Apple hiring for 'Alternative Payments' business manager

Apple is hiring a Business Development Manager to help the company expand into emerging and alternative payment systems beyond Apple Pay.

From Apple's website:

The Apple Wallets, Payments, and Commerce (WPC) team is seeking an experienced Business Development Manager to lead Alternative Payments Partnerships. We are looking for a proven professional in global alternative and emerging payment solutions. We need your help forming partnership framework and commercial models, defining implementation paradigms, identifying key players and managing relationships with strategic alternative payment partners. This position will be responsible for the end to end business development, including screening partners, negotiating and closing commercial agreements and launching new programs.

The posting, first spotted by CoinDesk mentions various qualifications including experience "working in or with alternative payment providers, such as digital wallets, BNPL, Fast Payments, cryptocurrency" and more.

The description of the role is outlined as follows:

Lead the partnership program with key players in the Alternative Payments ecosystem, covering the complete process of partner identification, business case development and socialization, partnership negotiation, contract signing and execution, go to market launch and continued partnership value growth. Work with senior level partners internally and externally to advance business case, secure resources and provide ongoing communications. Provide industry insights and market opportunities to Apple cross-functional teams, including alliance, product, engineering, and marketing to influence business strategy and product roadmaps for the growth of Apple Pay and Wallet Services. 25% travel required.

The listing could indicate Apple is looking to at least investigate the prospect of using cryptocurrency as a payment method on devices like the iPhone 12, but is also interesting because of the timing of the posting, with Apple's trial against Epic Games barely finished. One of the major talking points of the trial was the prospect of using alternative payment systems on the iOS App Store.