Partnerships Manager

About the role

The Product Partnerships Manager is responsible for managing and operationalizing integrations with banks and financial institutions that enable Lean’s payment, open banking, and digital asset products. This is a product-adjacent partnerships role focused on technical enablement, compliance onboarding, and operational alignment, rather than commercial sales or pipeline generation.

You will drive the end-to-end lifecycle of a bank partnership - from initial requirements gathering, to onboarding and account opening, as well as managing the bank relationship throughout the product integration, testing, go-live process, and ongoing operational management.

This role is ideal for someone who is structured, highly cross-functional, technically curious, and comfortable navigating banking, regulatory, and operational complexity.

The Moment

Lean has tripled in size over the past twelve months. We’re on track to triple again next year.

What started as the region’s pioneering Open Finance platform is now becoming something bigger: a multi-product infrastructure company powering payments, data, and lending across MENA. We’re expanding into new markets, opening offices, acquiring businesses, and building capabilities that didn’t exist here before.

We’ve processed billions of dollars in transactions. We’re trusted by 300+ clients - from Binance and Careem to Etisalat - and backed by General Catalyst, Sequoia, and Shorooq. Our $67.5M Series B was just the beginning.

What you'll own

• Operational Relationship Management

  • Act as the operational owner for assigned bank relationships.

  • Maintain strong working relationships across the bank.

  • Manage operational issues, incident escalations, and day-to-day coordination.

  • Lead weekly or biweekly operational syncs with bank partners and Lean internal teams.

  • Organize and maintain operational runbooks, escalation paths, and integration documentation.

• Bank Account Opening & Operational Setup

  • Drive the account opening lifecycle across multiple banks for multi-currency accounts

  • Coordinate documentation with internal Legal, Compliance, Finance, Treasury teams.

  • Manage signatories, mandates, pricing schedules, and bank operational requirements.

• Cross-Functional Project Management

  • Own cross-functional workstreams between Product, Engineering, Compliance, Finance, and Operations.

  • Maintain shared project plans, dashboards, and integration timelines for internal visibility.

  • Drive structured communication to ensure all teams stay aligned and unblock roadblocks promptly.

  • Prepare internal briefs, integration memos, and updates for leadership

• FI Outreach and Engagement

  • Work with product and engineering teams to identify operational gaps and product partnership needs

  • Support the engagement and outreach to new FI and bank partners

  • Identify and engage strategic partners to support product operations

What we're looking for

• 5+ years of experience in product operations, product partnerships, or technical partnership management roles within the fintech space

• Experience managing complex integration projects involving engineering, compliance, and operations

• Familiarity with bank compliance and regulatory requirements

• Strong project management capabilities and comfort coordinating multiple stakeholders.

• Excellent communication and stakeholder management abilities.

• Strong analytical, structured thinking, and documentation skills.

• Comfortable working in a fast-paced environment with ambiguity and shifting priorities.

• Able to maintain calm, clarity, and organization when dealing with bank bureaucracy or operational issues.

NB. While we think the above experience could be important, we’re keen to hear from people that believe they have valuable experience to bring to the role. If you identify with the team and mission, but not all of our requirements, then please still apply!!

We’re building the financial infrastructure for MENA. Not as a slogan, as a fact.

Since 2019, we’ve become the first regulated Open Banking and Open Finance company operating across the UAE and Saudi Arabia. We’ve processed billions of dollars. We connect millions of accounts. We enable companies like Binance, Careem, and Etisalat to build products that were previously impossible in this region.

Our recent $67.5M Series B from General Catalyst and Sequoia isn’t just validation: it’s fuel. We’re expanding into new markets, launching new products, and setting the pace for what financial innovation looks like in MENA.

We solve hard problems. We move fast. We hold ourselves to a high standard. And we’re looking for people who’ve done this before to help us do it right.

If you’re motivated by building something that lasts, not just something that scales, Lean is where you need to be.

Not only do we offer competitive salaries, private healthcare, and flexible office hours, but we also insist that every member of the team hold a meaningful equity stake in the business to ensure long-term alignment. We'd love you to join us for this journey!

Lean is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status.

When applying for a job at Lean Technologies, we will need to collect, use and share Personal Data about you with different members of our team during the application process. This may mean transferring your data to members of the team in one of our office locations worldwide outside of the country you are in. Please refer to our Privacy Notice on our website for more information about how we may use and store your Personal Data