Ecosystem and Partnerships Lead

Join Barclays as Ecosystem and Partnerships Lead, where you’ll be responsible for identifying, establishing, and nurturing strategic partnerships to drive Barclays’ Innovation strategy. You will evaluate potential partnerships and commercial opportunities, assessing factors such as technology, business models, market potential, and alignment with Barclays’ strategic objectives.

To be successful in this role, you should have:

• Strategic Relationship Building: Ability and experience nurturing, developing and sustaining strategic partnerships that drive innovation. Evaluate potential fintech collaborations, assess commercial opportunities, and maintain relationships with key players across the fintech ecosystem, including venture capital investors, industry experts, academia, and technology partners. Demonstrable experience of working with stakeholders and partners to shape and deliver applied innovation.
• Industry Knowledge: Deep understanding of financial services, fintech, emerging technologies, and customer innovation trends. Ability to apply this knowledge to identify high-value partnerships and opportunities within Barclays’ global innovation ecosystem.
• Collaborative Stakeholder Management: Proven ability to manage relationships with both internal and external stakeholders, including senior executives and business unit leaders. Strong communication, negotiation, and influencing skills to ensure alignment and successful execution of partnerships. Clear storytelling, and experience creating compelling presentations, workshops and negotiating buy-in.

Some other highly valued skills may include:

• Adaptability & Continuous Learning: Ability to navigate a fast-changing landscape, including shifts in market conditions, fintech disruptions, and emerging technologies. Comfortable adjusting strategies as needed.
• Technology Literacy & Innovation: Strong grasp of digital platforms, AI, and other emerging technologies, with experience of applying strategically to drive innovation.
• Regulatory Acumen & Risk Awareness: Deep understanding of regulatory requirements, compliance standards, and risk management practices, ensuring that innovation strategies align with industry regulations.

You may be assessed on the key critical skills relevant for success in role, such as risk and controls, change and transformation, business acumen strategic thinking and digital and technology, as well as job-specific technical skills

This role is based in Glasgow.

Purpose of the role

To collaborate, nurture and drive group innovation with internal and external stakeholders to ensure the bank stays at the forefront of innovation and adapts to the rapidly changing landscape in financial services and increasing customer expectations. 

Accountabilities

• Collaboration with a range of stakeholders to develop a portfolio of open innovation and strategic initiatives through experimentation, co-creation, access to innovative technology capabilities, products and services and a global innovation ecosystem.
• Development and delivery of frameworks, ideation, training and tools to build a culture of innovation and knowledge sharing to enable new and creative ideas/solutions that deliver on the bank’s strategy.
• Provision of a global platform and curated ecosystem of partners to inform strategy, drive connectivity and new insights.
• Development of the strategic capabilities and programmes for the bank to deliver on its strategy, supporting the exploration, evaluation and execution of innovation and investment opportunities.
• Management and coordination between external stakeholders/partners and the bank, to successfully deliver joint projects and initiatives.
• Deliver thought leadership and insights to inform strategic decision making and organisational readiness, in conjunction with regular research, identifying emerging technologies and trends.  .
• Development and management of key metrics including key partnerships, innovation initiatives and impact through regular assessments to calculate the return on investment and identify any potential risks and issues.

Vice President Expectations

• To contribute or set strategy, drive requirements and make recommendations for change. Plan resources, budgets, and policies; manage and maintain policies/ processes; deliver continuous improvements and escalate breaches of policies/procedures..
• If managing a team, they define jobs and responsibilities, planning for the department’s future needs and operations, counselling employees on performance and contributing to employee pay decisions/changes. They may also lead a number of specialists to influence the operations of a department, in alignment with strategic as well as tactical priorities, while balancing short and long term goals and ensuring that budgets and schedules meet corporate requirements..
• If the position has leadership responsibilities, People Leaders are expected to demonstrate a clear set of leadership behaviours to create an environment for colleagues to thrive and deliver to a consistently excellent standard. The four LEAD behaviours are: L – Listen and be authentic, E – Energise and inspire, A – Align across the enterprise, D – Develop others..
• OR for an individual contributor, they will be a subject matter expert within own discipline and will guide technical direction. They will lead collaborative, multi-year assignments and guide team members through structured assignments, identify the need for the inclusion of other areas of specialisation to complete assignments. They will train, guide and coach less experienced specialists and provide information affecting long term profits, organisational risks and strategic decisions..
• Advise key stakeholders, including functional leadership teams and senior management on functional and cross functional areas of impact and alignment.
• Manage and mitigate risks through assessment, in support of the control and governance agenda.
• Demonstrate leadership and accountability for managing risk and strengthening controls in relation to the work your team does.
• Demonstrate comprehensive understanding of the organisation functions to contribute to achieving the goals of the business.
• Collaborate with other areas of work, for business aligned support areas to keep up to speed with business activity and the business strategies.
• Create solutions based on sophisticated analytical thought comparing and selecting complex alternatives. In-depth analysis with interpretative thinking will be required to define problems and develop innovative solutions.
• Adopt and include the outcomes of extensive research in problem solving processes.
• Seek out, build and maintain trusting relationships and partnerships with internal and external stakeholders in order to accomplish key business objectives, using influencing and negotiating skills to achieve outcomes.

All colleagues will be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Values of Respect, Integrity, Service, Excellence and Stewardship – our moral compass, helping us do what we believe is right. They will also be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Mindset – to Empower, Challenge and Drive – the operating manual for how we behave.