Payments Consulting Tech Lead

PSE Consulting are seeking a tech lead to join our team and take responsibility for delivering high-quality consulting engagements while deepening client relationships and supporting business development activity.

The Tech Lead will work as a subject matter expert to understand clients' payments needs and pain points and support the design of appropriate solutions. The role requires full ownership of the client solution from a technical perspective, while working with other team members to flesh out the product, market, regulatory, operational and commercial aspects. The ability to work collaboratively with PSE team members and client representatives is essential.

The role acts as PSE’s go-to technical payments expert and you must be able to use your knowledge and experience to answer in-depth questions where Google and ChatGPT can’t help. This is a customer-facing role requiring the ability to communicate effectively with both business stakeholders and architects/engineers.

You will support clients in selecting off-the-shelf components and solutions and advise on integration with existing systems and low-risk migration plans. You will apply a critical analysis of proposed solutions and will identify and constructively challenge areas where the vendor's sales pitch exceeds their ability to deliver. This will involve review of API and other technical specs and experimentation in sandbox environments as well as using your own prior knowledge and relevant contacts in your network.

The role requires an in-depth understanding of the concepts of 3 and 4 party payment ecosystem models, wallets and the authenticate-authorise-clear-settle-reconcile-refund-dispute cycle. You will have an in-depth technical understanding of key payments technologies such as network tokens, 3DS, cryptography, hosted fields, ISO8583, Nexo-style APIs and APMs; channels including ecommerce, face-to-face and omnichannel; security frameworks such as PCI, P2PE and OWASP; and you will be tracking emerging standards such as ACP, AP2 and UCP. You will be able to articulate the implications, pros and cons of different approaches, and avoid recommending solutions just because they are trendy. Understanding of non-card payments is a plus.

The role will be based in our central London office.

About PSE Consulting: PSE Consulting is one of Europe’s leading payments consulting firms and we are widely respected for our high-quality expertise. We work with a broad range of clients including merchants, acquirers, issuers, card schemes, PSPs, processors, fintechs and investors. Our projects span strategy, commercial analysis, customer insights, technical solution and operating model design, proposition development and market assessments. PSE is an expert-led advisory firm and support our clients in integrating, developing and selling payments products and solutions; we do not get involved in the code build. Most of our work covers the UK and Europe but we have a global reach with many projects embracing Asia, Australasia and the Americas. The role will be primarily office-based but will involve occasional brief visits to client sites, typically lasting a few days.

What you will do:

• Act as the primary technical consultant for new and existing PSE clients, with a focus on solution design and component selection.
• Investigate and present detailed information on 3rd party product features, benefits, limitations and differentiators and recommend short lists.
• Support clients in creating, issuing and evaluating RFIs and RFPs, providing subject matter expertise and critical analysis of responses.
• Maintain positive relationships with vendors throughout the selection process, while providing objective and unbiased recommendations to clients.
• Leverage supplier contacts to keep up to date with new features and functions in their offerings.
• Utilise existing industry contacts to complement your own knowledge and expertise.
• Ensure client and supplier expectations are clearly set and met in relation to software, hardware, installation, support and training.
• Balance a desire for technical excellence with an understanding of the client’s need to present a compelling business case to obtain funding.

What we are looking for:

• 10+ years experience in technical architecture, pre-sales or similar role in the payments space.
• Degree-level education or equivalent experience.
• Technical background (Computer Science degree preferred).
• Hands-on experience in software development or testing.
• Experience within an ecommerce or POS technology environment.
• Ability to work under pressure and manage multiple priorities.
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving capabilities.
• Familiarity with network tokens, 3DS, hosted fields, ISO8583, wallets and APMs.
• Proactive, self-starting mindset.
• Ability to engage confidently with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Must have the right to work in the UK; PSE will not provide Visa sponsorship.

Recruitment process: If short-listed, you will have an initial online interview with two of our senior people including the current tech lead. If successful in the initial interview, you will then be invited to visit us in our offices to meet the team and have a further interview with a small panel including our managing director. A job offer will then be made subject to our standard pre-employment checks.

How to apply: Please submit your CV together with a short note (max one page) covering: Why payments, Why a specialist consultancy, One example of delivering high-quality work under time pressure – what were the concrete deliverables?