Head of Partnerships
Founding Head of Partnerships building distribution channels through regulators, lenders, landlords, and advisors at an AI-native commercial insurance startup. Close first marquee partners, structure economics, and scale the motion.
About the job
What You'll Do
- Close the first marquee partners yourself, structure the economics, and write the playbook from live deals
- Decide which channels to build and in what order, and say no to the rest
- Build the attribution, payouts, and contracts so every partner-sourced dollar is tracked
- Route every referral to a named owner with a tracked outcome
- Design partner economics counsel can clear before launch, and keep the regulated path fast
- Own the scoreboard: partner-sourced conversion, revenue per partner, time-to-first-referral, reviewed weekly with the CEO
- Hire an execution lead and build the team once the motion is proven
Who You Are
- You think in distribution, not logos
- You're a player-coach: you'll close deals this quarter and build the team next year
- You're rigorous about attribution and unit economics, including thin-margin, high-volume models
- You move cross-functional work across product, legal, compliance, and ops without owning those teams
- You treat regulation as a design problem, not a blocker
- You learn a new domain fast and use AI as real leverage
Requirements
- A track record building distribution, channel, or platform partnerships that drove attributable revenue, at a payments, commerce, fintech, marketplace, or platform company (or somewhere equally complex)
- You've personally closed and structured partner deals, not just managed a team that did
- Comfort with low-margin, high-volume unit economics
- Based in SF or willing to relocate; on-site, with travel to partner markets
Nice to Have
- Insurance, insurtech, or other regulated-distribution experience (useful, never required)
- Embedded or API distribution, developer/ISV ecosystems, or marketplace app stores
- Channel or reseller program design
- A regulated launch navigated with counsel
Compensation
- Salary: $190,000 to $260,000 base, plus a milestone-based variable tied to partner-sourced revenue, plus meaningful equity
- Location: On-site, San Francisco
- Schedule: Monday to Friday, long days, on-site, with travel to partner markets as needed
Benefits
- Uber commuter benefits
- Meals provided: breakfast, lunch, and dinner
- Snacks, drinks, and coffee stocked daily
- Free gym membership
- Health, dental, and vision insurance
Skills
Partnership Development, Channel Partnerships, Distribution Strategy, Deal Structuring, Unit Economics, Attribution Modeling, Contract Negotiation, Cross-Functional Collaboration, Regulatory Navigation, Revenue Tracking
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