Business Development Manager - Payments in London

VC Innovations is looking for an ambitious Business Development Manager to join our payments portfolio and play a central role in the commercial growth of the FTT Festival of Payments 2027. We are taking our established payments and embedded finance proposition and building something much bigger for 2027. FTT Festival of Payments will bring together the payments ecosystem in London through a new festival format combining exceptional content, carefully curated audiences, hospitality, networking, experiences and culture. It is deliberately not another traditional payments conference.

We are looking for someone who understands the payments ecosystem, enjoys building senior relationships and gets excited about helping shape a product while taking it to market. This is not simply a role selling exhibition stands from a rate card. You will work closely with the CEO and wider portfolio team to identify the companies we want involved, understand what they are trying to achieve and develop partnerships that make commercial sense for both sides.

What You Will Be Doing

• You will take ownership of business development across the FTT payments portfolio, with the FTT Festival of Payments 2027 as your immediate priority.
• Your responsibilities will include:
• Building and managing a strong pipeline of sponsors and strategic partners
• Developing relationships with senior marketing, partnerships, commercial and business leaders across the payments ecosystem
• Identifying and approaching new target accounts across payments, fintech and adjacent technology markets
• Re-engaging existing VC Innovations clients and developing them into larger portfolio relationships
• Running discovery calls to understand client objectives, target audiences and commercial priorities
• Developing sponsorship and activation proposals around those objectives
• Selling a mixture of festival partnerships, content activations, hospitality, experiences, private meetings, roundtables and bespoke campaigns
• Working with our audience, content, marketing and client success teams to create compelling propositions
• Maintaining accurate pipeline management and forecasting through HubSpot
• Attending relevant industry events and building your own network within payments
• Contributing ideas to the continued development of the Festival and wider payments portfolio
• Building relationships that extend beyond individual events into year-round and multi-year partnerships

Who We Are Looking For

Payments knowledge matters. You do not necessarily need to have spent your entire career selling events, but you should understand the payments ecosystem and be comfortable speaking with the companies operating within it. You might currently work within events, media, fintech, payments, SaaS, partnerships or another B2B commercial environment.

We would particularly like to meet someone who:

• Has B2B business development or commercial experience
• Understands payments, fintech or financial services technology
• Has an existing network within the payments ecosystem or the ability to build one quickly
• Is confident engaging senior decision makers
• Is commercially ambitious and motivated by targets
• Can run a strong discovery conversation rather than immediately jumping into a sales pitch
• Enjoys opening new accounts as much as developing existing relationships
• Can turn client objectives into creative commercial propositions
• Is organised and disciplined around pipeline management and follow-up
• Is comfortable working in an entrepreneurial environment where ideas can move quickly
• Wants to help build something rather than simply inherit an established sales patch

The Person

We are particularly interested in someone who is curious, entrepreneurial and relationship-led. The right person will want to understand where payments is going, who the interesting companies and people are, and how we can bring those communities together. You should be comfortable picking up the phone and creating opportunities from nothing, but equally capable of sitting across the table from a senior marketing or commercial leader and having a thoughtful conversation about their 2027 strategy. We want someone who sees business development as building relationships and solving commercial problems, not sending hundreds of generic sponsorship emails.

Why Join VC Innovations?

You will be joining at an important point in the development of our payments portfolio. FTT Festival of Payments gives you the opportunity to help build a new flagship proposition from an early stage, while benefiting from the audience, client relationships and reputation already established across the wider FTT portfolio. You will work closely with the CEO and senior team and have genuine input into how the product develops. For someone ambitious within payments and B2B media, there is significant scope to grow with the portfolio and take on greater commercial responsibility as it scales.

Location

London, with a hybrid working model. The role will involve regular face-to-face client meetings, industry events and networking alongside time in the VC Innovations office.

Package

Competitive base salary + uncapped commission. Package will depend on experience and existing payments industry knowledge.

About VC Innovations

VC Innovations is a B2B media and events business operating across fintech, payments, digital identity and AI transformation. Our portfolio brings together senior decision makers from financial institutions, merchants, technology companies and the wider innovation ecosystem through festivals, conferences, private events, content and bespoke campaigns. For 2027, we are building the next generation of that portfolio, starting with the FTT Festival of Payments.