Vice President, Strategic Partnerships

About the Role

We are looking for a strategic, commercially driven leader to join Upgrade as our VP, Strategic Partnerships, playing a pivotal role in expanding our personal lending business through high-impact enterprise partnerships.

In this role, you will lead the development of strategic white-label partnerships with financial institutions, fintechs, and major consumer-facing brands, enabling them to offer personal loans under their own brand, powered by Upgrade's lending platform. You will be responsible for identifying and engaging high-value partners, building relationships with senior decision-makers, and independently structuring and negotiating complex commercial agreements. With a strong understanding of partnership economics and P&L impact, you'll evaluate opportunities that drive meaningful revenue growth and long-term profitability for Upgrade's personal lending business.

Working closely with executive leadership and cross-functional teams across Finance, Product, Engineering, Legal, Compliance, and Risk, you'll help shape partnership strategies, navigate technical integrations, and bring new opportunities to market. This is a highly visible, hands-on leadership opportunity for someone who thrives on building executive relationships, negotiating strategic deals, and turning commercial opportunities into scalable businesses. You'll have significant autonomy to shape a growing partnership channel, with opportunities to collaborate directly with senior leadership and contribute to emerging AI-driven products and initiatives.

This is a remote-flexible position for candidates based in San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, or Delaware, and requires occasional travel for partner meetings.

What you’ll do

Sourcing & Pipeline

• Build and manage a pipeline of prospective white-label partners.
• Develop and prioritize a target list based on strategic fit, reach, and revenue potential.
• Represent Upgrade at industry events and in outbound outreach to build a network of decision-makers at prospective partners.
• Source potential partnerships to support Upgrade's emerging AI-driven product initiatives beyond personal loans

Deal Structuring & Negotiation

• Lead commercial negotiations for partnership agreements, including economics, exclusivity, SLAs, and branding terms.
• Partner 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.

Onboarding & Launch

• Own the end-to-end onboarding of signed partners — project-managing integration, compliance review, branding/marketing/UX approvals, and go-live.
• Serve as the primary point of contact for partners during implementation, coordinating Engineering, Product, Compliance, and Ops to hit launch dates.
• Build repeatable onboarding playbooks and SLAs to shorten time-to-launch as the partner roster grows.

What We Look For

• 10+ years 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 — comfortable with regulatory, compliance, and risk considerations
• Demonstrated ability to manage a deal from first outreach through signed contract and through live launch.
• Strong cross-functional leadership: proven ability to align Legal, Compliance, Risk, Product, and Engineering around a partner launch timeline.
• Excellent negotiation and executive presence; comfortable representing Upgrade large enterprise partner leadership.

Nice to Have

• Direct experience structuring white-label or embedded finance partnerships (co-branded cards, private-label lending, 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.

What We Offer You

Competitive salary & stock option plan

Paid coverage of medical, dental and vision insurance

Flexible PTO

Opportunities for professional growth and development

Paid parental leave

Health & wellness initiatives

The base salary range for this position is $250k-$275k annually. Actual compensation will be determined based on a variety of factors, including the candidate’s experience, qualifications, skills, and geographic location. In addition to base salary, this position is eligible for an annual performance-based bonus as well as equity and other benefits as part of Upgrade’s total compensation package.