Head of Partnerships

Aplite is building a cross-bank payee identity network to enable identity-first money movement. We are introducing structured proxy identifiers that provide persistent payee visibility across institutions before payment initiation, reducing misdirected payments, operational overhead, and push payment fraud at the core.

We’re hiring our first Head of Partnerships to design and own Aplite’s ecosystem strategy with banks, fintechs, payment providers, and other infrastructure players. You will lead the identification, structuring, and scaling of the strategic relationships that make the network valuable and defensible.

• Define and execute Aplite's partnership strategy across banks, fintechs, cores, and payment platforms.
• Own the full partnership lifecycle: sourcing, outreach, structuring, negotiation, and ongoing growth.
• Build and manage relationships with senior stakeholders at financial institutions and fintech partners including Heads of Payments, Treasury, Operations, and Risk.
• Collaborate with product and engineering to shape integrations and pilots that solve real partner problems.
• Represent Aplite externally at industry events and with prospective partners.
• Establish and track partnership KPIs including pipeline, live integrations, and revenue impact.
• Support contract structuring and negotiation in coordination with legal and compliance.
• Ideal candidate background: banking, fintech, or payments infrastructure.
• Minimum 7+ years of experience in strategic partnerships, business development, product, or related roles in fintech, payments, banking, or payment infrastructure (years of experience flexible for exceptional candidates with the right network and outcomes).
• Deep understanding of payment rails (Fedwire, FedACH, Fed Now, RTP, SWIFT) and how money moves through bank and fintech stacks.
• Proven track record of thinking strategically and navigating complex partner dynamics, incentives, and motivations.
• Strong executive presence, including excellent communication and presentation skills with C‑level and senior stakeholders.
• Ability to help craft product integrations and think through product and commercial nuances with both internal and partner teams.
• Strategic thinker who can translate strategy into actionable, measurable plans and operate comfortably in high ambiguity.

• Existing network among bank/payment decision‑makers (Heads of Payments, Treasury, Operations, Risk) and fintech product leaders.

• Brand builder: can represent Aplite with confidence in the marketplace with a unique and informed point of view on identity‑first payments.
• Able to converse credibly with serial entrepreneurs, founders, early‑stage investors, and external stakeholders as needed.
• Comfortable being both strategic and hands‑on: running founder‑style outbound, first calls, and negotiations.

• Work directly on a problem top of mind for banks and fintechs: preventing misdirected payments and push‑payment fraud as faster payment rails scale.
• Own partnerships end‑to‑end and help define the network, the ecosystem, and the company’s commercial DNA.
• Meaningful ownership and the opportunity to help build a foundational layer of payment identity.