Payment Partnerships and Operations Manager

**Company Description**:

- Since we opened our doors in 2009, the world of commerce has evolved immensely, and so has Square. After enabling anyone to take payments and never miss a sale, we saw sellers stymied by disparate, outmoded products and tools that wouldn’t work together.
- So we expanded into software and started building integrated, omnichannel solutions - to help sellers sell online, manage inventory, offer buy now, pay later functionality through Afterpay, book appointments, engage loyal buyers, and hire and pay staff. Across it all, we’ve embedded financial services tools at the point of sale, so merchants can access a business loan and manage their cash flow in one place. Afterpay furthers our goal to provide omnichannel tools that unlock meaningful value and growth, enabling sellers to capture the next generation shopper, increase order sizes, and compete at a larger scale.
- Today, we are a partner to sellers of all sizes - large, enterprise-scale businesses with complex operations, sellers just starting, as well as merchants who began selling with Square and have grown larger over time. As our sellers grow, so do our solutions. There is a massive opportunity in front of us. We’re building a significant, meaningful, and lasting business, and we are helping sellers worldwide do the same.

The Industry Relations & Operations (IRO) team manages all the partnerships and operations involved in the payments supply chain for our global footprint. From developing strategy and infrastructure to working with external partners, you will find the best ways to move money across different networks and countries in a way that is cost-effective, available, scalable, secure and forward-looking. Reporting into the Head of IRO in Melbourne, this role can be based remotely anywhere on the East Coast of Australia or in our Sydney or Melbourne office through a hybrid of in-office and remote working.

You will:
- Support the IRO team to operationalise and solidify strategic payment network relationships to put in place new products and infrastructure to future proof Square's business-
- Lead the entire partnership lifecycle for our payment network partners, from discovery, commercial negotiations, product enablement initiatives, partner operations and compliance, and ongoing relationship management-
- Maximize current payment network partnerships through detailed and proactive account management, working with internal and external stakeholders to define, iterate and enable new programs and products, as well as optimize Square’s cost structure for payments and create operational efficiency-
- Partner with Counsel, Finance, Hardware, Marketing, Partnerships, Product, Sales and external businesses, vendors and industry leaders to better develop Square's go-to-market delivery and strategy**Qualifications**:
You have:
- 5+ years of experience working within Financial Technology or Payments, where you have demonstrated both technical depth in payment operations and commercial breadth in contract negotiations-
- Experience working with payments industry partners such as global card networks, acquirers and issuers, appreciating the complexity of the vendor relationships that enable electronic payments-
- Clear written and verbal communication and presentation skills, with the ability to make strong arguments supporting Square’s position with internal and external executive stakeholders-
- Demonstrated ability to deal with ambiguity; think strategically and analytically about business, product, and technical challenges; as well as earn trust with and influence others-
- Dexterity and appetite to straddle the roles of relationship manager, program manager, and analytics manager, interrogating new payment network rules, contract changes, and working with account managers at banks and network partnersNice to have:
- Knowledge or willingness to develop deep data analytics skills and program manage complex projects.-
- Experience with the regulatory environment and operational requirements within the market-
- Understanding of the PSP business model, acquiring, issuing and payment network rules preferred.**Additional Information**:
We’re working to build a more inclusive economy where our customers have equal access to opportunity, and we strive to live by these same values in building our workplace. Block is a proud equal opportunity employer. We work hard to evaluate all employees and job applicants consistently, based solely on the core competencies required of the role at hand, and without regard to any legally protected class.

We believe in being fair, and are committed to an inclusive interview experience, including providing reasonable accommodations to disabled applicants throughout the recruitment process. We encourage applicants to share any needed accommodations with their recruiter, who will treat these requests as confidentially as possible. **_Want to learn more about what we’re doing to build a w