Sr. Merchant Relationship Manager - Paze

At Early Warning, we’ve powered and protected the U.S. financial system for over thirty years with cutting-edge solutions like Zelle®, Paze℠, and so much more. As a trusted name in payments, we partner with thousands of institutions to increase access to financial services and protect transactions for hundreds of millions of consumers and small businesses.

Positions located in Scottsdale, San Francisco, Chicago, or New York follow a hybrid work model to allow for a more collaborative working environment.

Candidates responding to this posting must independently possess the eligibility to work in the United States, for any employer, at the date of hire. This position is ineligible for employment Visa sponsorship.

Overall Purpose

The Sr. Merchant Relationship Manager is a senior strategic leader responsible for building strong relationships with a portfolio of key strategic Paze merchant partners.  The leader holistically owns and manages the merchant relationships to drive acceptance, awareness, optimization, and support the overall strategic engagement with Paze merchants.  The role oversees merchant relationship health, building strong cross-functional relationships with customers, and collaborates across Paze and Paze partners, to enable Paze strategies and success at the senior executive level, ensuring these partnerships grow and thrive over time.  The Sr. Merchant Relationship Manager plays a key role in delivering strong team and individual results in a high-growth environment.

Essential Functions

• Develops trusted, influential partnerships with key decision makers across merchant accounts, and strategic channel partners who enable and support Paze merchants.

• Responsible for working with merchants to drive consumer awareness, adoption, usage, and continuous improvement.  Requires expertise of merchant organizational structure/decision making, company performance and strategic initiatives, product/services, and consistent pulse on the state of Paze performance (e.g., KPIs, user experience (UX), active opportunities, marketing/promotions, and challenges/threats).  

• Develops strategic account plans for top strategic merchants (annual, quarterly priorities) in close coordination with Paze cross-functional teams and senior leadership. Builds and maps relationships across merchant organization.

• Expertly presents the roadmap and value of Paze to external merchant teams, instilling confidence and gaining buy-in and commitment, while navigating complex discussions to expand the relationship, including signing agreements (e.g., marketing and incentives) and ensuring compliance with Paze network rules. 

• Works collaboratively with leaders internally and with customers/partners in product/digital, marketing, risk, technology, operations and other functions critical to Paze’s success. 

• Manages the post-integrations relationship with Paze merchants, tracking & driving growth, identifying new engagement opportunities, and leading quarterly business reviews. 

• Works with marketing and product and Paze merchants to improve the customer experience, inform the product roadmap, market and promote Paze adoption and transactions, and execute marketing and promotional campaigns to maximize success.

• Influences and negotiates for successful outcomes; presents and defends complicated or delicate issues.

• Applies in-depth knowledge of relationship management and customer success, the financial services/payments industry, and business expertise to help differentiate EWS and Paze from the competition.

• Ensures that Salesforce.com is kept updated and current for all opportunities, contacts, projects, and legal efforts within assigned portfolio.

• Supports the company’s commitment to risk management and ethical business practices, safeguarding the integrity and confidentiality of systems and data.

Minimum Qualifications 

• Education and experience typically obtained through completion of a bachelor’s degree in business, finance, or related field. 

• 8-10+ years’ experience in financial services/payments and strategic relationship management, customer success and/or business development. Experience with merchant services, eCommerce and/or innovative payment services to merchants.

• Ability to develop collaborative relationships with a diverse portfolio of merchants to drive broad adoption of Paze services and functionality. 

• Proven merchant and/or partner relationship management experience in technology solutions focused on payments, with an emphasis on revenue generation in t