lead – on deck payments

CRED; Bengaluru; On-site; INR 450,000 - 700,000; Full time

Job summary

CRED is seeking a strategic Payments Lead in India to own end-to-end growth, P&L, and roadmap for high-frequency, transactional payment categories that drive member habit and retention. You will work with product, engineering, compliance, and external partners to define the future category strategy and execute it at scale.

The role focuses on sustainable growth with low friction, trusted payment flows, and a compliant, resilient business model, balancing cost-to-serve with long-term value for

Qualifications

• Experience owning high-frequency consumer payment categories in India.
• Direct experience with regulated payment rails and partner ecosystems.
• Proven track record scaling high-frequency payments.
• Strong strategic and analytical skills and ability to translate insight into action.
• Experience owning P&L, planning, and business performance cadences.
• Ability to operate cross-functionally in regulated environments.
• High ownership mindset with collaboration ethos.

Responsibilities

• Own the category end-to-end, including growth, economics, forecasting, and reporting.
• Drive planning cadences, operating reviews, and performance tracking.
• Balance growth, reliability, cost-to-serve, and long-term sustainability.
• Make clear trade-offs between engagement, scale, and economics.
• Partner with product and design to define the long-term vision and roadmap.
• Identify levers to drive 2–3× growth in active transacting members.
• Reimagine user journeys, frequency drivers, and habit loops.
• Translate category strategy into executable priorities and milestones.
• Drive adoption and repeat usage.
• Design strategies to reduce friction, increase trust, and improve payment confidence.

Skills

Cross-functional leadership

Strategic thinking

Analytical skills

P&L ownership

Regulated payments knowledge

Growth strategy

Job description

CRED is an exclusive community for India's most trustworthy and creditworthy individuals, where the members are rewarded for good financial behaviour. CRED was born out of a need to restore focus on a long-lost virtue — trust. the idea: create a community built on trust and scale this behaviour until it becomes the norm.

building a community like this requires a community of its own; a group of passionate, driven people with the freedom to take big swings and chase meaningful outcomes. a group that believes in solving problems elegantly, moving fast, thinking first principles, and constantly raising the bar.

here's what will be in store for you at CRED once you join the team.

as a lead within the payments pod, you will own the end-to-end strategy, growth, and p&l for one of CRED's most important engagement surfaces — high-frequency, transactional payment categories that form the backbone of member habit and retention.

this role is responsible for step-change growth — scaling active transacting members 2–3× by making on-deck payment flows habit-forming, low-friction, and trust-reinforcing for CRED members. The mandate is not short-term monetisation, but maximising active transacting members at the lowest cost to serve, while building a compliant, resilient, and scalable business.

you will work closely with product, engineering, compliance, and external ecosystem partners to define the future roadmap for the category and translate strategy into execution.

what you will do

category ownership & p&l

• own the category end-to-end, including growth strategy, economics, forecasting, and reporting
• drive planning cadences, operating reviews, and performance tracking for the category
• balance growth, reliability, cost-to-serve, and long-term sustainability
• make clear trade-offs between engagement, scale, and economics

strategy & roadmap definition

• partner with product and design teams to define the long-term vision and roadmap
• identify levers to drive 2–3× growth in active transacting members
• reimagine user journeys, frequency drivers, and habit loops within the category
• translate category strategy into executable priorities and milestones

growth & engagement

• drive adoption and repeat usage
• design strategies to reduce friction, increase trust, and improve payment confidence
• focus on low-cost engagement, not yield maximisation
• use data and experimentation to identify and unlock growth inflection points

ecosystem & regulatory collaboration

• work closely with relevant networks, regulators, and internal compliance teams to ensure regulatory alignment
• anticipate ecosystem or policy changes and factor them into category strategy
• represent category requirements clearly in cross-functional and partner discussions

cross-functional leadership

• act as the single-threaded owner working across product, engineering, compliance, finance, and growth
• influence without authority through clear problem framing, structured thinking, and data-backed narratives
• drive clarity in ambiguous spaces and align teams around common outcomes

What we’re looking for

• 6–10 years of experience in payments or fintech, with prior ownership of high-frequency consumer payment categories in India
• direct experience working across regulated payment rails and partner ecosystems
• proven track record of scaling high-frequency consumer payment categories
• strong strategic and analytical skills — able to translate insight into execution
• experience owning P&L, planning, and business performance cadences
• ability to operate cross-functionally in regulated environments
• high ownership mindset with strong collaboration ethos

how is life at CRED?

working at CRED would instantly make you realize one thing: you are working with the best talent around you. not just in the role you occupy, but everywhere you go. talk to someone around you; most likely you will be talking to a singer, standup comic, artist, writer, an athlete, maybe a magician. at CRED people always have talent up their sleeves. with the right company, even conversations can be rejuvenating. at CRED, we guarantee a good company.

hard truths: pushing oneself comes with the role. and we realise pushing oneself is hard work. which is why CRED is in the continuous process of building an environment that helps the team rejuvenate oneself: included but not limited to a stacked, in-house pantry, with lunch and dinner provided for all the team members, paid sick leaves and a comprehensive health insurance.

to make things smoother and to make sure you spend time and energy only on the most important things, CRED strives to make every process transparent: there are no work timings because we do not believe in archaic methods of calculating productivity, your work should speak for you. there are no job designations because you will be expected to hold down roles that cannot be described in one word. since trust is a major virtue in the community we have built, we make it a point to highlight it in the community behind CRED: all our employees get their salaries before their joining date. a show of trust that speaks volumes because of the skin in the game.

there are many more such eccentricities that make CRED what it is but that’s for one to discover.