.

Example Projects

• Take Nuvei from referral partner to embedded‑API partner and land the first three merchants through the new integration.
• Build the referral revenue‑share agreement template and get it signed with Speedinvest and two PSPs.
• Map every investor in the cap table to a warm merchant intro and convert five into pipeline.
• Design the Partner Portal spec with engineering so Nuvei can self‑serve merchant and economics data.
• Open a net‑new PSP partnership (e.g. Stripe or Worldpay) from first meeting to signed MSA.
• Build the partner‑attribution model so we know exactly how much GMV each channel drives.

What We're Looking For

• Ideal background: 4–7 years in partnerships, BD, or commercial roles at a payments company or fintech (Stripe, Adyen, Revolut, Checkout.com, Mollie, or similar).
• Payments/fintech experience is mandatory — you understand how money moves, how PSPs price, and where approval rates and settlement live.
• Track record of closing commercial partnerships, not just sourcing them.
• Bonus: existing network across PSPs, orchestrators, e‑commerce platforms, or the fintech VC ecosystem.
• Bonus: MoR, cross‑border, or tax‑compliance experience.
• Bonus: comfortable drafting your own commercial terms before legal gets involved.

Signals we care about:

• Commercial to the core — you think in GMV, take rates, and revenue share.
• Ridiculous bias for action — you solve, not observe.
• Strong EQ — you read a room, a partner, a blocker.
• Technically fluent — you can hold your own with an engineer on an API integration.
• Fluent in ambiguity and chaos — this is a build‑from‑scratch role.
• Curious and resourceful — you can figure anything out.
• Hands dirty — your default mode is to do, not delegate.

What this role is not:

• Not a relationship‑manager seat where you nurture accounts but don't close.
• Not a role that waits for a template, a team, or a process to exist before moving.
• Not a single‑channel specialist who only wants to work one partner type.

Why This Role Is Different

This isn't about managing an existing partner book. It's about building the channel that scales Outpost past $1BN GMV from the ground up. You won't just be in the room — you'll be defining how we grow through partners. You’ll have exposure to every part of the business: payments, product, tax, operations, and the investor base. You'll work directly with the founding team. You'll take a motion the founders run by hand and turn it into the engine behind the company's growth. We expect whoever is in this role to grow rapidly, and we'll back you every step of the way.

What We Offer

• Equity and salary in a well‑funded startup.
• Ability to own your work and move fast.
• World‑class training from operators who've scaled globally.
• A global mission with real impact.
• Low politics, high output.
• Chance to grow into Head of Partnerships as we scale.
• A culture of builders, not talkers.

Working Style

We work together in person in London, 4–5 days a week. We believe the hardest problems are solved in the room.

Reach Out

emile@outpost.ai

Learn more

Outpost Culture