Head of Strategic Partnerships

Human Interest

14h•$350,000 - $700,000

About The Position

Human Interest is a high-growth fintech company working to make retirement benefits affordable and accessible to small and medium-sized businesses. The Head of Strategic Partnerships leads a key growth channel by expanding the partner ecosystem that distributes Human Interest’s retirement platform. Reporting directly to the Chief Revenue Officer, this leader identifies, pursues, and closes strategic partnerships across payroll providers, benefits brokers, accountants, financial institutions, PEOs, and embedded fintech distribution. This is a hands-on leadership role focused on partnership strategy, team development, organizational scaling, and cross-functional execution. The role owns complex, multi-year agreements with major partners and combines strategic planning, dealmaking, and operational leadership. The successful candidate will build new channels, establish scalable processes, negotiate commercial terms, and drive partnerships that contribute measurable revenue growth.

Requirements

10+ years of experience in partnerships, business development, or channel sales, with a track record of personally owning and growing strategic partnerships.
5+ years of experience building, coaching, and scaling high-performing teams, with a record of enabling others to achieve revenue targets.
Demonstrated history of sourcing, structuring, and closing complex, high-value partnership and distribution agreements with measurable revenue impact.
Deep experience in fintech, retirement or wealth, payroll, benefits, or an adjacent financial-services ecosystem, with a working understanding of how these distribution channels buy and sell.
Ability to mobilize Product, Engineering, Marketing, Legal, and Sales around partnerships without direct authority over those teams.
Ability to negotiate with and present to senior executives internally and across partner organizations with confidence and credibility.
Thrives in a fast-paced, scaling environment; brings structure to ambiguity and is energized by establishing new motions from scratch.
Strong commercial and financial instincts, including the ability to model channel economics and prioritize investment.
Alignment with Human Interest’s principles, especially Customer Obsession, Long-Term Orientation, and Leading with Autonomy.
Ability to design and operationalize partnership processes that scale beyond a single contributor and support consistent growth and partner success.

Responsibilities

Coach, mentor, and develop a high-performing team of partnership professionals.
Design and implement scalable partnership processes, playbooks, and systems to support team growth and long-term partner success.
Shape and own partnership portfolio strategy, prioritizing channels, partner types, and deals in collaboration with the VP of Partnerships.
Identify, pursue, and open new strategic partnerships across payroll, benefits brokers, and financial institutions; personally lead high-stakes negotiations.
Set team performance metrics and KPIs, track progress, and provide regular feedback to help the team meet and exceed revenue targets.
Lead commercial negotiations and deal structuring end-to-end, empowering team members to lead negotiations on key accounts and partnering with Legal and Finance to protect the business.
Work with Product, Engineering, Marketing, Legal, and Sales to scope integrations, develop co-marketing enablement, and operationalize partner-sourced demand.
Communicate partnership strategy, pipeline, and results to the VP of Partnerships and senior leadership, and represent Human Interest with senior partner stakeholders.
Monitor the retirement, payroll, fintech, and benefits landscape, identifying competitive and regulatory shifts that may affect the partnership roadmap.
Model channel economics and make prioritization decisions about partnership investment.

Benefits

401(k) plan with dollar-for-dollar employer match up to 4% of compensation, immediately vested, with no plan fees.
Health insurance plans, dental insurance, and vision insurance.
Competitive time off and parental leave.
Unlimited access to financial wellness tools, professionals, and educational resources through Addition Wealth.
Enhanced mental health support for employees and dependents through Lyra.
Fertility healthcare and family-forming benefits through Carrot.
Student loan planning, borrowing, and repayment resources through Candidly.
Monthly work-from-home stipend and quarterly lifestyle stipend.
Team-building experiences, including virtual social events and team offsites.
Stock option grants.
Variable target compensation of $350,000 in addition to a $350,000 base salary, for total on-target earnings of $700,000.