VP, Partnerships

Job Summary

As Vice President of Partnerships, you will deliver growth by sourcing, structuring, and scaling high-impact partnerships with Fortune 500 and other strategically aligned companies across multiple verticals. You will leverage your corporate development expertise and proven track record in complex deal-making to deliver partnerships that drive significant new customer acquisition, revenue growth, and business innovation. This is a highly visible leadership role with the opportunity to shape Rakuten’s partner ecosystem and deliver measurable business results. This role reports to the CMO, Rakuten Rewards.

Key Responsibilities

Define and execute Rakuten’s strategic partnerships roadmap across core and emerging verticals, including retail, travel, financial, lifestyle, technology, grocery, etc.

Lead cross-functional alignment around partnership goals, including GMV, new customer acquisition, co-marketing, customer expansion and retention, and product integration.

Influence product and marketing strategies with insights from the partnership ecosystem.

Identify, evaluate, and close high-impact deals with Fortune 500 companies and other key partners that align with Rakuten’s customer base.

Lead all aspects of the deal lifecycle—from sourcing and pitch through negotiation, contracting and onboarding.

Create innovative value exchange models, including loyalty integrations, data sharing, co-branded programs, media swaps, card linking, platform integrations, and cultural moments.

Ensure Rakuten has effective partnerships across the different stages of the customer journey.

Drive incremental GMV, new customer acquisition, existing customer expansion, and improved customer acquisition cost (CAC) through ongoing partner performance management.

Collaborate with marketing, sales, and product teams to develop partner campaigns and user experiences that drive results.

Prepare executive-level reporting with key KPIs, OKRs, and business initiatives, adapting strategy as needed.

Build and lead a high-performing team of business development and partner marketing professionals.

Foster a culture of ownership, creativity, and data-informed decision making. Represent Rakuten at industry events and in senior-level partner conversations.

Qualifications

Relevant experience in business development, strategic partnerships, or corporate development at a technology, e-commerce, fintech, or loyalty company.

Demonstrated success sourcing, structuring, and scaling revenue-generating partnerships with Fortune 500 companies and other major brands.

Deep expertise and experience negotiating and closing complex, multi-faceted deals across a range of verticals and partnership types.

Strong network and negotiation skills in retail, travel, financial services, or performance marketing sectors.

Experience working cross-functionally with product, legal, marketing, sales and data teams.

Analytical mindset with a strong grasp of partner economics, LTV, and performance metrics.

Excellent communication and relationship-building skills, especially with C-level stakeholders.

Leadership experience in building and developing high-performing teams.

Minimum Requirements

12+ years of relevant work experience required.

Bachelor's Degree Required.

Master's Degree Preferred.

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Five Principles for Success

Our worldwide practices describe specific behaviors that make Rakuten unique and united across the world. We expect Rakuten employees to model these 5 Shugi Principles of Success. Always improve, Always Advance — Only be satisfied with complete success - Kaizen. Passionately Professional — Take an uncompromising approach to your work and be determined to be the best. Hypothesize - Practice - Validate – Shikumika — Use the Rakuten Cycle to succeed in unknown territory. Maximize Customer Satisfaction — The greatest satisfaction for our teams is seeing their customers smile. Speed!! Speed!! Speed!! — Always be conscious of time, take charge, set clear goals, and engage your team.

Rakuten provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type. Rakuten considers applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetic information, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, provincial or local laws.

At the time of posting, Rakuten expects the base compensation for this role to be within the range shown below. Individual compensation will vary based on job-related factors, including the skills, qualifications, and experience of the successful candidate as well as business need and geographic location. The successful applicant for this role will be eligible for discretionary bonus, health, vision, dental insurance, 401k matching, PTO, Volunteer Time Off (VTO), and other employee benefits as the company implements.

USD $157,464.00 - $293,760.00 annually

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