Partnerships (Ecosystem & Platform)

Financial institutions process billions of transactions every day across cards, ACH, wires, and third party aggregators. But most of that data is difficult to use. Descriptions are inconsistent, merchant names don’t match, and categories vary by payment type.

Spade is a data and AI platform that turns messy transaction strings into structured, verified records — and gives teams the tools to act on it across authorization, attribution, analytics, and AI initiatives. Spade leads the market in terms of merchant coverage, matching accuracy, geolocation data, and speed of transaction enrichment. Customers such as, FIS, Bilt, Mercury, Stripe, alongside many other leaders in fintech and financial services, trust Spade's data to enable personalized rewards programs, accurate applied spending rules, precise analytics requests, and innovative AI-powered features.

Spade is a fast growing, Series B company backed by industry experts and top tier investors (including Oak HC/FT, a16z, Flourish Ventures, Y-Combinator, and Gradient Ventures). We’re a lean and execution-oriented hybrid team, passionate about building exceptional products for our growing customer base. We care deeply about diversity of background, experience, and opinion. We value empathy, curiosity, and passion, and strive to create an environment where individuals have autonomy and the ability to take ownership over their work.

As Spade's first Partnerships hire, you will own our partnerships strategy end to end — with a clear mandate to drive revenue and expand our TAM by bringing Spade's data into the small and midsize bank market. The highest-impact path to that market runs through the technical platforms, core providers, and fintech infrastructure companies that already serve those institutions at scale. You'll identify, close, and scale those relationships, turning them into a durable, compounding source of new business. You will:

• Own a revenue number. Partnerships is a growth function at Spade. You'll be accountable for partner-sourced and partner-influenced pipeline, and will work to turn every new relationship into measurable revenue.
• Map and penetrate the SMB bank ecosystem. Identify the core banking platforms, middleware providers, data aggregators, and fintech infrastructure players that sit between Spade and hundreds of community and regional banks — and build the relationships that get Spade embedded in their stacks.
• Source, structure, and close high-impact deals — including reseller arrangements, referral programs, co-marketing initiatives, and deep technical integrations that make Spade a default layer in a partner's offering.
• Build and nurture relationships with key stakeholders at partner organizations, including C-suite executives and technical decision makers.
• Partner closely with Product and Engineering to define clear integration paths, scope joint solutions, and remove friction from technical onboarding — particularly for partners building for or selling into smaller financial institutions.
• Track partnership performance, report on pipeline and revenue impact, and continuously iterate on strategy and prioritization.
• Build and scale the partnerships function as the company grows, establishing repeatable processes and playbooks.

• Must have:
  • 6+ years of experience in partnerships, business development, or strategic growth roles
  • 3+ years of experience in fintech and/or financial services 
  • Proven track record closing and scaling revenue accretive partnerships at a fast growing tech company
  • Experience working with or selling through technical platform companies (core banking providers, middleware, infrastructure, or data vendors) rather than direct end-customer sales alone
  • Familiarity with the community and regional bank ecosystem 
  • Comfort operating without a playbook, building the partnerships motion from scratch while still hitting near-term targets
  • Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to build rapport and credibility at all levels of an organization
  • Willingness to travel as needed to build and maintain key partner relationships
• Nice to have:
  • NYC-based
  • B2B partnerships experience
  • Experience as founding or early partnerships hire
  • Experience working cross functionally with product, engineering, and GTM teams

Why join Spade? 

• Be a cultural founder. As an early employee, you’ll play a meaningful role in defining and building our culture. 
• Get in on the ground floor. We’re a small but well-funded team – joining now comes with limited risk and unlimited upside. 
• Build the next generation of financial infrastructure. Our products will power the next wave of innovation in fintech, helping our customers deliver better, more transparent products and services to the consumer.

Benefits include:

• Competitive compensation and equity package
• Full medical, dental, and vision benefits for US-based employees
• Life & short-term disability insurance
• Unlimited PTO
• Early exercise program
• Extended post-termination exercise period
• 401K for retirement planning
• Hybrid team, with pet-friendly headquarters in NYC
• Paid parental leave
• Work from home stipend

Spade is an equal opportunity employer, committed to building a culture that is diverse, equitable, and inclusive. We believe that having people with different backgrounds, experiences, abilities, and perspectives not only helps us build the best products for our customers, but also helps us be the best version of ourselves.

• At Spade, we view total compensation as consisting of salary + equity + benefits. We recruit motivated and high performing talent, and work to compensate people in line with the value they bring to our team. 
• We aim to pay fairly and competitively, and consider a number of factors in developing compensation offers. These factors include years and breadth of experience, interview performance, market dynamics, and internal equity. 
• The anticipated OTE range for this role is between $200,000 and $250,000, and an equity grant.