Bank-Fintech Relationships Lead

It all started with an idea at Block in 2013. Initially built to take the pain out of peer-to-peer payments, Cash App has gone from a simple product with a single purpose to a dynamic ecosystem, developing unique financial products, including Afterpay/Clearpay, to provide a better way to send, spend, invest, borrow and save to our 50+ million monthly active customers. We want to redefine the world’s relationship with money to make it more relatable, instantly available, and universally accessible.

Today, Cash App has thousands of employees working globally across office and remote locations, with a culture geared toward innovation, collaboration and impact. We’ve been a distributed team since day one, and many of our roles can be done remotely from the countries where Cash App operates. No matter the location, we tailor our experience to ensure our employees are creative, productive, and happy.

The Role

The Lending Relationships Lead creates the strategy and directs the daily activities of the Lending Relationships Team, which focuses on initiating, developing, growing, and strengthening the relationships with Cash App’s key banking partners for lending products and services, while also serving as the primary channel of contact for Cash App and the partner banks. The Relationships team is the connective tissue between the partner banks and the Cash App internal functions (Counsel, Compliance, Product, Engineering, etc.), as well as the other members of the FinOps Lending Team (Lending Oversight, Lending Operations, etc.). 

The FinOps Lending Team acts as “the voice of the banking partner” within Cash to ensure programs are being built and run in-line with bank partner requirements and risk tolerances, while actively managing bank partnerships. The team is responsible for contributing to innovation with Cash Product teams and establishing strategic direction for lending products & programs. 

The Lending Relationships Lead role requires extensive experience with strategic planning, executive leadership & organization growth, strategic partnerships, risk assessment & mitigation, and successfully operating within a federally-regulated financial institution. 

The role is a leader for other individual contributors and managers focused on the health and strength of Cash App’s bank partnerships. The Relationships Lead develops strategy and directs the Relationships Team to execute on the strategy. The role also addresses all escalated relationship issues and resolves them with expert finesse and professionalism. The Relationships Lead needs to be constantly apprised of each relationship’s status, including projects, issues, complaints, contract terms, successes, failures, strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities - among other things. The relationships lead must be able to read between the lines and perceive unspoken communication from our bank partners. Our bank relationships are key to the success of Cash App, and the Relationships Lead is tasked with identifying and healing any issues that can jeopardize our bank relationships. 

The Lending Relationships Lead will be responsible for developing relationship management and optimization strategies which have substantial impact on critical partnerships for Cash App. You will lead a department and ensure that the strategy and tactical execution drives strong partner relationships and positions the company for continued growth and success.

You Will

• Lead a dynamic team in an environment that is constantly changing - directing and evaluating individual/team performance and taking appropriate action to meet and/or exceed performance standards
• Build, enhance and maintain relationships with the most senior contacts at partner organizations, ensuring partner’s overall service needs are satisfied
• Serve as a representative and participant in industry events to provide exposure for Cash App
• Provide thought leadership and advise senior management on relationship management strategies which optimize partner capabilities, achieve desired business results and reduce risk
• Serve as a relationship escalation point for critical partnerships to resolve open risks, issues, compliance findings, and operational escalations
• Contemplate the appropriate SLAs to establish across the partnership ecosystem to build strong processes for both internal and external stakeholder management
• Facilitate and participate in contract negotiation discussions, contribute to the contractual terms and commercials
• Evaluate, document and improve contractual structures across the partnerships while aligning with internal teams for contract negotiation
• Manage the development, implementation and continuous improvement of policies, procedures and systems related to relationship management 
• Stay informed about industry trends, best practices, and emerging technologies to drive innovation and maintain a competitive edge
• Lead cross-functional collaboration with counterparts throughout the business
• Cultivate strong working relationships with all business partners, communicate strategy, and resolve issues
• Develop and implement strategies for the lending relationships function that ensure Cash is the best partner possible for the sponsor banks you work with 
• Ensure effective communications with both internal and external teams - ensuring that all requests and requirements are accurately and promptly addressed from both sides of the relationships
•  Respond to elevated questions from the internal and external stakeholders, providing direction and guidance on issues.

You Have

• 12+ years of relationship management, strategic partnerships, and business development experience in financial services, fintech, or payments
• Demonstrated that personal integrity and professionalism are paramount in your business dealings
• Demonstrated leadership abilities, with experience leading and managing teams to achieve operational excellence and drive results
• Excellent leadership skills with the ability to develop talent, build strong cross-functional relationships and work collaboratively
• Proven ability to build trusted relationships at the executive level (internally and externally) and influence decisions and strategies
• Excellent analytical, problem-solving, and decision-making skills, with the ability to effectively prioritize and manage multiple tasks in a fast-paced environment
• Proven domain expertise within the bank partnership / sponsorship / BaaS operating model, including an understanding of recent regulatory enforcement actions against banks in the space
• Successfully managed and supported third-party fintech strategic partnerships within a financial institution
• Demonstrated general understanding of state and federal bank regulations applicable to loan products
• Excellent communication and relationship building skills with leaders / technical teams & the ability to develop consensus and drive stakeholders to a decision
• Critical thinking abilities for proactively identifying issues and actions required, and you can connect the dots by gathering and integrating information from a variety of sources to make sound decisions
• Demonstrated a general understanding of how industry standards, federal, state, and local laws and regulations impact the partner banking ecosystem
• Excellent (well above-average) interpersonal and negotiation skills to exercise empathy and understanding in relationships, while also negotiating firmly for the company’s best interests and arriving at mutually beneficial (win-win) solutions
• Effective and mature communication skills, and you are able to convey complex ideas in a clear, concise manner- both verbally and in writing, and in both technical and business discussions
• Familiarity with governing bodies’ (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Office of Comptroller of Currency, state financial institution regulators, and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau) examination standards and general regulatory issuances
• Demonstrated sound judgment and can apply logical and critical thought processes when developing and recommending solutions
• The ability to understand issues or concerns, listen to alternative viewpoints, ask follow-up questions, and efficiently communicate to team members and internal partners
• Prioritization skills to efficiently manage multiple competing priorities at once, consistently delivering work on-time with high quality
• A solution mindset - the ability to proactively solve problems and make sound decisions while removing barriers to implement solutions with minimal assistance
• Motivation as a self-starter that can prioritize and multitask in fast-paced, and often ambiguous, environments
• Self-awareness to seek assistance when you’re uncertain and learn from your mistakes
• Flexibility to embrace change and drive a continuous improvement culture by demonstrating commitment to organizational change efforts and personally proposing new approaches and methods
• Confidence working with technical and non-technical cross-functional teams; you are able to understand and articulate the needs of partner banks and Cash App customers
• An eye for patterns and outliers - specifically to identify problems in their earliest stages and address them with the team and/or bank partners

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 also consider qualified applicants with criminal histories for employment on our team, and always assess candidates on an individualized basis.

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.

Block will consider qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records for employment in accordance with state and local laws and “fair chance” ordinances.