Senior Product Partnerships Manager - Payroll

About the role

In this position, you will manage partnerships focused on payroll vendors, ensuring that Mercury's offerings align with business needs. Your responsibilities will include vendor selection, contract negotiations, and maintaining relationships to enhance product functionality.

You will work closely with various teams, including product, legal, and engineering, to facilitate smooth operations and address any integration issues. Success in this role involves effectively navigating complex partnerships and driving alignment across stakeholders.

The salary range for this role is between $162,800 and $226,100, depending on experience and location.

Skills that matter here

• banking: This role requires extensive experience in banking to manage partnerships effectively.
• payroll operations: You will need a strong background in payroll operations to oversee vendor management.
• strategic partnerships: The position focuses on developing and managing strategic partnerships.
• negotiation: Negotiation skills are crucial for structuring deals and achieving favorable outcomes.
• project management: Strong project management abilities are necessary to coordinate across multiple teams.

Who this role suits

• A professional with over 8 years of experience in banking and payroll operations.
• Someone who thrives in managing complex relationships and enjoys negotiation.
• An organized communicator who can handle multiple critical initiatives simultaneously.
• A creative thinker who can navigate regulatory constraints while driving project success.

From the employer

What You Will Do:

• Manage a portfolio of expansion partnerships end-to-end, with particular focus on Mercury’s payroll vendor ecosystem
• Lead vendor selection processes, including evaluating RFPs and making recommendations on best-fit partners for Mercury’s product and business needs
• Structure and lead negotiations, evaluating the economics behind proposed deals, understanding the available levers, and knowing when to push versus compromise
• Sell the impact and value of being a partner to Mercury, while negotiating the best outcomes for Mercury
• Serve as Mercury’s internal expert on the payroll vendor ecosystem — building and maintaining our collective knowledge base
• Proactively identify and respond to partner incidents, integration issues, and escalations — unblocking teams with urgency and sound judgment
• Facilitate productive cross-functional discussions across product, legal, finance, and engineering — driving alignment and unblocking teams

What You Should Bring:

• 8+ years of relevant banking/payroll operations experience and strategic partnerships experience with a track record of leading deals end-to-end, including contract negotiation
• Experience managing or working closely with lending management system providers
• Be a strong partnership leader who enjoys owning complex, high-stakes relationships
• Be an excellent communicator and highly organized project manager, comfortable operating across many stakeholders
• Consistently exercise empathy, especially in highly regulated and constrained environments
• Have a strong product sense and interest in how financial infrastructure enables customer outcomes
• Be an effective negotiator with experience navigating complex commercial and regulatory discussions
• Be technically inclined or comfortable interfacing with engineering and compliance teams on complex systems
• Stay calm and focused while working on multiple critical initiatives in parallel
• Exercise creativity while operating within regulatory and operational constraints

What We Offer:

• Competitive base salary and equity (stock options)
• Benefits package
• Salary ranges based on experience, expertise, geographic location, and internal pay equity
• Target new hire base salary ranges for this role:
• US employees in New York City, Seattle, Los Angeles or San Francisco: $180,900 - $226,100
• US employees outside of New York City, Seattle, Los Angeles or San Francisco: $162,800 - $203,500
• Commitment to diversity & belonging and Equal Employment Opportunity