Business Development Manager, Merchant Partnerships

About Wizard Wizard is the top-performing AI Shopping Agent, delivering the best products from across the web with unmatched accuracy, quality, and trust. The Role We are looking for a Business Development Manager, Merchant Partnerships to help build and scale Wizard's merchant partnership ecosystem. In this role, you will identify, engage, negotiate, and close high-value brand and retailer partnerships that expand Wizard's shopping network and create new revenue opportunities through product feed integrations, monetization partnerships, and native checkout capabilities, either directly or through strategic partners. This role is ideal for a business development professional who thrives on building relationships, closing strategic partnerships, and creating scalable processes. You'll play a key role in developing our merchant acquisition strategy, including target prioritization, outbound outreach, stakeholder mapping, commercial negotiations, and seamless handoffs to Merchant Operations, Partner Success, Product, and Engineering to ensure successful onboarding and long-term partner success. What You’ll Do Identify and prioritize high-value merchants aligned to Wizard’s consumer demand, category strategy, and coverage gaps Build and manage a high-velocity pipeline (sourcing, outreach, multi-threading, stakeholder mapping, next steps, and close plans) Lead discovery and pitch Wizard’s value proposition; drive deals from first meeting through signature Negotiate launch-ready partnership agreements covering commercial economics, including affiliate and/or direct terms, product feed requirements, reporting expectations, and onboarding scope, while partnering with Product and Engineering to validate native checkout requirements and technical feasibility. Own internal deal process: pricing/terms alignment, approvals, and contract readiness (partnering with Legal as needed) Partner closely with Product, Engineering, Merchant Success, and Merchant Operations to define realistic integration and onboarding pathways, set clear expectations with merchants, and ensure clean launch-ready handoff. Develop and continuously improve Wizard’s merchant acquisition process, including Tier-1 vs. Tier-2 playbooks, qualification criteria, outreach templates, pipeline reporting, and weekly funnel health tracking across volume, stage conversion, and forecast. Develop repeatable acquisition channels across outbound prospecting, partner referrals, approved commerce/integration partners, and industry events, with a focus on generating qualified merchants that can launch quickly and monetize effectively. Coordinate with approved merchant onboarding partners to identify qualified merchant opportunities, accelerate handoffs, and improve the efficiency of Wizard’s acquisition motion. What Success Looks like Priority merchants signed with launch-ready terms (feeds + checkout scope clearly defined) Consistently onboard qualified merchants that successfully launch on the Wizard platform. Build and maintain a healthy pipeline of qualified SMB and mid-market merchants with clear progression through each sales stage. Deliver consistent merchant acquisition results while building a repeatable, scalable acquisition motion. Scalable acquisition motion: repeatable outreach, clear qualification rubric, stage definitions, and clean handoffs to Success/Ops Ideal Background 5–8+ years in business development / partnerships, ideally selling into retailers/brands or commerce platforms Thrives in an early-stage startup environment where building process, wearing multiple hats, and adapting quickly are essential to success. Experience negotiating commercial partnerships and coordinating cross-functional onboarding with Product, Operations, and Legal teams Experience with one or more of: product feeds/catalog integrations, affiliate programs, checkout/payment rails, marketplaces Experience managing multiple partnership opportunities simultaneously, balancing outbound prospecting, relationship management, and cross-functional execution. Comfortable operating in ambiguity; can build process while hitting a number Experience in eCommerce, retail technology, marketplaces, affiliate ecosystems, commerce platforms, or merchant-facing SaaS. Existing merchant relationships are valuable, but a demonstrated ability to build new relationships through proactive outreach is equally important. Working Model Acquisition owns sourcing → negotiation → signature → launch-ready handoff Merchant Success owns activation, performance growth, and QBR/GTM motions post-launch Merchant Ops owns monetization hygiene, reporting, and operational tooling. Compensation & Benefits The expected total compensation range for this role is $155,000-$175,00 USD and will vary based on skills, experience, role level, and geographic location. Final compensation will be determined by considering these factors alongside overall role scope and responsibilities. In addition to base salary, Wizard offers: Equity in the form of stock options Medical, dental, and vision coverage 401(k) plan Flexible PTO and company holidays Fully remote work within the United States Periodic company offsites and team gatherings Wizard is committed to fair, transparent, and competitive compensation practices.