Head of Digital Payments

Role Overview

The Head of Digital Payments will shape, lead, and deliver Finance House’s digital payments direction. This position acts as the internal authority on modern payment technologies, including card solutions, digital wallets, acquiring and issuing models, and emerging payment ecosystems. The role is designed to accelerate innovation, strengthen product capabilities, and support digital transformation while improving customer experience and long-term business growth.

Strategy and Leadership

• Build and implement a digital payments strategy that supports Finance House’s overall business goals and transformation priorities.
• Set out a long-term roadmap for digital payments, sequencing work by customer need, business impact, market opportunity, and regulatory obligations.
• Lead the digital payments team from ideation through launch and commercial rollout of new solutions.
• Serve as the organization’s specialist on new payment technologies, fintech developments, open banking, embedded finance, AI-enabled payment solutions, digital wallets, and evolving payment ecosystems.

Product Development and Innovation

• Own the full product lifecycle for digital payment offerings such as cards, acquiring products, prepaid programs, wallets, and future payment concepts.
• Spot market gaps, customer pain points, and industry trends to design payment solutions that stand out.
• Maintain a healthy pipeline of product improvements, optimizations, and new launches.
• Guide solution design, rollout, and commercialization for card issuing and acquiring programs, including new prepaid card initiatives.
• Use AI, advanced analytics, and customer data to strengthen product outcomes, engagement, fraud controls, and revenue growth.

Stakeholder and Business Management

• Work closely with the CIO, Head of Consumer Financial Services, Digital World team, and other senior leaders to keep digital payments aligned with company priorities.
• Act as the main coordinator between business, technology, operations, compliance, risk, and external partners across payment initiatives.
• Collaborate with internal and external teams to define business needs, user scenarios, and customer journeys.
• Develop and sustain relationships with payment networks, fintech firms, processors, vendors, and regulators.

Market Intelligence and Customer Experience

• Track industry developments, regulatory updates, and competitive movements in regional and global payment markets.
• Assess new technologies and operating models to enable early adoption where valuable.
• Promote customer-focused design by using customer behavior, feedback, and data-led insights in product development.
• Define and monitor KPIs such as acquisition, transaction volume, revenue, adoption, satisfaction, and return on investment.

Delivery and Governance

• Direct cross-functional teams made up of onshore, offshore, and third-party vendor resources.
• Ensure payment initiatives are delivered on schedule, within budget, and to the required quality level.
• Apply Agile delivery practices, continuous improvement methods, and faster time-to-market approaches.
• Maintain compliance with relevant regulations, risk controls, cybersecurity expectations, and governance standards.

Qualifications

A bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Finance, Information Technology, Computer Science, or a similar discipline is required. A master’s degree or professional certification in Payments, Product Management, Digital Transformation, FinTech, or Banking would be an added advantage.

Experience and Requirements

• At least 12 years of progressive experience in digital payments, cards, acquiring, issuing, retail banking, or fintech environments.
• Demonstrated success in leading large-scale digital payment product portfolios and transformation programs.
• Strong understanding of card issuing, merchant acquiring, prepaid cards, digital wallets, payment gateways, and payment processing ecosystems.
• Proven ability to use data, analytics, AI, and customer insights to improve product results and engagement.
• Experience creating product strategies, business cases, and multi-year roadmaps.
• Solid understanding of payment regulations, industry standards, and risk management frameworks.
• Ability to handle complex stakeholder environments and guide cross-functional teams.
• Hands-on experience with Agile product development and digital delivery models.
• Strong leadership, communication, negotiation, and strategic planning skills.
• Commercially minded with a strong focus on innovation, growth, profitability, and customer experience.