Strategic Finance Lead Go-To-Market - BPL

We are looking for a senior strategic finance professional with a strong background in fintech or payments, and direct experience supporting go‑to‑market functions. You will bring a commercial mindset and a track record of partnering closely with sales, marketing and partnerships teams – translating business performance into clear financial insight and actionable recommendations. You will be highly experienced in financial forecasting, ROI modelling, investment cases and business partnering at a senior level, and comfortable operating in a fast‑moving, high‑growth environment where the quality of your analysis directly shapes strategic decisions.

Key Responsibilities

• Act as the primary finance business partner to the relevant leadership team, providing strategic counsel and financial insight that drives confident, well‑informed decision making.
• Lead the development of robust financial forecasts, scenario models and long‑range plans, ensuring commercial ambition is grounded in financial discipline.
• Build and own the investment case framework for the area, evaluating new opportunities, initiatives and resource allocation decisions with rigour and clarity.
• Develop and maintain ROI frameworks and performance tracking tools that allow the business to assess returns and course‑correct quickly.
• Translate complex financial analysis into clear, compelling narratives for senior leadership, the head of Corp and Strategic finance, the CFO and external parties.

Barclays’ payments acceptance business provides critical infrastructure to the UK economy, processing billions of pounds of payments annually for both small businesses and domestic and international corporate clients. In April 2025, we announced a long‑term partnership with Brookfield Asset Management to grow and transform the payments acceptance business by broadening the range of services offered, enhancing the experience for both existing and prospective clients. Leveraging extensive client relationships and deep experience of UK payments, we will create an environment of continuous innovation – activated by Brookfield’s global private equity expertise in payments, technology, operational transformation and corporate carve‑outs – to ensure the business is strategically positioned for long‑term growth. Barclays will invest approximately £400m in the new business, the majority of which will be incurred during the first three years. Performance‑linked incentives will drive greater alignment between the partners, underpinning the long‑term commitment to the transformation. Barclays and Brookfield will work to create a standalone entity over time, continuing to use the Barclaycard Payments (BPL) brand and acting as the sole payments acceptance services provider to Barclays’ clients for a minimum of ten years.

Qualifications

• Qualified Accountant with a recognised professional finance qualification (e.g. ACA, ACCA, CIMA).
• Experience working within a Payments or Fintech environment, with an understanding of fast‑paced, regulated businesses.
• Proven experience managing and developing teams.

Other Highly Valued Skills May Include

• Experience supporting Sales or Marketing functions, providing commercial insight and financial partnership.

Purpose of the role

To provide financial expertise and support to specific business units or departments within the organisation, and act as a liaison between the finance function and various business units, helping to bridge the gap between financial data and business decisions.

Accountabilities

• Development and implementation of business unit financial strategies, plans and budgets, using insights to evaluate the financial implications of strategic initiatives and recommend appropriate actions.
• Development of financial models to forecast future performance, assess investment opportunities, and evaluate financial risks for business units, and to analyse the impact of business decisions on financial performance and provision of recommendations.
• Cross‑functional collaboration to provide financial insights and guidance to business unit stakeholders.
• Identification of opportunities and implementation of financial process improvements that streamline financial operations.
• Support to business units in identification, assessment and mitigation of financial risks, including provision of training and guidance on financial risk management and compliance practices.
• Analysis and presentation of financial data to provide insights into business performance, identify trends and support decision‑making.

Vice President Expectations

To contribute or set strategy, drive requirements and make recommendations for change. Plan resources, budgets, and policies; manage and maintain policies/processes; deliver continuous improvements and elevate breaches of policies/procedures. If managing a team, they define jobs and responsibilities, planning for the department’s future needs and operations, counselling employees on performance and contributing to employee pay decisions/changes. They may also lead a number of specialists to influence the operations of a department, in alignment with strategic as well as tactical priorities, while balancing short and long term goals and ensuring that budgets and schedules meet corporate requirements. If the position has leadership responsibilities, People Leaders are expected to demonstrate a clear set of leadership behaviours to create an environment for colleagues to thrive and deliver to a consistently excellent standard. The four LEAD behaviours are: L – Listen and be authentic, E – Energise and inspire, A – Align across the enterprise, D – Develop others. OR for an individual contributor, they will be a subject matter expert within own discipline and will guide technical direction. They will lead collaborative, multi‑year assignments and guide team members through structured assignments, identify the need for the inclusion of other areas of specialisation to complete assignments. They will train, guide and coach less experienced specialists and provide information affecting long term profits, organisational risks and strategic decisions. Advise key stakeholders, including functional leadership teams and senior management on functional and cross‑functional areas of impact and alignment. Manage and mitigate risks through assessment, in support of the control and governance agenda. Demonstrate leadership and accountability for managing risk and strengthening controls in relation to the work your team does. Demonstrate comprehensive understanding of the organisation functions to contribute to achieving the goals of the business. Collaborate with other areas of work, for business aligned support areas to keep up to speed with business activity and the business strategies. Create solutions based on sophisticated analytical thought comparing and selecting complex alternatives. In‑depth analysis with interpretative thinking will be required to define problems and develop innovative solutions. Adopt and include the outcomes of extensive research in problem‑solving processes. Seek out, build and maintain trusting relationships and partnerships with internal and external stakeholders in order to accomplish key business objectives, using influencing and negotiating skills to achieve outcomes.

All colleagues will be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Values of Respect, Integrity, Service, Excellence and Stewardship – our moral compass, helping us do what we believe is right. They will also be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Mindset – to Empower, Challenge and Drive – the operating manual for how we behave.