Partnership Development Director, Network Growth – Digital Assets

At Early Warning, we’ve powered and protected the U.S. financial system for over thirty years with cutting-edge solutions like Zelle®, Paze℠, and so much more. As a trusted name in payments, we partner with thousands of institutions to increase access to financial services and protect transactions for hundreds of millions of consumers and small businesses.

Positions located in Scottsdale, San Francisco, Chicago, or New York follow a hybrid work model to allow for a more collaborative working environment.

Candidates responding to this posting must independently possess the eligibility to work in the United States, for any employer, at the date of hire. This position is ineligible for employment Visa sponsorship.

Overall Purpose

The Director, Network Growth Partnerships – Digital Assets will lead institutional participation expansion and network growth for Early Warning’s digital asset ecosystem, onboarding banks, fintechs, and strategic participants into a scalable participation model. This role will focus on growing network participation for stablecoin-enabled, banks, financial institutions, fintechs, processors, and other network participants that can help scale adoption of Early Warning’s digital asset solutions.

The Director will develop partner business cases, define participation models, align executive stakeholders, and coordinate across Product, Engineering, Risk, Legal, Compliance, Strategy, and Operations to support scalable ecosystem growth

Essential Functions

• Act as the primary promoter of all Early Warning vision, products and solutions across partner executive teams and business units and assists the customer in maximizing the effectiveness of existing products.

• Develop and execute strategies to onboard and grow participation from banks, fintechs, processors, and ecosystem participants for digital asset–enabled solutions.

• Define scalable engagement playbooks and participation frameworks (readiness, eligibility, operating expectations) to support consistent adoption.

• Lead executive relationship management across participating institutions, aligning internal Product/Engineering/Risk partners to deliver outcomes.

• Support development of participation agreements and commercial constructs aligned with ecosystem governance and risk requirements.

• Support international expansion and cross-border alignment initiatives.

• Hold primary responsibility for identification, evaluation, and onboarding of new Early Warning partners, driving new revenue streams, capabilities, client platforms and data exchanges.

• Develop and provide both internal and external vision and business cases to support partner development.

• Working with Corporate Strategy, Product, external clients and internal teams to identify and nurture prospective partnerships aligned with the Early Warning Strategy.

• Utilize strong understanding of partner strategy and organizational structure to develop and articulate value proposition around using Early Warning products, ensure continued product usage and identify additional opportunities for growth.

• Ensure partners understand and adhere to Early Warning’s rules, data governance policies, data security polices and business practices and standards.

• Support the company’s commitment to protect the integrity and confidentiality of systems and data.

Minimum Qualifications

• Education and experience typically obtained through completion of a Bachelor’s degree in business, finance or other related field

• Typicaly 12+ years of experience in strategic partnerships, network development, financial institution partnerships, delationship development or related partner facing roles

• Experience identifying, evaluating, and onboarding strategic business or technical partners in regulated financial services, payments, banking, fintech, platform, network, or digital asset environments.

• Demonstrated ability to develop strategic partner business cases, define value propositions, and advance complex partnerships from evaluation through execution.

• Strong understanding of network-based businesses, platform adoption, participant onboarding, and regulated financial services operating environments.

• Ability to work cross-functionally with Product, Engineering, Risk, Legal, Compliance, Strategy, Operations, and executive stakeholders to deliver partnership outcomes.

• Excellent executive presence, active listening, verbal communication, written communication, and presentation skills.

• Demonstrated professionalism, sound judgment, and ability to operate in a fast-moving, ambiguous, and highly collaborative environment.

• Must be able to travel up to 50%, including internationally.

• Must be able to satisfy international travel requirements necessary to perform the role.

• Background and drug screen.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with digital assets, stablecoins, tokenization, blockchain-enabled financial services, cross-border payments, remittances, or emerging payment networks.

• Proven experience developing and executing strategic partnerships with banks, fintechs, processors, payment networks, or other regulated financial ecosystem participants.

• Executive-level partner business case development experience, including the ability to present a clear recommendation, strategic rationale, roadmap, commercial model, and implementation plan for priority partners.

• Experience building or expanding participation in a payments, banking, fintech, marketplace, or network-based ecosystem.

• Experience supporting international expansion, cross-border payment initiatives, foreign financial institution partnerships, or remittance market growth.

• Strong understanding of bank and fintech decision-making processes, operating models, integration considerations, and regulatory expectations.

• Experience aligning partnership strategy with product capabilities, risk controls, governance requirements, and operational readiness.

Physical Requirements

Early Warning works together in a highly collaborative office environment.  As such, working conditions consist of a normal office environment. Work is primarily sedentary and requires extensive use of a computer and involves sitting for periods of approximately four hours. Work may require occasional standing, walking, kneeling and reaching. Must be able to lift 10 pounds occasionally and/or negligible amount of force frequently. Requires visual acuity and dexterity to view, prepare, and manipulate documents and office equipment including personal computers. Requires the ability to communicate with internal and/or external customers.

Employee must be able to perform essential functions and physical requirements of position with or without reasonable accommodation.

Candidates responding to this posting must independently possess the eligibility to work in the United States at the date of hire.
 

The base pay scale for this position in:

Phoenix, AZ / Chicago, IL / Remote in USD per year is: $154,000 - $232,000.

New York, NY/ San Francisco, CA in USD per year is: $209,000 - $255,000.

Additionally, candidates are eligible for a discretionary incentive plan and benefits.

This pay scale is subject to change and is not necessarily reflective of actual compensation that may be earned, nor a promise of any specific pay for any specific candidate, which is always dependent on legitimate factors considered at the time of job offer. Early Warning Services takes into consideration a variety of factors when determining a competitive salary offer, including, but not limited to, the job scope, market rates and geographic location of a position, candidate’s education, experience, training, and specialized skills or certification(s) in relation to the job requirements and compared with internal equity (peers). The business actively supports and reviews wage equity to ensure that pay decisions are not based on gender, race, national origin, or any other protected classes.

Some of the Ways We Prioritize Your Health and Happiness 

• Healthcare Coverage – Competitive medical (PPO/HDHP), dental, and vision plans as well as company contributions to your Health Savings Account (HSA) or pre-tax savings through flexible spending accounts (FSA) for commuting, health & dependent care expenses.

• 401(k) Retirement Plan – Featuring a 100% Company Safe Harbor Match on your first 6% deferral immediately upon eligibility.

• Paid Time Off – Flexible Time Off for Exempt (salaried) employees, as well as generous PTO for Non-Exempt (hourly) employees, plus 11 paid company holidays and a paid volunteer day.

• 12 weeks of Paid Parental Leave

• Maven Family Planning – provides support through your Parenting journey including egg freezing, fertility, adoption, surrogacy, pregnancy, postpartum, early pediatrics, and returning to work.

And SO much more! We continue to enhance our program, so be sure to check our Benefits page here for the latest. Our team can share more during the interview process!

Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

Early Warning Services, LLC (“Early Warning”) considers for employment, hires, retains and promotes qualified candidates on the basis of ability, potential, and valid qualifications without regard to race, religious creed, religion, color, sex, sexual orientation, genetic information, gender, gender identity, gender expression, age, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, protected veteran or disability status or any factor prohibited by law, and as such affirms in policy and practice to support and promote equal employment opportunity and affirmative action, in accordance with all applicable federal, state, and municipal laws. The company also prohibits discrimination on other bases such as medical condition, marital status or any other factor that is irrelevant to the performance of our employees.