Director of Partnerships - Banking and Payments

Breeze • New York, NY

18h • Hybrid

About The Position

Are you passionate about solving complex challenges in the fintech space? We’re looking for talented individuals to join our dynamic startup, backed by Sequoia Capital. We’re building the universal payment layer to unify all currencies—fiat and crypto—so businesses and consumers can transact seamlessly. If you're passionate about creating innovative solutions in a dynamic, fast-paced environment, we want to talk to you.
We are hiring a Director of Partnerships – Banking & Payments!
As the Director of Partnerships at Breeze, you will own the strategy and execution for building the banking partnerships that power our payments infrastructure. You’ll be responsible for sourcing, negotiating, and scaling relationships with banks and financial institutions that enable our products, expand our capabilities, and support our global growth.
This is a highly strategic role at the intersection of payments, product, and regulatory infrastructure. You’ll work closely with leadership to define Breeze’s banking partnership strategy while collaborating with product, compliance, operations, and engineering teams to launch new payment capabilities and markets.
This role is ideal for someone with deep experience in the payments ecosystem who has built and scaled banking relationships and enjoys operating in fast-moving fintech environments where critical infrastructure partnerships must be developed from the ground up.

Requirements

• 8+ years of experience in fintech, payments, or financial services partnerships.
• Strong experience building and managing banking relationships within the payments ecosystem.
• Deep understanding of payment rails, sponsor banking models, acquiring, issuing, and banking-as-a-service infrastructure.
• Proven experience negotiating complex commercial and operational agreements with financial institutions.
• Experience launching or scaling payment infrastructure through bank partnerships.
• Strong network across banks, sponsor banks, payment providers, or financial infrastructure companies.
• Ability to navigate complex regulatory and operational environments in fintech.
• Strategic mindset with the ability to drive partnerships from strategy through execution.
• Experience working cross-functionally with product, compliance, legal, and engineering teams.
• Comfortable operating in early-stage or high-growth startup environments.
• Excellent negotiation, stakeholder management, and communication skills.

Nice To Haves

• Experience working across multiple markets or global payments infrastructure is a strong plus.
• Hybrid in NYC office is preferred, but can be remote.

Responsibilities

• Own Breeze’s banking partnership strategy, identifying and securing financial institution relationships that support our payments infrastructure and future product expansion.
• Source, structure, and negotiate strategic partnerships with banks, sponsor banks, and financial institutions across key markets.
• Lead the end-to-end partner lifecycle, including sourcing, diligence, commercial negotiation, onboarding, and long-term relationship management.
• Work closely with product and engineering teams to launch new payment rails, integrations, and financial capabilities enabled through banking partners.
• Partner with compliance, legal, and risk teams to ensure partnerships align with regulatory requirements and operational standards.
• Build and maintain senior-level relationships with partner institutions, acting as Breeze’s primary strategic point of contact.
• Identify opportunities to improve payment performance, reliability, geographic coverage, and cost efficiency through strategic partnerships.
• Help shape Breeze’s payments infrastructure roadmap by identifying new opportunities across banks, payment networks, and financial infrastructure providers.
• Support market expansion initiatives by identifying and securing local banking partners in new geographies.
• Represent Breeze in conversations with banks, payment networks, and ecosystem stakeholders.
• Develop scalable frameworks and internal processes for managing and growing partnerships as the company scales.
• Provide strategic insights to leadership on banking infrastructure, payment networks, and evolving industry dynamics.

Benefits

• Competitive salary + equity plan
• 21 days PTO
• Flexible benefits: annual medical allowance, productivity allowance, gym membership/personal well-being subsidy
• Annual team retreat trip
• Strong revenue growth

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director
• Education Level: No Education Listed