Partner Development Lead, Block Ecosystem Partnerships: Afterpay, Cash App, Square Bay Area, CA,

Remote Bay Area, CA, US

Posted Date: 01/06/26

Block is a company built from many blocks, all united by the same purpose of economic empowerment. The blocks that form our foundational teams — People, Finance, Counsel, Hardware, Information Security, Platform Infrastructure Engineering, and more — provide support and guidance at the corporate level. They work across business groups and around the globe, spanning time zones and disciplines to develop inclusive People policies, forecast finances, give legal counsel, safeguard systems, nurture new initiatives, and more.

Every challenge creates possibilities, and we need different perspectives to see them all. Bring yours to Block.

The Block Ecosystem Partnerships team leads product partnerships, business development and commercialization efforts for Afterpay, Cash App, and Square products. This specialized team sources and develops go‑to‑market strategy for product partners that enable and extend the reach of our commercial products across the payments and technology ecosystem. They build effective relationships with the largest players in the payments, finance, and technology industries, and drive critical results across the business.

We are looking for an experienced partnerships practitioner with deep expertise in enabling and growing first‑party products through third‑party ecosystems.

This Partner Development Lead will work closely with our cross‑functional leadership team to integrate and grow ecosystem partnerships that represent the biggest upside opportunities for our business globally.

You’ll partner directly with leaders across Afterpay, Cash App as well as Square Product, Engineering, Sales, Account Management, Marketing, Finance, Compliance, and Legal. You’ll drive a global strategy for your partners and execute on that strategy in conjunction with cross‑functional colleagues – especially those that may work with these same partners but in other ways. Primary responsibility for the performance of your partners sits with you, and you will continually innovate to ensure that Block remains on the cutting edge of additional developments within the partner portfolio as the landscape fundamentally changes (e.g., Agentic Commerce).

The ideal candidate will have an understanding of the economics of the payments space and deep knowledge of the payments ecosystem. This individual should also have an understanding of what will be needed to properly resource a partner strategy, and work with internal stakeholders to develop a plan for ensuring the success of a partner. A deep sense of ownership, drive, and entrepreneurship is essential.

• Develop strategy: Create and implement an overarching plan and strategy for maximizing the effectiveness of a partnership – both maximizing commercial upside and product extensibility at scale
• Build relationships: Establish strong rapport with partners at every level (executive to working groups, across functions) to influence prioritization, decision‑making, and advance our goals
• Design scalable programs: Build and project‑manage a partnership program that advances our goals as well as partner objectives at both local and global scale across all relevant regions
• Commercialize payment products: Lead commercialization of new products by refining and executing our growth partner distribution strategy. Lead end‑to‑end partner negotiations to deliver maximum distribution of our payments products, including upsell and cross‑sell of new products and features.
• Maximize out‑of‑network reach: Drive integrations and efficiencies to reach the maximum number of consumers through partner platforms and ecosystems

• 8+ years of business development or partner management experience, preferably at an innovative payments company.
• A demonstrated track record of success managing commercial products and programs, ideally in payments or fintech.
• Proven ability to build C‑suite relationships and navigate external organizations both to identify internal champions and to influence decision makers. You are an expert negotiator with a strong understanding of commercial contracts and complex negotiating dynamics that may be…