Lead, Partnership and Ecosystem at Credit Direct Limited

To build and lead the partnership function that powers CDL's two-track ecosystem strategy. The role exists to convert partnership activity into a disciplined commercial engine that materially contributes to CDL's ambition of becoming Africa's leading embedded finance provider. The Lead, Partnership and Ecosystem will own the partnership thesis, pipeline and outcomes across CDL's Built and Integrated ecosystems, and will build the team and operating model that sustains it at scale.

Job Details

Partnership Strategy & Thesis:

• Develop the CDL Partnership Strategy. This includes segmenting the universe across Built and Integrated tracks, defining partner archetypes, and prioritizing targets by commercial fit, integration cost and strategic value.
• Define deal economics frameworks for each archetype, including revenue share, take-rate floors, exclusivity, integration cost recovery and partner-of-record economics.
• Maintain a rolling 12-month partnership pipeline with explicit conversion targets, reviewed monthly with the CRCMO and quarterly with the MD/CEO and ExCo.

Built Ecosystem Partnerships:

• Lead partnerships that directly enrich CDL's proprietary consumer and SME platforms. Target categories include lifestyle and commerce merchants, ride-hailing and travel, telco and content, embedded insurance, investments and asset managers, payment scheme partners, and select fintech adjacencies.
• Drive partnership-led customer acquisition campaigns and bundled propositions in coordination with marketing and product.
• On the platform, own merchant and content partnership economics.

Integrated Ecosystem Partnerships:

• Lead embedded credit, checkout and BNPL partnerships across e-commerce platforms, marketplaces, payroll providers, telcos, and other priority categories.
• Originate and structure platform-of-record partnerships, API consumer relationships, and aggregator deals
• Partner closely with Product, Engineering and the technology leadership on integration design and time-to-live.
• Build the commercial framework for credit-as-a-service and underwriting-as-a-service offerings.

International Partnership Foundation:

• Build and execute the partnership track of CDL's planned international expansion across other priority African markets.
• Identify and qualify acquisition, greenfield and licensing partners aligned to CDL's expansion approach.
• Establish partnership rails in each priority market, including local distribution partners, embedded finance hosts, and regulatory-aligned platforms.

Function Building & Team Leadership:

• Design the partnership target operating model, covering coverage structure, deal stages, governance forums, account management cadence, and partner success motion.
• Recruit and lead the team, with a clear progression and reward framework.
• Stand up partnership tooling, including pipeline CRM, deal-room, partner scorecards, integration tracker, and contract repository, in coordination with technology and internal systems.
• Own the Partnership Operating Calendar, including monthly reviews, quarterly council, and an annual partner summit.

Cross-functional Leadership & Governance:

• Partner deeply with: CRCMO (commercial alignment), CPO (product propositions), Chief Digital & Technology Officer (integration and technology), CRO (credit and risk acceptance criteria for embedded credit), CFO (deal economics, capital allocation), Chief Legal Counsel (contract and regulatory), Head of Operations and Customer Experience (operational delivery).
• Establish and chair the Partnerships Investment Committee, a forum that signs off material partnership commitments above defined thresholds.
• Maintain partnership compliance with CBN and host-country regulatory frameworks, working with Legal and Risk.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree, with a postgraduate qualification in business, finance or technology preferred (MBA from a credible institution is a plus, not a requirement).
• Demonstrable record of personally originating, structuring and closing partnerships of material commercial size, quantifiable in deal value, revenue contribution, GMV processed, or customers acquired.
• Prior experience leading or building a partnership function from a low base, including team design, deal governance, and operating tooling.
• Strong API-led commercial fluency; comfort in technical conversations with CTO and product leadership of partner organizations.
• Active Pan-African network and credible deal experience beyond Nigeria.
• Track record of working effectively in cross-functional environments alongside Product, Engineering, Risk, Legal and Finance.
• 12–15+ years of progressive experience, including 7+ years in partnerships, business development or commercial roles in financial services, payments, embedded finance, fintech infrastructure or platform technology

COMPETENCIES REQUIREMENTS:

Technical:

• Partnership strategy and segmentation.
• Deal structuring, covering revenue share, take-rate, exclusivity, integration economics, and partner-of-record models.
• Embedded finance and platform commercial constructs.
• Pipeline management and partnership CRM discipline.
• Contract negotiation and term-sheet construction.
• Partnership P&L management and unit-economics modelling.
• Partnership compliance with CBN and equivalent regulatory frameworks

Behavioural:

• Builder, not maintainer.
• Commercially disciplined: closes deals that work, walks away from those that do not.
• Cross-functionally credible. Earns the respect of product, engineering, risk and legal.
• Direct and low-ego; comfortable with peer-level frankness.
• Customer-back thinker. Every partnership must improve outcomes for CDL's customers.
• Long-term builder of African finance, not a short-stay logo collector.