Senior Business Manager Payments Acceptance Transformation

Barclays UK; Greater London; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading financial services provider based in London is seeking a Senior Business Manager to support the Executive Office in driving major initiatives. The successful candidate will collaborate with senior stakeholders, enhance operational efficiency, and lead strategic projects. Required qualifications include extensive experience in business management within fintech or banking and strong communication skills at the executive level. This position offers an opportunity to play a pivotal role in transforming business strategies and processes.

Qualifications

• Seasoned experience as a Business Manager in a fintech or banking environment.
• Proven experience delivering major change programmes and driving projects through to completion.
• Ability to collaborate with businesses and senior leadership on strategies.

Responsibilities

• Develop and implement business strategies aligned with organizational goals.
• Manage and coordinate strategic initiatives, projects, and change management efforts.
• Improve operational efficiency by identifying areas for improvement.

Skills

Business Management in fintech or banking

Partnering with risk and control functions

Identifying process inefficiencies

Delivering major change programmes

Strong communication with MD stakeholders

Education

Experience in management consultancy/project management

Job description

Join us as a Senior Business Manager, supporting the Executive Office of Barclaycard Payments Transformation and working closely with the Head of Governance, Engagement and Control. You will lead Chief of Staff activities, own programme reporting and governance, and help resolve issues that may slow progress. You will play a pivotal role in keeping the programme on track and driving successful delivery across the business.

Essential/Basic Qualifications:

• Seasoned experience as a Business Manager in a fintech or banking environment
• Demonstrable experience partnering with second line of defence, risk, and control functions to ensure business compliance and protect customers and colleagues.
• Experience identifying process inefficiencies and emerging obstacles, proactively engaging stakeholders to redesign or re-engineer processes and improve outcomes while balancing multiple priorities.
• Proven experience delivering major change programmes and driving projects through to completion.

Desired Skills/Qualifications:

• Prior experience in management consultancy/project management
• Payments expertise an advantage but not essential
• Strong communicator, with experience facing off to MD level stakeholders and producing concise presentations for senior leaders

You may be assessed on the key critical skills relevant for this role, such as risk and controls, change and transformation, business acumen strategic thinking and digital and technology, as well as job-specific technical skills.

This role is based in London.

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.

For more information on our partnership with Brookfield, please visit Barclays.com.

Purpose of the role

To enable the success of the business and assist senior leaders navigate complex challenges, make informed decisions, and achieve their goals

Accountabilities

• Collaboration with business and senior leadership to develop and implement business strategies that align with organizational goals and regulatory requirements.
• Liaison between different business units and functions, fostering communication and collaboration.
• Management and coordination of strategic initiatives, projects, and change management efforts to optimize business processes and strengthen the control environment.
• Improvement of operational efficiency within the organisation including the identification of areas for improvement, streamlining of processes, and implementation of best practices to enhance productivity and effectiveness.
• Development of performance reporting for key metrics that reinforce the strategic objectives of the division and support the external commitments made. Involvement in aspects of financial analysis and budget management, including assistance in financial planning, forecasting, and monitoring of financial performance against targets.
• Support to business heads in partnership with HR on hiring, workforce planning, joiner/mover/leaver actions.

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.