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UK/EU Partnerships Manager
Read this first.
This is OpenBorder's first partnerships hire in Europe. There's no playbook, no partner team, and no office down the hall. You'll have a Shopify store, a rev-share model, a list of logos, and a quota you'll help set yourself.
If that sounds thrilling, keep reading. If you skimmed it hoping for "established partner ecosystem" and "enablement resources," this isn't your job, and we'd rather save you the afternoon.
To be specific, don't apply if you:
- Want to manage partners who already exist. You'll be creating them.
- Measure a good quarter in co-marketing webinars, logo slides, or "strategic alignment." We measure it in sourced revenue, and that's the only number.
- Need a pitch deck, an SDR, and a product marketing team before you'll pick up the phone.
- Get uneasy when the person you report to is in Chicago, five or six hours behind you.
- Think "partnerships" means less selling than sales does. It's more selling: you sell the partner, then you help them sell their merchants.
About Openborder
OpenBorder makes selling across borders as easy as selling at home. We handle the hard parts for ecommerce brands: landed-cost checkout, duties and tax, DDP shipping, local payments through our own entities, VAT filings, and compliance. Our founders built brands to a $100M run-rate with more than half of revenue outside the US, so we built what they wished they'd had. Today 200+ merchants run on OpenBorder.
We grow through partners as much as through direct sales. Shipping platforms, 3PLs, returns platforms, and PSPs embed OpenBorder into their product, often white-labeled through OpenBorder Access, and earn real revenue share on every international order. Tariff changes and the end of de minimis have made 2026 the year cross-border gets rebuilt. We plan to be the infrastructure underneath it.
The role
You'll build OpenBorder's partner channel across the UK and Europe from scratch, and you'll be judged on one thing: partner-sourced revenue. You own the strategy, the pipeline, and the number. Nobody hands you a territory map.
Your partners are the companies that already touch European cross-border orders: shipping and label software, 3PLs and fulfillment networks, carriers, WMS providers, returns platforms, PSPs, and Shopify Plus agencies. You'll get them to embed OpenBorder, refer their merchants, and sell it as their own.
What you'll actually do
- Build the list, then work it. Decide which 20 UK/EU partners matter most, and why. Get meetings with the people who can say yes.
- Structure the deal. Pitch the commercial model: rev share, per-label economics, referral vs. white-label. Know the numbers well enough to negotiate them live.
- Own a partner-sourced pipeline. Forecast it weekly. Work alongside our AEs on complex deals until they close.
- Launch partners, not just sign them. Write the joint business plan, run the first referrals, and get the first 10 merchants live. A signed partner with no merchants counts as zero.
- Be OpenBorder's face in Europe. Show up at the events, warehouses, and pubs where UK logistics deals get done. Travel about 20% of the time.
- Push product. Bring back what EU partners and merchants need (VAT, IOSS, local acquiring, returns) and fight for it with our Product and Engineering teams.
- Make the US team smarter. Teach every merchant-facing person at OpenBorder which European partner to use in which situation.
Your first 90 days
- Five partners in active commercial conversations, and at least one agreement signed.
- A written UK/EU partner strategy that our CEO would fund.
- The first partner-sourced merchants in pipeline, with a forecast you're willing to be held to.
You’ll love it here if you…”/“You’ll hate it here if you…
Both columns describe good people. Only one of them fits this job.
What we need from you
Non-negotiable
- 4+ years in channel partnerships, logistics sales, or BD in UK/EU D2C ecommerce, with a revenue target you can name and a record of hitting it.
- A real network across UK and European logistics: 3PLs, carriers, WMS, and shipping software. We'll ask you to name ten people you could call this week.
- You've built a partner program, or a big piece of one, without a team behind you.
- Fluency in cross-border mechanics: DDP and DDU, duties and VAT, IOSS, landed cost, and why orders get stuck at customs.
- You're comfortable modeling partner economics in a spreadsheet and defending them in a negotiation.
- Able to travel about 20% of the time across the UK and EU.
Gets our attention
- You've worked at a carrier, 3PL, shipping platform, PSP, or merchant-of-record business, or sold into them.
- You've closed white-label or embedded deals, not just referral agreements.
- You speak a second European language. German, French, or Dutch helps most.
- You've worked inside the Shopify Plus partner ecosystem.
Doesn't matter to us
- Where you went to university, or whether you did.
- Your title at your last company.
- How many people you've managed. This job is an individual contributor until it isn't.
The details
How to apply
Skip the cover letter. Send us three things:
- Your CV or LinkedIn, plus last year's revenue target and what you hit.
- The three UK or EU partners you'd sign first, and why, in one paragraph each.
- The biggest partner deal you've closed: who it was with, what the economics looked like, and what almost killed it.
If part two feels like free consulting, that's fair, and this probably isn't the role for you. If you've already started writing it in your head, we want to talk.
What to expect
Our process is structured; it's fast (about three weeks), and it's the same for every candidate. Here's every step:
- Application review. We read every answer to the three questions above.
- Take-home exercise (60 min). You'll model the economics of a partner deal and write a short outreach email. You have 48 hours, and we'll never use your work.
- Screening call (30 min). We'll talk about your goals and strengths, and ask for the names of your last few managers. We will call them.
- Career walkthrough (60 min). We go through your career role by role: what you were hired to do, what you delivered, and why you left. Bring your numbers.
- Live deal case (90 hours). You'll pitch and negotiate a partner deal with our team playing the partner, who will push back hard. It's on video.
- Executive conversation (30–45 min). We'll talk about how you work, a big mistake you made, and what you want to build. You can ask us anything.
- References. We'll speak with at least two former managers. We take this seriously.
If a structured process with real exercises sounds like a hassle, that tells you what working here is like. If it sounds fair, it is: everyone gets the same questions and the same scorecard.
