Partner Development Lead, Block Ecosystem Partnerships: Afterpay, Cash App, Square

Block is one company built from many blocks, all united by the same purpose of economic empowerment. The blocks that form our foundational teams — People, Finance, Counsel, Hardware, Information Security, Platform Infrastructure Engineering, and more — provide support and guidance at the corporate level. They work across business groups and around the globe, spanning time zones and disciplines to develop inclusive People policies, forecast finances, give legal counsel, safeguard systems, nurture new initiatives, and more. Every challenge creates possibilities, and we need different perspectives to see them all. Bring yours to Block.

The Role

The Block Ecosystem Partnerships team leads product partnerships, business development and commercialization efforts for Afterpay, Cash App, and Square products. This specialized team sources and develops go-to-market strategy for product partners that enable and extend the reach of our commercial products across the payments and technology ecosystem. They build effective relationships with the largest players in the payments, finance, and technology industries, and drive critical results across the business. We are looking for an experienced partnerships practitioner with deep expertise in enabling and growing first-party products through third-party ecosystems.

This Partner Development Lead will work closely with our cross-functional leadership team to integrate and grow ecosystem partnerships that represent the biggest upside opportunities for our business globally.

You'll partner directly with leaders across Afterpay, Cash App as well as Square Product, Engineering, Sales, Account Management, Marketing, Finance, Compliance, and Legal. You'll drive a global strategy for your partners and execute on that strategy in conjunction with cross-functional colleagues – especially those that may work with these same partners but in other ways. Primary responsibility for the performance of your partners sits with you, and you will continually innovate to ensure that Block remains on the cutting edge of additional developments within the partner portfolio as the landscape fundamentally changes (e.g., Agentic Commerce).

The ideal candidate will have an understanding of the economics of the payments space and deep knowledge of the payments ecosystem. This individual should also have an understanding of what will be needed to properly resource a partner strategy, and work with internal stakeholders to develop a plan for ensuring the success of a partner. A deep sense of ownership, drive, and entrepreneurship is essential.

You Will:

• Develop strategy: Create and implement an overarching plan and strategy for maximizing the effectiveness of a partnership – both maximizing commercial upside and product extensibility at scale


• Build relationships: Establish strong rapport with partners at every level (executive to working groups, across functions) to influence prioritization, decision-making, and advance our goals


• Design scalable programs: Build and project manage a partnership program that advances our goals as well as partner objectives at both local and global scale across all relevant regions


• Commercialize payment products: Lead commercialization of new products by refining and executing our growth partner distribution strategy. Lead end-to-end partner negotiations to deliver maximum distribution of our payments products, including upsell and cross-sell of new products and features.


• Maximize out-of-network reach: Drive integrations and efficiencies to reach the maximum number of consumers through partner platforms and ecosystems

You Have:

• 8+ years of business development or partner management experience, preferably at an innovative payments company.


• A demonstrated track record of success managing commercial products and programs, ideally in payments or fintech.


• Proven ability to build C-suite relationships and navigate external organizations both to identify internal champions and to influence decision makers. You are an expert negotiator with a strong understanding of commercial contracts and complex negotiating dynamics that may be simultaneously cooperative and competitive.


• Ultimate cross-functional team player: Establish yourself as the go-to commercial voice for our partnership strategy that can be relied on by multiple internal functions and teams. You'll act as an utmost connector and open doors for others, while providing critical market feedback to improve our product.


• Deep comfort operating in the ambiguity of an ever-evolving product that operates at scale globally.


• Genuine interest and savviness in product – especially working with multiple product and engineering teams for a single partner


• Willingness to travel (primarily domestically but sometimes internationally) for both internal and external meetings.


• BS/BA required; MBA or Masters degree a plus

We're working to build a more inclusive economy where our customers have equal access to opportunity, and we strive to live by these same values in building our workplace. Block is an equal opportunity employer evaluating all employees and job applicants without regard to identity or any legally protected class. We will consider qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records for employment in accordance with state and local laws and “fair chance” ordinances.

We believe in being fair, and are committed to an inclusive interview experience, including providing reasonable accommodations to disabled applicants throughout the recruitment process. We encourage applicants to share any needed accommodations with their recruiter, who will treat these requests as confidentially as possible. Want to learn more about what we're doing to build a workplace that is fair and square? Check out our I+D page.

While there is no specific deadline to apply for this role, U.S. roles are typically open for an average of 55 days before being filled by a successful candidate. Please refer to the date listed at the top of this job page for when this role was first posted.