Merchant Business Development Lead
About Knot
Knot’s mission is to empower consumers and businesses alike with connected merchant and banking experiences. Knot is like “Plaid for merchant connectivity.” We are building the platform connecting merchants to the many applications that consumers and businesses interact with everyday. Our flagship CardSwitcher product allows consumers to instantly update & manage their cards on file with online merchant accounts (e.g. Netflix or PayPal), while newer products like TransactionLink support the retrieval of item-level transaction data. We are building many new products on top of our novel merchant connectivity platform and we hope you choose to come build them with us!
Founded in 2021, Knot was founded by two brothers and Thiel Fellows - Rory and Kieran O’Reilly - and today powers connected online payment experiences for hundreds of thousands of consumers. Companies like American Express, Current, BILT, Step, and more choose to embed Knot’s SDK in their apps to power best-in-class experiences for their customers.
Knot is proudly backed by a select group of investors, including Nava Ventures, 8VC, American Express, Plaid, and co-founders & CEOs of prominent companies like Twitter, Warby Parker, Allbirds, Casper, Intercom, Deel, Italic, DraftKings, and many more.
Working at Knot
We’re a world-class team hailing from all over the globe with the vast majority of the company in engineering roles. We are looking to further solidify our presence in NYC to be at the heart of the financial services ecosystem.
Our team is relentlessly focused on building for our customers and every member of the financial services ecosystem. We take our work seriously and have fun while doing it. Both are equally important.
About the Role
We’re looking for a Merchant Business Development Lead to help bring Knot’s suite of products to some of the most well-known consumer merchants in the world. This is a critical, senior-level role that sits within the GTM team and is focused on establishing strategic partnerships that drive both revenue and product adoption.
You’ll be responsible for identifying, sourcing, and closing partnerships with top merchants to enable deep integrations with Knot’s platform. This role is ideal for someone who has either:
Sold into merchants before (e.g. payments, commerce, identity, loyalty, or data platforms), or
Worked inside a consumer merchant in a partnerships, strategy, or product-facing capacity and understands the internal buying and decision-making process.
This role requires a creative and strategic thinker who’s also execution-oriented – someone who can navigate complex organizations, craft compelling commercial narratives, and drive deals across product, legal, and executive stakeholders.
What You’ll Do
Own the full business development lifecycle with consumer merchants: from sourcing and pitching to negotiating and closing
Develop and refine Knot’s merchant go-to-market strategy alongside the founders and GTM team
Build business cases and ROI narratives that clearly articulate the value of integrating with Knot’s platform
Collaborate closely with Product and Engineering to assess feasibility, define integration requirements, and align with the product roadmap
Maintain a deep understanding of the merchant ecosystem and identify new partnership opportunities that align with Knot’s strategic priorities
Represent Knot externally at industry events and internally as the voice of the merchant in cross-functional planning
Who You Are
3-6 years of experience in business development, partnerships, or sales –ideally at a high-growth fintech, a major consumer merchant, or within the payments ecosystem
Prior experience either selling into large consumer merchants or working within a merchant organization
Deep understanding of the online consumer merchant ecosystem and how decisions are made around payments, checkout, loyalty, and/or data integrations
Exceptional communication and storytelling skills – you can make a clear, strategic case to C-level audiences
A self-starter who thrives in ambiguous, fast-moving environments and takes ownership from day one
Comfortable navigating long sales cycles and multi-stakeholder partnerships
What We Offer
Impactful work with a small, highly talented team
Competitive base salary + meaningful early-stage equity
100% covered medical, dental, and vision insurance (U.S.)
Unlimited PTO and parental leave
Beautiful NYC office in Flatiron with a flexible in-office culture