Director, Channel Partnerships

About Airwallex

Airwallex is the only unified payments and financial platform for global businesses. Powered by our unique combination of proprietary infrastructure and software, we empower over 150,000 businesses worldwide – including Brex, Rippling, Navan, Qantas, SHEIN and many more – with fully integrated solutions to manage everything from business accounts, payments, spend management and treasury, to embedded finance at a global scale.

Proudly founded in Melbourne, we have a team of over 1,700 of the brightest and most innovative people in tech across 26 offices around the globe. Valued at US$6.2 billion and backed by world-leading investors including Visa, Airtree, Blackbird, Sequoia, DST Global, Greenoaks, Salesforce Ventures, Lone Pine, and Square Peg, Airwallex is leading the charge in building the global payments and financial platform of the future. If you’re ready to do the most ambitious work of your career, join us.

About the team

We're is seeking a highly strategic and results-oriented Director, Channel Partnerships to lead and scale our channel growth efforts in the US. This is a pivotal leadership role where you will be instrumental in defining, launching, and accelerating our partnership strategy, with an immediate focus on significantly growing our partnerships across verticals.

To start, you will leverage your deep understanding of various market ecosystems and strong network to identify and establish high-impact partnerships, developing and executing comprehensive partner programs. This will include an immediate focus on significantly expanding our e-commerce partnerships, while also strategically identifying and pursuing new channel opportunities across industries like travel and SaaS. In the long term, you will be responsible for re-evaluating and continually evolving our overall channel strategy.

This role requires a proven leader who can not only drive direct results but also build, mentor, and grow a team of high-performing Channel Partnership Managers to support these ambitious goals, while also identifying white space opportunities within the partnership landscape.

What you’ll do

As the Director of Channel Partnerships, you will:

• Define and drive channel strategy: Develop and implement comprehensive channel strategies to drive customer acquisition and revenue growth across various verticals and products, including our FX, card issuing, payments acquiring, and spend management suite

• Cultivate high-impact partnerships: Identify, qualify, negotiate, and close strategic partnerships with key players across a diverse range of ecosystems, from accountants to associations, PE / VCs

• Drive immediate revenue impact by building and scaling a high-velocity partner referral engine that delivers a consistent pipeline of qualified customer leads, and collaborating closely with the AE team to ensure their successful conversion

• Design & scale innovative partner programs: Create, launch, and optimize innovative partner programs, including referral models, affiliate structures, co-marketing initiatives (webinars, events, content syndication), and technology integrations, tailored to different partner types and objectives

• Lead strategic channel evolution: Take the lead in strategically assessing and evolving Airwallex's overall channel approach, continuously identifying new verticals, partnership models, and product integration opportunities for long-term growth and competitive advantage

• Build and lead a high-performing team: Recruit, mentor, and empower a team of Channel Partnership Managers

• Drive cross-functional alignment: Collaborate extensively with internal teams including Sales, Marketing, Product, Operations, and Legal to ensure seamless partner experiences, optimize go-to-market strategies, and align partnership efforts with company-wide objectives

• Be a market expert: Stay ahead of market trends, competitive landscapes, and emerging opportunities in payments and across various industries to continually refine and enhance our partnership strategy

Who you are

We're looking for people who meet the minimum requirements for this role. The preferred qualifications are great to have, but are not mandatory.

Minimum qualifications:

• 8+ years of progressive experience in channel partnerships, business development, or strategic sales, with at least 3-5 years in a leadership or senior role managing complex partnerships and/or teams

• Demonstrated success in building, launching, and scaling channel partnership programs that have directly contributed to substantial revenue growth across various industries, with a strong understanding of how to adapt strategie