Director, Strategic Partnerships (Payments/Fintech)

Key responsibilities include:

• Collaborating across NMI (Product, Strategy, Marketing, and the revenue organization) to ground external conversations in real capabilities and roadmap direction, while identifying platform expansion priorities, profiling the partner and vendor landscape, prioritizing target companies, and driving engagement
• Acting as NMI’s primary interface with a defined set of strategic external companies and their senior executives and key leaders, representing NMI with credibility, clarity, and consistency
• Clearly and compellingly articulating NMI’s story: who we are, what we do, where we are going, and why it matters to each specific audience
• Tailoring NMI’s message based on context, whether the counterparty is a potential partner, ecosystem influencer, referral source, marketplace vendor, acquisition target, or long-term strategic buyer
• Building and maintaining senior-level relationships over time, with a focus on trust, relevance, and mutual value rather than short-term transactions
• Developing and operationalizing a clear framework for how NMI evaluates external companies and determines the “best path” for each relationship (partner, acquire, sell to, co-develop, or monitor)
• Ensuring NMI’s name, narrative, and reputation are consistently and proactively present with the right companies, founders, executives, and investors
• Serving as the connective tissue internally, bringing market intelligence, relationship context, and strategic insight back into NMI to inform decision-making

What success looks like in this role

Success is not measured by meeting throughput or deals signed. It shows up in:

• Fewer fragmented or duplicative external conversations across Sales, Product, and Strategy, and more coordinated engagement overall
• Tangible incremental value creation over time, either through new revenue streams or enhanced platform capabilities that improve how NMI serves partners and their merchants
• A clearly defined and well-understood ecosystem of strategic relationships aligned to NMI’s long-term strategy
• External companies and executives who understand NMI’s value and actively think of NMI as a relevant partner, platform, or strategic option
• A repeatable framework that helps NMI decide how to engage with external companies, rather than treating every opportunity as ad hoc
• Strong collaboration with Corporate Development, resulting in better-qualified, better-timed strategic opportunities

The profile we are looking for

The ideal candidate is a strategic operator with strong executive presence and sound judgment. They are comfortable operating without a script, navigating ambiguity, and playing the long game.

We are looking for someone who brings:

• Senior experience in strategic partnerships, corporate development, strategy, or a related role within payments, with additional experience in B2B technology, fintech, or software platforms strongly preferred
• A strong collaborator and team player who can lead through influence, align diverse objectives and interests, and bring structure and clarity to how NMI’s capabilities are applied across the organization
• The ability to quickly understand complex businesses and translate that understanding into clear, tailored narratives for different audiences
• Proven strength in building and sustaining senior executive relationships over time, with the ability to engage effectively with leaders across multiple levels of large, complex organizations
• High business judgment and pattern recognition, with the ability to assess where a relationship should go and when
• Comfort operating across functions and influencing without formal authority
• A reputation for credibility, discretion, and follow-through
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to represent NMI externally at a senior level

Reporting structure and scope

This role reports directly to the Chief Strategy Officer and sits within Corporate Development, working closely with Corporate Strategy, M&A, Product, Sales, and Marketing. The scope is enterprise-wide, with visibility into NMI’s long-term strategic direction and growth priorities.

As well as being a part of something exciting everyday, you will also receive the following benefits:

• • A remote first culture!
  • Flex PTO 
  • Health, Dental and Vision Insurance
  • 13 Paid Holidays
  • Company volunteer days

What we do!

NMI enables our partners with choice, and challenges the one-size-fits-all approach to payments. You've probably used NMI in the last 24 hours without even realizing it. We’re the platform that powers success for innovative tech created by SMBs, entrepreneurs and fintech startups. We’re creative problem solvers who help visionaries smash through boundaries and think beyond what’s possible so they can think about what’s next. But we’re not just built for the tech savvy. We democratize the latest payments technology so that everyone can realize the benefits of easy payments across the full spectrum of commerce. We’re all about enabling more payments in more ways and more places.

We believe that having a diverse group of employees strengthens both our work and our workplace. We’re focused on making NMI more diverse and welcoming with initiatives like having a dedicated Diversity, Equity & Inclusion action group, diversity goals for hiring, anonymized resume screening, affinity groups such as our Women's network and LGBTQ+ Network, open forums for discussions on diversity and social justice, and measuring inclusion and belonging as part of our regular employee engagement surveys.

Equal Opportunity

NMI is committed to providing equal employment opportunity for all persons regardless of race, color, religion, sex, age, marital status, national origin, sexual orientation or sexual identity, genetic information, citizen status (except those that do not have the legal right to be employed in the United States), disability, military service, service member, veteran status, or any other basis protected by applicable law.

Please be aware that all offers of employment are made subject to receipt of satisfactory background and financial checks.

Attention job applicants: Please note that in compliance with the data protection regulations within your jurisdiction, any personal information submitted with your job application may be collected and used by NMI for the purpose of recruitment and employment-related activities. By submitting your application, you acknowledge and provide explicit consent to the processing of your personal information as described in our privacy policy found on our website. For more information on how we process your information, please read our privacy policy here: https://www.nmi.com/legal/privacy-policy/

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