Head of Partnerships Activations

Block•San Francisco, CA

21h

About The Position

We believe everyone should be able to participate and thrive in the economy. Our tools help sellers and consumers start, run, and grow whether that's a small business owner expanding their presence, a creative brand launching new experiences, or partners reimagining how commerce comes to life. The Head of Partnerships Activations is a senior leadership role overseeing all partner-led events and activations across Cash App, Square, Afterpay, and Bitcoin products . You will bring our partnerships to life in ways that drive cultural relevance, brand impact, and business growth across the entire Block portfolio. You will build, scale, and evolve the partnership activations framework across Block—extending the foundation established at Cash App and creating new models from the ground up for Square, Afterpay, and Bitcoin. You will define how partnerships show up across brands, customer segments, and channels, while maintaining a cohesive and high-impact Block-wide approach. You are a curious, creative, and pragmatic leader with deep experience in building and scaling activation programs. You bring a blend of creative excellence, operational rigor, and commercial acumen with a proven ability to manage complex productions, large budgets, and senior stakeholders while delivering memorable, culturally resonant experiences. You are both a coach and a doer - setting the strategy, building and mentoring teams, and remaining deeply invested in executional quality.

Requirements

10+ years of experience leading large-scale events, activations, or live brand programs, with at least 8 years in a senior leadership capacity
Proven success managing complex productions, large budgets, and cross-functional teams
Extensive and well-established network of industry contacts, with a demonstrated ability to leverage this network to create strategic opportunities, drive collaboration, and secure impactful partnerships
Strong creative instincts paired with operational and financial acumen
Ability to travel 50%

Nice To Haves

Experience in fintech, technology, or consumer brands a bonus

Responsibilities

Define and lead the vision for Partnerships Activations across all Block brands, ensuring cohesive storytelling, strategic alignment, and clear investment priorities
Establish the long-term activation framework and operating model across brands, translating partnership opportunities and brand priorities into scalable, repeatable activation strategies
Translate partnership and brand priorities into innovative activation frameworks that drive awareness, engagement, and brand affinity
Partner with marketing channel teams, comms, creative, strategy, legal, data science and customer insights across Block to ensure activations align with overall business objectives and customer insights
Serve as the senior owner for partnership activation decisions, making tradeoffs across brands, partners, budgets, and timelines
Oversee the end-to-end development and execution of partner activations, from concept creation to production, on-site leadership, and post-activation evaluation
Develop event marketing programs that integrate third-party partners alongside Block brands, creating mutually beneficial collaborations and potential funding opportunities for the overall production budget
Set and maintain a high bar for creative excellence and executional rigor — while a strategic mind is necessary, we also recognize that the execution is how customers experience the brand magic. Ensure all activations are on-brand, innovative, and culturally resonant, pushing the boundaries of traditional event models
Establish clear measurement frameworks in partnership with Analytics to evaluate performance, impact, and ROI across awareness, consideration, conversion, and longer-term brand lift
Balance bold, culturally relevant risk-taking with disciplined measurement and learning, using insights to inform future strategy and investment decisions. Drive continuous improvement by applying insights and learnings to future activations