Senior Director of Strategic Partnerships

CSI•Paducah, KY

About The Position

The Senior Director of Strategic Partnerships provides day-to-day leadership for CSI’s strategic partnership function and manages a portfolio of relationships with third-party providers whose products CSI resells or refers, as well as organizations that distribute CSI solutions. The role ensures partnerships align with CSI’s corporate strategy, product portfolio, customer needs, and revenue-growth objectives. The Senior Director coordinates across partners and CSI’s Product, Sales, Marketing, Finance, Legal, Risk, Technology, and Operations teams. The position evaluates partnership opportunities, supports business cases and due diligence, negotiates and structures agreements, coordinates onboarding and launches, oversees renewals and exits, monitors financial and operational performance, and resolves cross-functional issues that could affect partners or customers. The role monitors partnership revenue, profitability, contractual obligations, customer feedback, market trends, and other performance indicators to identify opportunities, address risks, and improve portfolio performance. It also leads the day-to-day work of the Strategic Partnerships team, prioritizes partner responsibilities, develops team members, and ensures appropriate portfolio coverage. The Senior Director works with executive and business leadership to communicate performance, recommend strategic actions, and advance partnerships that expand CSI’s product capabilities, market reach, and long-term value.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in business, finance, marketing, technology, or a related field.
Seven or more years of experience in strategic partnerships, business development, channel management, product partnerships, or a related discipline.
Demonstrated ability to manage complex vendor, referral, reseller, and strategic partner relationships.
Experience negotiating commercial agreements and working with pricing, revenue-sharing, and reseller models.
Strong understanding of partnership lifecycles, including evaluation, contracting, onboarding, performance management, renewal, and termination.
Proven ability to lead cross-functional initiatives without direct authority over all participating teams.
Strong analytical, financial, negotiation, communication, and executive-presentation skills.
Ability to manage competing priorities, resolve ambiguity, and exercise sound business judgment.
Experience using CRM, reporting, and analytics tools to manage partner activity and measure performance.
Applicants must be authorized to work in the United States without the need for visa sponsorship now or in the future.

Nice To Haves

An advanced degree.
Experience within financial technology, banking technology, SaaS, payments, or financial services.
Experience managing or developing employees.

Responsibilities

Lead the day-to-day strategic partnership function and provide direction to partnership team members.
Develop and execute partnership strategies aligned with CSI’s corporate and product objectives.
Manage executive-level relationships with assigned strategic partners.
Identify, evaluate, and prioritize new partnership opportunities.
Lead or coordinate partner due diligence, business-case development, selection, negotiation, and contracting.
Oversee partner onboarding, integration coordination, launch readiness, ongoing management, renewals, and exits.
Establish partner governance practices, performance standards, scorecards, and recurring business reviews.
Monitor partnership revenue, profitability, performance, contractual commitments, and customer impact.
Coordinate with Product, Sales, Marketing, Finance, Legal, Risk, Technology, and Operations to drive partnership execution.
Identify and resolve issues affecting partner performance, internal execution, or customer outcomes.
Support partner enablement, go-to-market planning, sales readiness, and joint growth initiatives.
Maintain awareness of industry trends, competitive partnerships, emerging technologies, and potential market opportunities.
Prepare partnership recommendations, portfolio updates, and decision materials for senior leadership.
Represent CSI in partner meetings, industry events, conferences, and other external forums.
Coach and develop partnership team members and ensure effective allocation of partner responsibilities.