Strategic AI Partnerships

About the Role:

At Cashfree Payments, we are building the next generation of intelligent financial and payment experiences powered by AI. We are looking for an Associate Director – AI Partnerships to help drive strategic collaborations across the AI ecosystem and unlock new opportunities at the intersection of payments, automation, commerce, and enterprise technology.

This role will work closely with Product, Business, Engineering, and Leadership teams to identify, build, and scale partnerships with AI platforms, startups, enterprise technology providers, and ecosystem enablers. The ideal candidate should be comfortable navigating evolving technologies, building strategic relationships, and translating emerging AI capabilities into business impact.

What You’ll Do:

• Identify and build strategic partnerships with AI companies, platforms, developer ecosystems, and technology providers
• Work closely with internal stakeholders across Product, Engineering, GTM, and Strategy teams to evaluate AI-led business opportunities
• Drive partnership discussions, commercial negotiations, and alliance frameworks with external partners
• Explore AI use-cases across payments, merchant operations, customer experience, risk, compliance, and automation workflows
• Build joint go-to-market initiatives and ecosystem collaborations with AI partners
• Enable co-innovation opportunities including pilots, integrations, and solution partnerships
• Track emerging AI trends, startups, and market developments relevant to fintech and digital payments
• Create partnership narratives, business cases, and strategic recommendations for leadership teams
• Collaborate with product teams to translate market feedback and ecosystem insights into scalable opportunities
• Represent Cashfree in industry conversations, ecosystem events, and strategic AI engagements

What You’ll Need:

• 8–10 years of experience in strategic partnerships, business development, consulting, enterprise technology, fintech, or ecosystem roles
• Strong understanding of AI/GenAI landscape, SaaS platforms, APIs, automation ecosystems, or emerging enterprise technologies
• Experience working with cross-functional stakeholders across business, product, and technology teams
• Ability to build and manage senior-level external relationships and strategic alliances
• Strong commercial acumen with experience in partnership structuring and business negotiations
• Excellent communication, storytelling, and stakeholder management skills
• Comfortable operating in fast-moving and evolving environments with high ownership
• Analytical and structured problem-solving mindset with the ability to evaluate strategic opportunities
• Prior exposure to fintech, payments, SaaS, cloud, developer ecosystems, or AI-led products will be an added advantage
• Curiosity to explore emerging technologies and identify meaningful business applications