Head of Merchant Partnerships

About the role

Junction Pay grew by signing merchants one at a time. That worked to nine thousand; it will not work to thirty. The next phase runs through partners — e-commerce platforms, POS vendors, franchise groups, trade associations and the accounting software Hong Kong SMEs already live inside.

This is a new seat on the leadership team, reporting to the CEO, with a small existing team of three and a mandate to build. You would set partnership strategy, negotiate the commercial and technical terms, and own the number those partnerships are supposed to produce. It is a build-and-close role: for the first year you will be in the room yourself, not managing people who are.

You need to be credible with a Kwun Tong franchise operator over tea and with a regional platform's corporate development team on a video call, on the same afternoon. That combination is the whole job.

What you'll do

• Define and own the partnership strategy: which channels, in what order, and what each is expected to deliver
• Originate and close platform, ISV, franchise and association partnerships end to end, including commercial terms and revenue share
• Build the partner lifecycle — enablement, joint go-to-market, quarterly business reviews and the discipline to exit dead partnerships
• Work with Product and Engineering to shape the integration and partner API roadmap around real signed demand
• Grow the team from three to a planned eight over eighteen months, hiring for closing ability rather than relationship inventory
• Report partnership-sourced volume and margin to the board every quarter, with the misses stated as plainly as the wins

What we're looking for

• 10+ years in partnerships, channel or business development, with at least 3 leading a function
• A record of closing partnerships that produced measurable revenue, with references who will confirm the numbers
• Deep familiarity with the Hong Kong SME and retail landscape, and how buying decisions actually get made in it
• Native Cantonese, business Mandarin and business English
• Commercial and contractual fluency — you can negotiate a revenue share and read the schedule it hangs off

Nice to have

• Payments, POS or e-commerce platform background
• Existing relationships with Greater Bay Area platform players
• Experience taking a partnership programme from zero to a material share of revenue

What you get

• Leadership package including equity, reviewed at each funding event
• Executive medical for you and your family
• 25 days annual leave and genuine flexibility on where the work happens
• Direct line to the CEO and a seat at the weekly leadership table
• Budget to build the team you argue for