Context of the Strategic Partnerships Lead, Europe role
This is a high-visibility, execution-driven role responsible for originating, structuring, and scaling strategic channel partnerships globally. Reporting to the Head of Strategic Partnerships in Europe, you will have end-to-end commercial ownership and a clear revenue mandate.
We are looking for an entrepreneurial, hands-on commercial leader who takes complete accountability for outcomes, ruthlessly prioritizes high-impact opportunities, and serves as the single point of contact for our most critical strategic partners. You must possess the curiosity and technical hunger to dive deep into Thunes’ product architecture and network roadmap to articulate compelling partner value propositions.
Key Responsibilities
- End-to-End Ownership & Commercial Execution: Own the full partnership lifecycle from strategy and lead generation to deal structuring, contract negotiation, and post-close activation to achieve revenue targets
- Single Point of Contact: Serve as the definitive, primary point of contact and partner advocate internally and externally, driving resolution for key issues and unlocking long-term account value
- Deep Product & Network Alignment: Proactively master Thunes’ current product offerings and future product roadmap. Identify precise product-market fits and tailor joint value propositions for key platform partners.
- Cross-Functional Collaboration: Roll up your sleeves and work closely with internal teams across Product, Tech, Direct Sales, Network, Treasury, and Legal/Compliance to remove delivery bottlenecks, customize solutions, and bring partner deals live.
- Ruthless Prioritization: Focus relentlessly on high-return, strategic deals that scale indirect distribution globally, actively filter out low-value distraction, and optimize go-to-market efficiency.
- Account Strategy & Growth: Formulate and execute tailored account plans for strategic technology platforms, ecosystems, and specialist channel partners.
Professional Experience/ Qualifications
- 10+ years of commercial experience in strategic partnerships, business development, management consulting or channel management within cross-border payments, fintech, or enterprise SaaS
- Demonstrable history of hitting and exceeding high commercial targets and driving measurable revenue growth through complex partnerships
- Deep desire to roll up your sleeves to understand technical/network details and influence/ articulate how complex solutions align with partner roadmaps
- Successful at navigating internal cross-functional matrix teams to orchestrate and execute complex deals; working at a startup or small teams in this capacity is preferred
- High degree of self-direction, high energy, and an entrepreneurial pragmatic "whatever it takes" attitude to problem-solving
- Excited by a global mandate with willingness for international travel across key partner regions
- Exceptional executive presence and written/verbal communication skills in English. Major European languages are a plus
Skills Required
- 10+ years of commercial experience in strategic partnerships, business development, management consulting, or channel management
- Experience within cross-border payments, fintech, or enterprise SaaS
- Proven record of meeting or exceeding commercial targets and driving measurable revenue growth through complex partnerships
- Ability to understand technical and network details and align complex solutions with partner roadmaps
- Experience navigating cross-functional matrix teams to execute complex deals
- High degree of self-direction, energy, and entrepreneurial problem-solving ability
- Willingness to travel internationally across key partner regions
- Exceptional executive presence and written and verbal communication skills in English
- Experience working at a startup or in small teams
- Major European language skills
What We Do
Thunes is a B2B cross-border payments network for emerging markets. Our global platform provides seamless transfer of funds between payment systems in more than 100 countries and 60 currencies. We enable mobile wallet providers, technology companies, PSPs, money transfer operators and banks to make financial services accessible worldwide. We offer four key payment solutions: •Remittance processing, which fosters worldwide financial inclusion •Mass payouts, which support globalisation and the sharing economy •Virtual Accounts, which help corporates around the world boost their revenue •Business payments, which enable businesses to trade easily across borders Since Thunes was established in 2016, we’ve processed real-time transactions for millions of people across the world. Thunes is headquartered in Singapore with regional offices in London, Shanghai and New York.
