Strategic Partnerships Lead

**About Thunes**

Thunes is the Smart Superhighway for money movement around the world. Thunes' proprietary Direct Global Network allows Members to make payments in real-time in over 130 countries and more than 80 currencies.

Thunes' Network connects directly to over 7 billion mobile wallets and bank accounts worldwide, via more than 350 different payment methods, such as GCash, M-Pesa, Airtel, MTN, Orange, JazzCash, Easypaisa, AliPay, WeChat Pay and many more.

Members of Thunes' Direct Global Network include gig economy giants like Uber and Deliveroo, super-apps like Grab and WeChat, MTOs, fintechs, PSPs and banks. Thunes' Direct Global Network differentiates itself through its worldwide reach, in-house Smart Treasury Management Platform and Fortress Compliance Infrastructure, ensuring Members of the Network receive unrivalled speed, control, visibility, protection and cost efficiencies when making real-time payments globally.

**Context of the role**

This is a unique opportunity to be part of a commercial team driving partnership development globally. The **Strategic Partnerships Lead**role is expected to set up, strategise, grow and execute channel sales partnerships in the APAC-Middle East region, providing a clear direction to the leadership on how and where to accelerate growth in this space across our key markets.

With all the untapped potential in channel sales, Strategic Partnerships are a critical component to scale the overall go-to-market for the business, generate revenue, and create lasting partnerships. This is a business development role reporting to the Head of Strategic Partnerships in Europe with a clear revenue target to achieve. The person will need to have a strong executive presence, be target-driven, and have a passion and ownership to deliver numbers. This will be a hands-on role with deep involvement in execution, leading from the front.

**Key Responsibilities**
- Develop a strategic positioning of how Thunes can grow exponentially via indirect sale channels by executing commercial partnerships with key technology platforms
- Drive the strategic partnership's agenda for the APAC-ME regions, working with key stakeholders across the globe to achieve our objectives, including product, tech, sales etc
- Develop new relationships with strategic players with the ultimate objective of agreeing on areas of mutual beneficial value between Thunes and potential partners
- Structure and close commercial deals that will help Thunes to accelerate revenue growth and increased visibility
- Develop and execute strategic and tactical account plans with specialist partners
- Collaborate with the sales and product teams to identify opportunities to work with partners to maximise revenue and build deeper client relationships
- Work closely with the product teams to evolve the value proposition, products, and platforms to meet client/market needs
- Act as the liaison for partners, proactively identifying and solving partner and customer issues and challenges

**Professional Experience/ Qualifications**
- Bachelors or master's degree in business, finance, IT, or related discipline
- At least 5+ years of experience in a commercial setting, e.g., business development or partnership management
- Deep understanding of cross-border payments, fintech, and enterprise tech ecosystem
- Demonstrable track record of achieving/ exceeding commercial targets within a partnerships role
- Would find working across a global remit exciting, this may also include decent amount of global travel
- An exceptional communicator and influencer, leading with integrity to build long-standing relationships both internally and externally
- Strategic yet hands-on - this is a senior position in which you will decide what to do as well as execute on it
- Must possess a can-do, entrepreneurial drive, focusing on solving problems creatively with a high level of energy. This is critical both as a cultural fit and based on the nature of internal business growth plans
- Proven ability to operate in a fast-paced and geographically diverse company