Payments Manager

About the Role
The Payments Manager leads the payments strategy at the company across all customer touchpoints, ensuring a secure, compliant, and frictionless payment experience. This role is responsible for defining the payments roadmap, collaborating with internal stakeholders, and managing strategic partnerships with schemes, banks, and payment service providers. The Payments Manager will oversee the design, launch, and performance management of various financial products such as co-brand bank cards, remittances, and open-loop wallets, driving continuous improvement through technology and process optimization.

Key Accountabilities
Payment Experiences

• Define and maintain the payments roadmap (in-store, app, web, B2B where applicable), prioritizing initiatives that improve conversion, speed, reliability, and customer experience while aligning with the company strategy.
• Sponsor business cases with Digital/IT and Finance for new payment capabilities (e.g., tokenization, installments, pay-by-link, fleet/B2B enhancements), including benefits, costs, risks, and implementation approach.
• Lead governance with schemes, issuing/acquiring partners, and internal stakeholders to optimize authorization rates and manage disputes, continuously improving operational performance and commercial terms.
• Drive delivery with payment acquirers/service providers and Digital/IT teams to ensure secure implementation, effective testing, and timely issue resolution, ensuring compliance with security and regulatory requirements.
• Monitor market trends, regulatory changes, and emerging payment technologies; translate insights into actionable enhancements and improvements in digital payment penetration, NPS, and cost-to-serve.
• Explore and evaluate new payment methods/currencies such as AANI, cryptocurrency, and stablecoins; devise business cases and roadmaps for the acceptance of these new payment initiatives.

Co-Brand Bank Card

• Own the end-to-end co-brand card proposition across targeted segments and geographies, including product design, go-to-market, lifecycle management, and performance governance.
• Negotiate and structure co-brand agreements (commercials, servicing model, data, marketing rights, SLAs, governance) in partnership with Legal, Finance, Compliance, and Procurement.
• Define and refine the co-brand value proposition (pricing, rewards, benefits, tiers) to ensure competitive differentiation and strong unit economics.
• Lead cross-functional working groups to design card features, customer journeys, servicing processes, and communications, ensuring readiness across channels and customer support.
• Establish market and performance intelligence (customer behavior, portfolio cohorts, competitor benchmarking) to inform product iteration and growth levers.
• Develop and execute acquisition and spend-growth strategies with Marketing and partner banks to achieve issuance, activation, and portfolio spend targets.
• Own co-brand financial performance (revenue, costs, marketing budget) and portfolio KPIs; lead monthly performance reviews and corrective actions with internal stakeholders and partners.

Relationships and Commercial Focus

• Build and maintain executive-level relationships with payment schemes, integrators, acquirers, and banking partners to secure strategic support, innovation access, and improved commercials.
• Lead negotiation and ongoing management of payment fees and incentives across schemes, acquirers, and integrators; track savings and revenue uplift versus targets.
• Develop joint business plans and promotional calendars with financial institutions to drive retail sales, digital payment adoption, and portfolio spend, ensuring clear ROI measurement.
• Partner with banks to create targeted offers, segmentation strategies, and data-driven campaigns, ensuring adherence to data governance.
• Identify, assess, and own new revenue-generating opportunities across the payments ecosystem, including gift vouchers, remittances, open-loop wallets, and embedded financial services. Collaborate with Digital, Retail, Finance, IT, Risk, and external partners to define strategy, secure investment approvals, and deliver end-to-end launch and P&L performance of these initiatives.

Company Wallet

• Define and continuously refine the company wallet strategy and roadmap to maximize acquisition, activation, retention, and frequency of use across core and adjacent customer journeys.
• Drive wallet growth initiatives with Marketing, Digital, Retail, and Customer Service, including awareness, merchant enablement, and customer communications, measured through adoption and usage KPIs.

Stakeholder Management

• Lead cross-functional alignment with senior internal stakeholders (Retail, Digital/IT, Finance, Operations, Customer Experience) to agree on priorities, timelines, and ownership for payments and wallet initiatives.
• Act as the single point of accountability for external payment ecosystem partners (schemes, banks, PSPs), ensuring effective governance forums, performance tracking, and escalation management.
• Prepare decision-ready updates and recommendations for leadership, supported by KPI dashboards, risk assessments, and commercial impact analysis.

Qualifications, Experience, Knowledge & Skills
Minimum Qualification

• Bachelor's degree in marketing or a related field.

Minimum Experience & Knowledge & Skills

• 10 years of experience in the payments space, preferably in banking, retail, or Fintech sectors.
• Experience working closely with payment schemes and acquiring banks on commercials and new feature launches.
• Product management experience, preferably in the payments space.
• Proven track record in managing stakeholders (internal & external).
• Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint.
• Fluent in English and preferably Arabic.