Senior Partnerships Manager, UK

Our Purpose 

At Xero, we're here to help supercharge small businesses. We do this by automating routine tasks, surfacing actionable insights and connecting businesses with the right data, advisors and apps. When that happens, we're not only making life better for small business, we'll be building a stronger economy that can change the world.

How you'll make an impact

As a Senior Partnerships Manager for the UK, your mission will be to identify, negotiate, and execute high-impact product and channel partnerships that accelerate Xero's customer acquisition and partnership strategy across our product and ecosystem relationships. 

You will work to independently execute and grow complex deals that deliver significant value to Xero. You will own and nurture complex relationships with key partners, including top partners across payments, ecosystem, banking, and strategic channels. You'll have a broad reach and impact, collaborating with cross-functional teams and senior stakeholders—including Product, GTM, and other parts of Xero—to align all partnership activities with Xero's strategic direction and ensure quick and efficient execution.

• Action & Execution: Identify and independently execute new product and channel partnership opportunities, involving the right people early across Xero, to drive quick and efficient execution. You will also collect, categorise, and synthesise data and insights to inform key decisions.
• Deal Ownership: Independently own and close complex, high-value deals that require iteration and alignment with Product, GTM, and other parts of Xero. 
• Partner Management: Be responsible for a portfolio of partner relationships in the UK (across channel, product, and ecosystem), and help to execute policy changes with connected app partners. Proactively identify problems, seek to rectify them, and drive systemic improvements where needed.
• Accountability & Influence: Take a project management approach to your partnership activities, ensuring clear roles and accountability for yourself and relevant stakeholders at every stage of a deal cycle. Consistently deliver on commitments and provide actionable solutions to stakeholders.
• Effective Communication: Deliver compelling written communications and presentations that build confidence and inspire enthusiasm among internal and external stakeholders. Communicate complexity with brevity, whether pitching a new deal or providing progress updates.

• Strategic Influence: You consistently influence Xero's direction by synthesising external perspectives to inform and guide key stakeholders on partnership strategy.
• Measurable ROI: You ensure Xero's partnership activities yield measurable ROI by balancing the needs of customers, partners, and the company. You will lead deals that align with business and product goals and secure favorable terms.
• Proactive Problem Solving: You will own a problem statement from beginning to completion, from developing a new internal process to identifying a partnership strategy and then executing it.
• Flawless Deal Execution: You independently execute partnership opportunities that deliver significant value to Xero, successfully representing those deals to Xero's leadership team and other senior stakeholders.

• Extensive experience with product and channel partnerships.
• Broad knowledge of technology and software development, experience in the B2B software industry.
• Experience in the accounting and/or financial services industry is preferred.
• A solid track record of addressing customer needs through innovative partnerships.
• A track record of independently owning and executing complex, high-value channel and product deals with executive stakeholders.
• General fluency and applied curiosity in leveraging AI tools for personal productivity (e.g., deal summarisation, complex communication drafting, market analysis) and for strategically identifying new high-impact partnership opportunities.
• A strategic mindset, with the ability to analyse business and product strategies and act as an expert thought partner to senior stakeholders.
• Expert negotiation skills, commercial knowledge, and effective risk management.
• Adept at communicating complex ideas with brevity and effectively presenting to executive audiences.

Why Xero?

Offering very generous paid leave to use however you'd like (plus statutory holidays), dedicated paid leave to care for your physical and mental wellbeing as well as an Employee Assistance Program to access mental health care for you and your family, private medical insurance, gym passes, employee resource groups, 26 weeks of paid parental leave for primary caregivers, an Employee Share Plan, beautiful offices, flexible working, and many other benefits that reflect our human value, you'll do the best work of your life at Xero.