Strategic Partner Development Principal Lead, Payments
Confirmed on the employer's own hiring board on Nov 4, 2026. First seen by Alion on Nov 3, 2026. Google scores B on the Alion truth index.
About the job
Google's line of products and services to our clients never stops growing. The Partnerships Development team is responsible for seeking and exploring new opportunities with Google's partners. Equipped with your business acumen and extensive product knowledge, you are right on the front line of interacting with our partners, and helping them find ways to grow using Google's newest product offerings. Your knowledge of relevant verticals and relationships with key industry players will help shape our great applications and content for products such as YouTube, Google TV and Commerce.
The Payments Partnerships team is central to Google's ambition to build a world-leading payments platform. We create seamless and engaging commerce experiences-from in-store mobile payments to frictionless online checkout and digitized transit-by fostering strong, lasting ecosystem partnerships.
As a Strategic Partnerships Development Principal Lead, you will operate at the intersection of dynamic industries like financial services and retail, shaping the future of commerce. You will be responsible for leading relationships with key banking partners in the UK and driving EMEA-wide programs for Google Pay with card issuers. Additionally, you will own the go-to-market strategy and execution for new payments authentication products across the ecosystem. To achieve this, you will drive strategic alignment across the company, collaborating closely with cross-functional stakeholders in Product Management, Engineering, Go-to-Market, Marketing, and Legal to structure complex agreements and launch programs that benefit our partners and users globally.
The Global Partnerships organization is responsible for exploring new opportunities with Google's partners. Google’s Global Partnerships team works with a wide range of partners to bring the best of Google to power their business. The Global Partnerships team supports Google’s own Product teams with essential partnerships to help Google’s user experiences in advertising, Search, Assistant, Maps, Travel, Shopping, Payments and more. Teams create product-enabling partnerships, go-to-market strategies and incubate business growth for a variety of products.
Responsibilities
- Manage partners by scoping, developing, and prospecting, making informed decisions regarding account priorities and resource allocation, and proactively resolving partner concerns (technical or business-related) by developing multifaceted solutions.
- Build and maintain strong relationships with external partners, serving as the primary contact for your partner portfolio, guiding partners through complex timelines, goals, and objectives, integrating activities of multiple related projects/teams.
- Lead the creation, negotiation, and closing of effective business development agreements that further Google's objectives, identifying and executing high-potential ecosystem initiatives, potentially including the establishment of new partnerships.
- Create and drive strategic projects to meet product priorities with partners, influencing cross-functional stakeholders (Product, Engineering, Legal, GAPP, Marketing, etc.) to align resources and strategic direction.
- Share partner and ecosystem insights with cross-functional teams, serving the market, and establish a strong industry presence at external events.
Qualifications
Minimum qualifications:
- Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience.
- 10 years of experience in business development, partnerships, management consulting, in the payments, e-commerce/retail, technology industries on UK market.
- Experience in signing and negotiating agreements, business development, partner management, or product management in an internet or technology environment.
- Experience working with C-level executives and cross-functionally across all levels of management.
- Ability to communicate in English fluently as this is a customer-facing role that requires interactions with local and international stakeholders.
Preferred qualifications:
- Experience managing end-to-end partnerships.
- Experience working autonomously in a dynamic, ever-changing, and collaborative environment.
- Experience working with the payments ecosystem (e.g., issuers, networks, wallets, payment service providers).
- Ability to identify potential business opportunities, assess financial/business benefit, structure agreements, and discuss terms with strategic partners.
- Excellent communication and influencing skills.
- Multidimensional problem-solving skills.