Vice President, Strategic Partnerships

Upgrade

1d•$250,000 - $275,000•Remote

About The Position

Upgrade is seeking a strategic, commercially driven leader to expand its personal lending business through high-impact enterprise partnerships. The Vice President, Strategic Partnerships will develop white-label partnerships with financial institutions, fintechs, and major consumer-facing brands, enabling partners to offer personal loans under their own brands using Upgrade’s lending platform. The role identifies and engages high-value partners, builds senior-level relationships, and independently structures and negotiates complex commercial agreements. It evaluates partnership economics and P&L impact to pursue revenue growth and long-term profitability. Working with executive leadership and teams across Finance, Product, Engineering, Legal, Compliance, and Risk, the VP will shape partnership strategies, support technical integrations, and bring opportunities to market. This hands-on leadership role offers significant autonomy to develop a growing partnership channel and includes collaboration on emerging AI-driven products and initiatives. The position is remote-flexible for candidates based in San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, or Delaware, with occasional travel for partner meetings.

Requirements

10+ years of experience in strategic partnerships, business development, or a related deal-making role, with a track record of sourcing and closing complex commercial agreements.
Experience in fintech, consumer lending, or financial services, with comfort handling regulatory, compliance, and risk considerations.
Demonstrated ability to manage a deal from initial outreach through signed contract and live launch.
Strong cross-functional leadership and the ability to align Legal, Compliance, Risk, Product, and Engineering around a partner launch timeline.
Excellent negotiation skills and executive presence, with the ability to represent Upgrade to senior enterprise partner leadership.

Nice To Haves

Direct experience structuring white-label or embedded finance partnerships, such as co-branded cards, private-label lending, or BaaS-style programs.
An existing network of relationships at financial services companies or consumer-facing brands that could become Upgrade partners.
Experience at a high-growth fintech or consumer lending company.

Responsibilities

Build and manage a pipeline of prospective white-label partners.
Develop and prioritize target partners based on strategic fit, reach, and revenue potential.
Represent Upgrade at industry events and conduct outbound outreach to build relationships with prospective partner decision-makers.
Source potential partnerships for emerging AI-driven product initiatives beyond personal loans.
Lead commercial negotiations, including partnership economics, exclusivity, service-level agreements, and branding terms.
Work with Legal, Finance, and Risk to structure deals that meet Upgrade’s compliance and margin requirements.
Own the business case and internal approval process for each partnership, from term sheet through signed contract.
Manage signed partners’ end-to-end onboarding, including integration project management, compliance review, branding, marketing and UX approvals, and launch.
Serve as the primary partner contact during implementation and coordinate Engineering, Product, Compliance, and Operations to meet launch dates.
Develop repeatable onboarding playbooks and service-level agreements to reduce time to launch as the partner roster grows.