Before the iPhone existed, Apple went to America's wireless carriers with terms none of them had ever granted: no carrier logo on the device, no carrier software, and control over how it was sold. Verizon walked away. Cingular said yes, reportedly before it had seen a working prototype, and on January 9, 2007 became the exclusive U.S. carrier for a phone the public had not yet seen. Apple gave up the reach of every other carrier, Cingular gave up control it had never surrendered, and both got something worth more. No template could have produced that agreement. People with the relationships, the nerve and a structure in mind did.

(Fun fact. Most people think it was A&T, but “Cingular” was the one who negotiated and announced it, and “AT&T” is what the carrier was called by the time the phone shipped in June 2007. That’s why most people say “the AT&T and iPhone deal.”)

At Mercury, we are looking for the person who will do that for us. We are building the financial layer for ambitious people of all kinds, and the platforms where they already work are where we want to be: the default bank for AI, the core banking* partner for merchants. One signed agreement can put Mercury in front of millions of businesses. We are a company of founders and small teams trying to change the world, and this isn't a fixed role. We expect the nature of work is changing, and a leader paired with AI tools and the autonomy to build can create 10x outcomes: modeling deals, shaping integrations with our product teams and standing up the function as you go. Bring your relationships, and we will bring the product, the team and the room to build something that doesn't exist yet.

About Strategic Partnerships at Mercury

The Strategic Partnerships team drives customer growth, product expansion and strategic advantage through high-impact partner relationships. We have built a strong business through accounting firms, VCs, accelerators, incorporators and e-commerce partners, working closely with Product, GTM, Finance, Legal, Risk and Operations. That motion works. The next chapter is different, and it starts with you.

About the Role

This is a leadership role with a single mandate: land the handful of partnerships that change Mercury's trajectory. You will own Mercury's most ambitious platform relationships, including making Mercury the default bank for AI and the core banking partner for merchants, and you will be measured on deals that create distribution at a scale no direct sales motion can match.

These are one-of-a-kind deals. Nobody has a template for them, so you will design the structure, and neither side will have done anything quite like it before. You will do it largely through relationships you already have, with the senior executives who decide at the world's most important technology companies.

You will build the enterprise partnerships function from scratch, report into Mercury's leadership team and have a direct line to the CEO. As the motion proves out, you will hire and lead the team that runs it.

What You'll Do

Win the deals that matter most

Own Mercury's top partnership targets across the AI ecosystem and the largest commerce, productivity and vertical software platforms, and make Mercury the financial layer underneath them.

Open doors personally at the C-suite and senior executive level, using your existing network to get Mercury into rooms that most companies cannot reach.

Take each deal through its full lifecycle, from first conversation and business case to term negotiation, legal close, integration scoping and launch.

Architect first-of-a-kind structures

Design bespoke arrangements such as embedded finance programs, deep API and agent integrations, co-distribution models and joint product experiences that create lasting strategic lock-in.

Use Mercury's full product suite (banking, payments, cards, APIs, MCP and CLI tooling) as strategic currency, matching the right capabilities to each partner's needs.

Model deal economics for both sides, pressure-test the business case, and align Finance, Product, Engineering, Legal and Risk leadership behind it.

Build the function

Define the Enterprise partnerships playbook: who we pursue, how we position, how we negotiate and what success looks like a year from now.

Work with our bank partners and regulators' expectations in mind so that large, complex integrations can launch and scale safely.

Hire and develop the team as the motion grows.

What Success Looks Like

In your first year, Mercury has signed its first platform-scale agreements in AI and commerce, each with a clear integration plan, committed executive sponsors on both sides and measurable distribution. You have built the playbook and the relationships to repeat it.

What We're Looking For

15+ years in strategic partnerships, business development or corporate development , including senior leadership at a category-defining technology company or platform.

A record of one-of-a-kind deals that you personally originated and closed. You can describe the counterparty, the structure, the economics and your own role in detail, and the counterparty would confirm it.

Personal relationships with senior executives at leading technology companies. You can call decision-makers directly, you have recent history with them, and they will take the meeting.

Deep experience structuring embedded, API-driven or distribution deals. You understand how technical integrations create commercial moats, and how to negotiate them.

Strong commercial and financial fluency. You can model economics for both sides, structure complex incentives and negotiate with sophisticated counterparties.

Executive presence and internal influence. You earn trust from Finance, Product, Engineering and Legal, and you can move a company behind a deal.

Comfort building from scratch. Mercury has not had a dedicated enterprise partnerships function, and you are energized by that.

Technical credibility. You do not need to write code, but you can hold a substantive conversation about APIs, integration architecture and what it means to embed financial infrastructure into someone else's platform.

Strong plus: experience in fintech, payments, embedded finance or AI-native products.

*Mercury is a fintech company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided through Choice Financial Group and Column N.A., Members FDIC.

Total Rewards The total rewards package at Mercury includes base salary, equity (stock options/RSUs), and benefits.

Our salary and equity ranges are highly competitive within the SaaS and fintech industry and are updated regularly using the most reliable compensation survey data for our industry. New hire offers are made based on a candidate’s experience, expertise, geographic location, and internal pay equity relative to peers.

Our target new hire base salary ranges for this role are the following :

US employees in New York City, Los Angeles, Seattle, or the San Francisco Bay Area: $304,000 — $380,000 USD

US employees outside of New York City, Los Angeles, Seattle, or the San Francisco Bay Area: $273,600 — $342,000 USD