Strategic Partnerships Associate (Co-Brand/Funding Partners)

We need a proven team member to help develop and refine our strategic and marketing partners across all Avant's product offerings. The position will be heavily focused on working with external strategic partners/marketing affiliates and collaborating with internal stakeholders and teams. This is a high-visibility position and will be responsible for a large portion of Avant's acquisition pipeline and optimization initiatives. Come join a fast-paced organization with great opportunities for personal growth and channel management experience. The role will be reporting to the Manager of Strategic Partnerships working on our top partnership initiatives.
What you do at Avant:

• Support our business development, partner success, and partner management team of a holistic, customer-oriented and multi-product business development plan across Avant's credit card (and Co-brand) and personal loan products, with an orientation towards customer acquisition, revenue growth, loan originations, and card issuances.
• Primary responsibilities in supporting a portfolio of both co-branded credit card and capital markets partnerships.
• Develop relationships with existing strategic partners, monitor and stay up to date with their goals and initiatives. Uncover new opportunities to grow existing partnerships.
• Work closely with new business development to evaluate, onboard, and successfully launch new strategic partners for the business, while coordinating internal resources to ensure successful onboarding.
• Build, monitor and report large channel initiatives dependent on analytics and integrations with our current partners.
• Optimize strategic partner and affiliate conversion funnels, collaborate experiments and tests. We believe in iteration and failing better, faster.
• Independently recognize and drive communication across internal and external business stakeholders.
• Manage project roadmaps. Align on goals, set milestones, create realistic deadlines and hold your team and yourself accountable to hit those deadlines.
• Facilitate productive cross-team collaboration to support channel optimization/enhancements (ie. with product teams, business development, tech, etc.).
• Leverage insights of existing partner portfolio to inform the acquisition of new partnerships, including growth partnerships, decline monetization, joint-marketing partnerships, and any relevant tech vendors.
• Solve difficult problems in a collaborative and supportive environment. Work across functions to remove roadblocks and ensure dependent tasks are managed and completed on time.

Why you are a fit for Avant:

• Bachelor's Degree
• 3-5+ years of overall experience through a combination of strategic business development, analytics, FinTech, consumer financial services, management consulting, and/or investment banking
• Understands the value of clear and concise communication; ability to collaborate with people at all levels of the organization
• Naturally detail-oriented; you make sure that all I's are dotted and t's are crossed
• A self-motivated individual; takes accountability and ownership of their work
• Ability to execute on complex projects in a fast paced environment within established deadlines
• Excels at driving partnership to launch with the ability to account for priority, business, and success rate
• Strong decision making, problem-solving and analytical skills
• Strong skills in SQL, Python, advanced knowledge is a plus!, MS Excel, PowerPoint, Word and/or corresponding Google applications

Check out our Avant Blog!
We believe that a diverse set of backgrounds and experiences helps us create the most innovative solutions for our customers. We invite you to apply to our positions even if you do not meet 100% of the qualifications listed in the description. If you're passionate about our mission and aligned to our values, we hope you'll come contribute to our awesome culture.
Why Avant is the place for you:
At Avant, we believe our values make a difference:
Authenticity. We show up to work as our whole selves and make sure others can too.
Collaboration. We can only succeed when we do so as a team.
Problem-Solving. The harder the problem, the more satisfying the solution.
Customer. We are all owners of the customer experience.
Initiative. Plan. Adapt. Get Sh!t Done.
We believe that great ideas come from anyone and anywhere, that everyone is an owner who drives change, and that we have more fun when we work together. We're problem solvers who love collaborating with intelligent and highly-motivated people to reshape the face of digital banking. Avant offers terrific perks and benefits, fun social events with employees who actually like hanging out together, and a flexible growth environment where trying your hand at new projects and being the active owner of your career path is encouraged and supported.
Some of our benefits include:

• Choice of great Medical, Dental, and Vision Insurance Plan options
• 401(k) Match
• Unlimited Paid Time Off
• Flexible Work Environment
• Generous Paid Parental Leave
• Lunch Allowance (Fooda) and In-office Snacks
• WFH Stipends for our Remote Employees
• Access to LinkedIn Learning for Professional Development
• No Meeting Wednesdays - (a.k.a. planned time to Get Sh!t Done)
• Summer Fridays
• Fun In-Office and Virtual Social Events
• And who doesn't love the swag

This position may require you to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19. If required, you'll be asked to provide proof that you're fully vaccinated upon your start date or before working in or visiting our Chicago office. You're considered fully vaccinated two weeks after you receive the second dose of a two-dose vaccine series (e.g., Pfizer or Moderna) or two weeks after a single-dose vaccine (e.g., Johnson & Johnson/Janssen). Failure to provide proof of vaccination may result in termination. Subject to applicable law and requests for accommodation.