Head of Payments in London

Sterling Williams is working alongside a fintech based in the West End that is seeking an experienced and ambitious Head of Payments to lead and scale our client's payments function during a period of significant growth and transformation. This is a senior leadership role responsible for the operational performance, strategic development, regulatory compliance, and continuous improvement of the payments function across domestic and international payment schemes.

The successful candidate will combine deep payments expertise with strong people leadership skills, a passion for innovation, and the ability to build high-performing teams and operational cultures. They will play a key role in shaping the future operating model of the business, driving automation and efficiency, and ensuring the payments function remains scalable, resilient, and client-focused as volumes grow.

• Leadership & Team Development
  • Lead, mentor, and develop the Payments team.
  • Create a high-performance culture focused on accountability, ownership, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
  • Establish clear objectives, KPIs, development plans, and succession planning across the function.
  • Recruit, develop, and retain top talent as the business scales.
  • Promote strong engagement, teamwork, and operational excellence.
  • Act as a role model for professionalism, integrity, and client focus.
• Payments, Treasury and Safeguarding Operations
  • Own the end-to-end payments lifecycle across FPS, CHAPS, BACS, SEPA, SWIFT, FX settlements, card funding flows, internal transfers, and correspondent banking arrangements.
  • Ensure timely, accurate, and controlled processing of all payment activity.
  • Maintain oversight of payment operations, liquidity requirements, settlement funding, and operational treasury activities to ensure uninterrupted service delivery.
  • Ensure the operational execution of safeguarding processes, including client money movements, safeguarding account administration, funding of safeguarding accounts, and timely resolution of safeguarding exceptions.
  • Partner closely with Finance to ensure safeguarding obligations are met and any reconciliation breaks, shortfalls, or funding requirements are escalated and resolved promptly.
  • Support cash forecasting, prefunding requirements, and settlement funding across payment schemes, banking partners, and card programmes.
  • Oversee investigations, recalls, rejects, returns, repairs, and payment exceptions.
  • Act as the senior escalation point for high-value, complex, or time-critical transactions.
  • Ensure operational resilience, business continuity, and contingency arrangements for all critical payment services.
  • Maintain effective oversight of banking portals, payment systems, correspondent relationships, and operational payment controls.
  • Ensure payment operations remain scalable, efficient, and aligned with the firm's growth objectives.
• Strategy, Transformation & Innovation
  • Define and execute the Payments strategy aligned with the company's growth objectives.
  • Drive automation, straight-through processing, and operational efficiency initiatives.
  • Identify opportunities to improve client experience, reduce operational risk, and increase scalability.
  • Lead payment transformation projects, including new scheme implementations, banking partner migrations, and infrastructure enhancements.
  • Partner closely with Product and Technology teams to define future payment capabilities.
  • Champion innovation and encourage the adoption of modern payment technologies and operating models.
• Risk, Controls & Regulatory Compliance
  • Ensure compliance with FCA requirements, safeguarding obligations, payment scheme rules, and internal policies.
  • Maintain robust controls, segregation of duties, approval frameworks, and operational governance.
  • Oversee payment-related reconciliations and exception management.
  • Manage payment incidents, root cause analysis, and remediation activities.
  • Support audits, regulatory reviews, and compliance investigations.
  • Work closely with Compliance, Risk, Finance, and Internal Audit teams.
• Management Information & Performance Oversight
  • Develop and maintain meaningful operational reporting and KPIs.
  • Monitor volumes, values, service levels, error rates, investigations, and operational risk indicators.
  • Present regular performance updates to senior management and the Board.
• Banking & Partner Management
  • Own operational relationships with banking partners, correspondent banks, payment providers, and scheme participants.
  • Support commercial and strategic discussions regarding new payment capabilities.
  • Lead operational due diligence for new providers and payment partners.

• Essential
  • Significant leadership experience within an FCA-regulated EMI or Payment Institution.
  • Deep understanding of payment schemes including FPS, CHAPS, BACS, SEPA, SWIFT, and FX settlements.
  • Strong knowledge of FCA regulatory requirements and safeguarding obligations.
  • Proven experience managing and developing operational teams.
  • Demonstrated success delivering transformation, automation, and process improvement initiatives.
• Highly Desirable
  • Knowledge of card payment flows and scheme operations.
  • Experience with API-driven payment infrastructures.
  • Experience supporting rapid scaling of payment operations.
  • Lean Six Sigma, Operational Excellence, or Process Improvement qualifications.

Within the first 12 months, the successful candidate will:

• Build a highly engaged and high-performing Payments team.
• Improve operational efficiency through automation and process redesign.
• Reduce operational risk through stronger controls and systemisation.
• Deliver measurable improvements in service levels and client experience.