Chief Payments Architect

Cardaq; Greater London; On-site; GBP 95,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

London on-site role

Job summary

Cardaq in London is seeking a Head of Payments to lead the vision and performance of our payments business. This senior, hands-on role focuses on e-commerce acquiring, payment processing and end-to-end lifecycle management.

You will work directly with the CEO and senior leadership, shaping strategy with Technology, Product, Operations, Risk and Finance, delivering reliable, scalable payment capabilities across international markets.

Qualifications

• Significant senior experience within payments, fintech, acquiring, processing or a PSP.
• Strong e-commerce payments experience — essential.
• Deep understanding of the end-to-end card-payment lifecycle.
• Experience managing external payment and banking partners.
• Strong leadership and stakeholder‑management skills.
• Excellent written and spoken English.

Responsibilities

• Lead Cardaq’s payments strategy and contribute to the product and commercial roadmap.
• Own the performance and development of e-commerce payment capabilities.
• Develop and optimise merchant acquiring and payment-processing propositions.
• Collaborate with Technology and Product on gateway and processing infrastructure.
• Manage relationships with processors, banks, card schemes and partners.
• Identify new payment methods, technologies and partnerships.
• Improve payment acceptance and authorisation performance.
• Analyse routing, declines, and transaction performance.
• Work with Risk and Compliance to maintain controls across the lifecycle.
• Support pricing and commercial modelling for payment products.
• Oversee automation opportunities in payment processes.
• Support new markets, currencies and payment methods.
• Provide senior management with reporting and strategic recommendations.

Skills

Senior payments experience

E-commerce payments

Commercial analytics

Leadership & stakeholder mgmt

English fluency

Job description

Cardaq in London is seeking a Head of Payments to lead the vision and performance of our payments business. This senior, hands-on role focuses on e-commerce acquiring, payment processing and end-to-end lifecycle management.

You will work directly with the CEO and senior leadership, shaping strategy with Technology, Product, Operations, Risk and Finance, delivering reliable, scalable payment capabilities across international markets.