Policy Manager - Payments, Fraud and Challenger Banks lead

Innovate Finance; City Of London; Hybrid; GBP 45,000 - 52,000; Full time

Job summary

A financial services advocacy body in London is seeking an experienced policy development lead to manage stakeholder engagement and drive membership growth. The ideal candidate has over 4 years of experience in financial regulation and possesses strong analytical and communication skills. This full-time position offers a salary of around £45,000 and hybrid work flexibility.

Benefits

20 days annual leave plus bank holidays

Pension contributions

Private health cover

Regular social activities

Qualifications

• 4+ years of experience in regulation or government policy in financial services.
• Experience developing programs and reports with stakeholders.
• Strong ability to build relationships with clients and members.

Responsibilities

• Lead on responses to regulatory consultations.
• Organise member meetings and communications.
• Develop proactive policy and thought leadership.

Skills

Analytical skills

Relationship building

Effective communication

Event organisation

Commercial focus

Job description

Innovate Finance is the independent industry body that represents and advances the global FinTech community in the UK. Our membership is broad, encompassing businesses from seed‑stage start‑ups to global financial institutions. It includes a wide range of FinTech innovators such as payment firms, smart data companies, buy now, pay later (BNPL) providers, digital assets (including members of the Digital Pound Foundation), challenger banks (we are the industry body for digital challenger banks), financial apps, Digital ID and other RegTech specialists (including members of RegTech UK).

This is an exciting role, which will lead on developing thought leadership, policy positions, analysis, stakeholder engagement and membership growth – focusing in the first instance on payments, fraud and challenger banks. This combines developing policy positions and insights, running member advisory boards, developing and delivering specific programmes, and growing and supporting our membership. We are looking for someone who can analyse the detail of regulation and policy; see the bigger picture and make connections; communicate this simply and clearly; and build and maintain exceptional membership relations, based around delivering policy and regulatory advocacy.

You will be working with the world’s leading FinTech businesses to shape the future of financial services in the UK. We work closely with Government, Parliament and regulators, and advocate for regulation and policy to ensure the UK continues to be the best place in the world to start, grow and scale a FinTech company.

Location: London, hybrid with minimum 2 days a week in the office

Full time role (Mon‑Fri); applications from candidates seeking a job share welcome

Contract: Permanent

Salary: c. £45,000

Start date: December 2025

About you

Experience: You will have 4+ years experience that includes -

• Regulation and/or government policy in financial services and/or technology; This could include work in‑house, in a trade association, a consultancy, a law firm, a regulator, government or Parliament.
• Working with members, clients or stakeholders to develop programmes, events and reports
• Great relationship building including effective and lasting client, member or stakeholder relations
• Developing and running effective stakeholder, client or member communications
• Efficient organisation and management of events and workshops
• Commercial focus, able to translate advocacy, policy and connections into value and revenue.

Skills:

• be comfortable working in a fast‑paced environment, as part of a team and independently with minimal supervision;
• have strong analytical skills: able to understand complex issues, break them down into clear components and identify trends and cause and effect.
• be comfortable communicating professionally with a diverse range of internal and external stakeholders (all levels of seniority);
• have excellent written communication skills with a strong attention to detail and ability to write clearly and concisely;
• be well organised and be able to proactively manage competing, time‑sensitive deliverables;
• possess a good understanding of the key regulatory and public policy issues impacting the UK FinTech sector.
• understand how financial services regulation, Parliament and UK government works
• Comfortable flexing between policy, operational organisation and member recruitment and engagement

Desirable:

• Knowledge of payments, banking, prudential regulation or digital assets
• Experience of account or membership management
• Experience of, or an appetite to develop, public speaking experience

About this role

Your responsibilities will be varied. This will include

• Leading on Innovate Finance responses to regulatory consultations, identifying risks and opportunities for strengthening UK FinTech and advancing UK competitiveness
• Organising member meetings, communications and roundtables.
• Developing pro‑active policy and regulatory positions and proposals and thought leadership, working with our members
• Produce insight briefings for our members, for government and MP, and for for the leadership team
• Maintain and support active social media
• Build and maintain stakeholder relations with regulators and policy makers
• Collaborating with internal stakeholders to create and manage policy‑focused and industry networking events;
• Liaising with Innovate Finance's strategic partners to manage the timely delivery of thought leadership and other Policy outputs; and
• Representing Innovate Finance and our members in meetings and at external events with policy makers and other trade associations.

The core role is likely to initially focus on payments, fraud and challenger banks but we are an agile team and you can expect responsibilities top flex and the role to take on new or different policy and industry areas. In each area you will develop a policy programme which will include running a membership advisory board or working groups; developing a work plan and implementing it, including relevant thought leadership, policy consultation responses, advocacy and events; stakeholder engagement; supporting membership growth and retention; developing social media content and insights; and providing members with timely insights and updates.

You can find out more about Innovate Finance and our regulatory and policy work here.

Benefits

• 20 days of annual leave + bank holidays + Christmas and New Year leave
• Pension contributions
• Private health cover
• Regular social activities

Interested?

Please apply for the role by sending a copy of your CV, particularly identifying relevant areas of experience and skills.

We welcome applications from a diverse range of applicants. If you think you would be a good fit, we would love to hear from you, regardless of educational background or prior experience.