Strategy & Partnerships Manager

Akoya•Boston, MA

3d•Remote

About The Position

Akoya is an API-based network backed by major financial institutions that creates a safer and more transparent way for people to safely send their personal financial data to third-party financial apps. This highly dynamic role is at the intersection of strategy, market and competitive intelligence, pricing, cost optimization, and channel partner development. This is an individual contributor role for an experienced professional with strong influence among internal colleagues and external clients and partners. The work requires frequent cross-functional collaboration with Akoya’s Executive, Product Management, Growth, Customer Success, Marketing, and Engineering teams to advance Akoya’s core strategic initiatives. The ideal candidate brings hands-on experience in financial services, fintech, or a closely adjacent finance-driven industry, paired with real strength in either strategic and analytical work (building financial models, business cases, and market analysis) or external partner relationship management. Candidates with both are ideal, but deep, verifiable finance experience paired with strength in just one of these is enough to be a strong fit.

Requirements

Demonstrated ability to build financial models, business cases, pricing analyses in Excel, and to conduct and synthesize market and competitive analysis into clear, structured, repeatable outputs
Experience owning, not just supporting, an external channel, reseller, or key-account relationship end-to-end, including recurring business reviews and performance tracking
Must have hands-on experience working in financial services, fintech, open finance / open banking, or another closely adjacent finance-driven industry; must possess deep-domain expertise that goes well beyond a surface-level understanding or interest.
Confident and comfortable engaging in technical discussions with Product, Engineering, and Solutions colleagues
Demonstrated proficiency and motivation in leveraging generative AI tools (such as Claude) to enhance productivity, improve efficiency, and elevate the quality of work outcomes, with a commitment to continuous learning and sharing of best practices amongst team members

Nice To Haves

Background in commercialized API platforms, data networks, or banking technology infrastructure
Experience interpreting regulatory and compliance requirements in design and development of solutions
Use of business tools such as Confluence, Jira, Figma, and BI reporting tools (such as QuickSight, Domo, Power BI, etc)
Client-facing or internal experience with US Financial Institutions
Exposure to TCH, FDX, EWS, or other open finance or financial services industry payment or fraud consortiums

Responsibilities

Own Discovery & Evaluation of Key Initiative & Innovation Opportunities: Drive structured discovery for strategic initiatives including customer research, value proposition development, and use case documentation.
Develop and validate business cases grounded in forecasting benefit realization and initial effort and investment estimates
Develop pricing and monetization: Own and evolve product pricing models. Continuously partner with customers and the Growth team to adjust to market input
Maintain cost optimization tracking to identify anomalies and partner with Product & Engineering on reduction opportunities
Market Analysis & Competitive Intelligence: Monitor market and competitive developments and share key highlights with colleagues for awareness and recommended actions
Conduct deep dives on emerging players in the ecosystem who may be potential partners
Contribute analytical materials for strategic planning and executive materials
Channel Partner Management: Own the end-to-end health of partner relationships (resellers, referrals), serving as the primary day-to-day point of contact for the partner
Collaborate with Marketing to ensure co-selling artifacts are available (pitch decks, tear sheets, demos) and are continuously improved and evolved based on partner feedback
Enable the partner’s team through training and live deal support
Conduct monthly and quarterly partner business reviews to measure success, identify improvement areas, and surface feedback; prepare executive updates including pipeline and financials