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You’ll work across three core areas: growing existing partners, winning new partners, and leading high-priority commercial initiatives. The role is equal parts partner-facing ownership, hands-on analytical problem-solving and cross-functional execution.
You’ll own senior relationships with major partners and brokers, often working with Director, VP and Head-of-level stakeholders. You’ll lead difficult commercial conversations, build trust, negotiate trade-offs, and work with internal teams to turn opportunities into measurable growth.
You’ll be highly curious and analytically robust. You’ll use SQL/Excel to dig beyond dashboards, and trace issues through data, product flows, documentation or technical context until the answer makes sense.
You’ll also play a central role in building business cases for new products, markets and strategic initiatives: sizing the opportunity, testing the assumptions, understanding the risks, and helping YouLend decide where to invest.
The right person will be a data-driven commercial operator: analytical, commercially sharp, credible in senior conversations, scrappy and self-directed.
You’ll be known and respected across Product, Risk, Operations, Data, Capital Markets and Partnerships as someone who can get things done. You’ll have strong relationships with senior stakeholders at major partners, and YouLend’s leadership team will trust your judgement on partner growth, pricing, performance, business cases and strategic initiatives.
As the function grows, there is a clear path to managing analysts or associates and shaping how the team works.
You’ll thrive in this role if you have:
Bonus if you’ve worked in fintech, lending, payments, marketplaces, embedded finance or the SME space.
Job Description
Commercial Strategy Manager / Senior Associate
Department: Commercial
Employment Type: Permanent
Location: London
Reporting To: Eoin O'Kane
Description
The Role:
We’re looking for a Commercial Strategy Manager / Senior Associate to help win, grow and optimise strategic partner relationships with some of the world’s leading platforms.
You’ll work across three core areas: growing existing partners, winning new partners, and leading high-priority commercial initiatives. The role is equal parts partner-facing ownership, hands-on analytical problem-solving and cross-functional execution.
You’ll own senior relationships with major partners and brokers, often working with Director, VP and Head-of-level stakeholders. You’ll lead difficult commercial conversations, build trust, negotiate trade-offs, and work with internal teams to turn opportunities into measurable growth.
You’ll be highly curious and analytically robust. You’ll use SQL/Excel to dig beyond dashboards, and trace issues through data, product flows, documentation or technical context until the answer makes sense.
You’ll also play a central role in building business cases for new products, markets and strategic initiatives: sizing the opportunity, testing the assumptions, understanding the risks, and helping YouLend decide where to invest.
The right person will be a data-driven commercial operator: analytical, commercially sharp, credible in senior conversations, scrappy and self-directed.
Key Responsibilities
- Drive growth across existing partners by identifying performance gaps, commercial opportunities and practical growth levers.
- Support new partner opportunities, including commercial proposals, RFP responses, pilots and senior partner discussions.
- Lead business cases for new products, market launches, partner initiatives and commercial investments. Build commercial models to size opportunities, evaluate trade-offs and support decisions.
- Lead partner performance conversations, using data to understand what is happening and what should change. Assess pricing, eligibility and underwriting trade-offs across conversion, risk, partner appetite and profitability.
- Drive cross-functional execution across Product, Risk, Capital Markets, Operations, Data, and Partnerships, bringing teams together around the right commercial priorities.
- Improve the reporting, dashboards and operating rhythms that help YouLend and its partners make better decisions.
- Over time, help coach and develop analysts or associates as the team grows.
You will work on questions such as:
- Which new product, market or partner initiative should YouLend invest in next, and what would need to be true for it to become a major growth driver?
- How do we help a strategic partner materially grow funding volumes while balancing conversion, risk, pricing, margin constraints and customer experience?
- How should we structure and negotiate a commercial proposal or pilot that could unlock a major new partner relationship?
- A major partner is underperforming: what is really driving it, how do we get senior stakeholders aligned, and what plan gets growth back on track?
- Where could changes to pricing, eligibility, underwriting or the customer journey unlock growth without creating unacceptable risk?
- How do we build more repeatable ways to scale partners?
What great looks like
After 6-9 months, you’ll be operating with little guidance and independently leading important commercial workstreams: spotting the right problems to solve, getting into the data, forming a clear view, aligning the right people and driving action through to measurable impact.
You’ll be known and respected across Product, Risk, Operations, Data, Capital Markets and Partnerships as someone who can get things done. You’ll have strong relationships with senior stakeholders at major partners, and YouLend’s leadership team will trust your judgement on partner growth, pricing, performance, business cases and strategic initiatives.
As the function grows, there is a clear path to managing analysts or associates and shaping how the team works.
Skills, Knowledge & Expertise
You’ll thrive in this role if you have:
- 4-6 years in a mix of roles that combine analytical problem-solving, commercial judgement, and stakeholder management (e.g. consulting, strategy & ops, founder’s associate, chief of staff, or other commercial roles).
- Strong commercial judgement and the ability to balance growth, risk, pricing, unit economics, partner incentives and customer experience.
- Confidence working with senior external stakeholders, including Director, VP or Head-of-level contacts.
- Strong communication skills: you can turn complex analysis into clear recommendations and partner-ready materials.
- The ability to structure ambiguous problems, identify the real issue and work out what should happen next.
- Strong SQL skills and excellent Excel/Google Sheets ability. You should be comfortable pulling, structuring and analysing data yourself. Python is a plus.
- Strong commercial modelling skills, with the ability to size opportunities, build business cases and explain the assumptions, trade-offs and risks behind them.
- A self-directed, scrappy working style: you are comfortable with imperfect information, messy data and fast-moving priorities.
- Strong cross-functional leadership: you can get teams moving without relying on formal authority.
- The ability to balance strategy and execution: you can shape the answer and then drive it through.
Bonus if you’ve worked in fintech, lending, payments, marketplaces, embedded finance or the SME space.
Job Benefits
Why join YouLend?
- Award-Winning Workplace: YouLend has been recognised as one of the “Best Places to Work in 2024, 2025 and 2026” by the Sunday Times for being a supportive, diverse, and rewarding workplace.
- Award-Winning Fintech: YouLend has been recognised as a “Top 250 Fintech Worldwide” company by CNBC.
It's just getting fun
- We have developed powerful solutions, secured significant partnerships, and are growing rapidly.
- The global opportunity is still massive, and YouLend is a raw organisation where we are only just getting started.
Lots of upsides
- High-growth (>100% growth during 2022 and 2023), so clear outlook to compensation (bonus or share option appreciation) and career growth (through growth with the business).
- Well-capitalised with supportive private equity backing.
- Part of Banking Circle Group with a fully licensed Luxembourg bank, which can provide a balance sheet and support European expansion in otherwise complex regulated markets.
Motivating work environment
- A high-quality team that pushes each other to succeed through direct feedback and aligned incentives.
- Strong, transparent team culture: we have each other’s backs.
- Independent work environment where results matter.
- Data-driven culture and emphasis on speed (anti-red tape).
We offer a comprehensive benefits package that includes:
- Stock options
- Private Medical Insurance (via Vitality)
- EAP with Health Assured
- Enhanced Maternity and Paternity Leave
- Great office space (including a gym!) in Central London
- Subsidised lunch (via Feedr)
- Deliveroo allowance if working late in the office
- Monthly in-office masseuse
- Team and Company socials
- Sports clubs
At YouLend, we champion diversity and embrace equal opportunity employment practices. Our hiring, transfer, and promotion decisions are exclusively based on qualifications, merit, and business requirements, free from any discrimination based on race, gender, age, disability, religion, nationality, or any other protected basis under applicable law.