Strategy Senior Associate

AI in this role

About YouLend
YouLend is building the leading embedded finance platform for small businesses. We work with partners like Amazon, eBay, Shopify, Stripe and Monzo to give merchants fast, flexible access to funding.
We are growing quickly across the UK, Europe and the US. We need brilliant strategic problem solvers who can find opportunities, get into the data, work across teams and drive real impact.
About the Role
You will take ownership of scaling major partners, turning around underperformance, building business cases for investment into new products or markets, shaping commercial proposals, and driving cross-functional initiatives that could materially change YouLend’s growth trajectory.
You will be responsible for analysing partnership performance, pricing, supporting RFPs, preparing and presenting insights to partners, and implementing initiatives to grow key markets. This role is ideal for someone who thrives in a fast-paced fintech environment, enjoys problem-solving, and is eager to make an impact. You will have real autonomy to define your own roadmap.

Key Responsibilities

What you'll be doing

Identifying, prioritising and driving high-value growth opportunities across partners, products and markets.
Owning performance deep-dives for strategic partners and turning the findings into action.
Building business cases for new product, market and partner initiatives.
Structuring commercial proposals, pilots and partner growth plans.
Building the operating rhythms, tools and processes that help YouLend scale.
Working across Partnerships, Product, Risk, Data, Operations and Capital Markets to get things done.

Example problems

YouLend is considering a major new product, market or partner investment. How big could it be, what would need to be true for it to work, and should we go after it?
A pricing, risk or eligibility change could unlock significant growth, but could also create downside risk if we get it wrong. How do we size the opportunity, make the trade-offs clear and drive the decision?
One of our largest global partnerships isn’t growing as fast as we want. What is holding it back, what would materially change the trajectory, and how do we get their senior stakeholders aligned behind the plan?

Skills, Knowledge & Expertise

What you'll need
Partnerships & Commercial Growth:

A strong interest in fintech, partnerships, and commercial strategy.
Understanding of commercial metrics, unit economics, and financial concepts (or a strong willingness to learn).
Ability to work on multiple projects simultaneously, balancing strategic initiatives and hands-on execution.
Strong ability to create clear, structured, and visually compelling presentations for both internal stakeholders and external partners.
Comfortable presenting insights and strategic recommendations to senior stakeholders and external partners, ensuring clarity and impact.

Technical & Analytical Skills:

Strong problem-solving and critical-thinking skills, with the ability to extract insights from large datasets.
Experience with SQL and Python is a plus, but not required – a strong willingness to learn is essential.
Proficiency in Excel/Google Sheets

Communication & Collaboration:

Excellent communication skills, with the ability to engage both partners and internal stakeholders effectively.
Comfortable working cross-functionally in a fast-moving, high-growth environment.

Learning & Adaptability:

A fast learner who enjoys tackling new challenges.
Proactive, self-motivated, and eager to take ownership of projects.

How we rate this

Strategy Senior Associate at YouLend rates 34 out of 100 for how much of the daily work is AI. That makes it Little AI (AI Level 1 of 4). The level is about AI in the job, not seniority.

Classification

Little AI. AI is not part of the work.