Manager – Merchant Acquisition & Partnerships

ShopSe Digital Finance; Maharashtra; On-site; INR 2,000,000 - 3,600,000; Full time

Job summary

ShopSe Digital Finance in Maharashtra, India seeks a Merchant Acquisition Manager to drive the merchant acceptance network across online and offline channels. This role focuses on identifying high-growth merchants, navigating enterprise discussions, and negotiating MDRs to grow total payment volume and digital payments market share.

The position requires strong B2B fintech sales experience, deep payments knowledge, and the ability to oversee onboarding through go-live, coordinating with

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Marketing, Finance, CS, or related field; MBA preferred.
• 4–8 years of documented B2B sales, enterprise BD, or alliance management in Payments/Fintech.
• Deep understanding of online/offline payment rails (cards, UPI, wallets, NACH).
• Familiarity with REST APIs, webhooks, mobile SDKs, and server-to-server integrations.
• Consistent history of meeting or exceeding quarterly and annual net revenue.

Responsibilities

• Identify, prospect, and acquire mid-market, D2C, e-commerce, and enterprise merchants.
• Lead end-to-end enterprise/B2B sales cycle from outreach to closing and contracting.
• Build partnerships with platform integrators and ERP vendors for inbound funnels.
• Negotiate competitive, margin-positive contracts and oversee onboarding through go-live.

Skills

Business development

Enterprise sales

Partnerships

Negotiation

Sales pipeline

Forecasting

Education

Bachelor’s degree

MBA preferred

Tools

REST APIs

Webhooks

Mobile SDKs

S2S calls

Job description

Role Overview The Merchant Acquisition Manager is responsible for driving the expansion of our merchant acceptance network across online (Payment Gateway, SDKs, checkout APIs) and offline/omnichannel (Smart POS, QR, soundboxes, sound-based payments) channels. This individual will identify high-growth merchants, navigate enterprise and mid-market commercial discussions, negotiate Merchant Discount Rates (MDR) and processing fees, and oversee smooth onboarding through go-live and activation. The primary mandate is scaling Total Payment Volume and expanding the company’s digital payments market share.

Role Overview The Merchant Acquisition Manager is responsible for driving the expansion of our merchant acceptance network across online (Payment Gateway, SDKs, checkout APIs) and offline/omnichannel (Smart POS, QR, soundboxes, sound-based payments) channels. This individual will identify high-growth merchants, navigate enterprise and mid-market commercial discussions, negotiate Merchant Discount Rates (MDR) and processing fees, and oversee smooth onboarding through go-live and activation. The primary mandate is scaling Total Payment Volume and expanding the company’s digital payments market share.

Key Responsibilities

• Business Development & Pipeline Generation
  • Identify, prospect, and acquire mid-market, D2C, e-commerce, and enterprise merchants across target verticals (Retail, Travel, Healthcare, Education, SaaS, and Gig Economy).
  • Manage the full enterprise/B2B sales cycle from cold outreach and discovery to solution demonstration, commercial closing, and contract execution.
  • Build strategic partnerships with platform integrators, e-commerce platforms (Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento), ERP vendors, and system integrators to establish inbound acquisition funnels.
• Solution Consulting & Commercial Negotiation
  • Conduct detailed consultations to map merchant checkout flows, drop-off pain points, payment failure rates, and settlement cycles to the company's aggregator solutions.
  • Structure commercially competitive yet margin-positive contracts, balancing MDR, platform fees, setup costs, settlement timeframes ( , , instant payouts), and chargeback liabilities.
  • Cross-sell value-added financial products, including instant payouts, recurring billing/e-mandates, BNPL/EMI integrations, working capital financing, and fraud mitigation tools.
• Onboarding, Integration & Go-Live Management
  • Partner with the Technical Solutions / Integration Engineering team to ensure seamless API and SDK deployment on merchant platforms.
  • Coordinate with Risk, Compliance, and Underwriting teams to navigate Know Your Customer/Business (KYC/KYB), Merchant Category Code (MCC) classification, and regulatory compliance standards.
  • Track pipeline velocity to minimize onboarding turnaround time (TAT) and prevent drop-offs between contract signing and the first live transaction.
• Portfolio Activation & Early Ramp-Up
  • Own merchant activation and volume ramp-up for the first 60–90 days post-go-live to guarantee transaction velocity and wallet-share dominance.
  • Analyze transaction analytics, success rates, route optimization, and failover configurations to troubleshoot early integration issues and ensure high authorization rates.

Handoff stabilized, high-performing accounts to the Key Account Management (KAM) team with comprehensive performance and revenue profiles

Required Qualifications & Experience

• Education: Bachelor’s degree in Business, Marketing, Finance, Computer Science, or a related field; MBA is preferred.
• Experience: 4–8 years of documented B2B sales, enterprise business development, or alliance management experience within a Payment Aggregator (PA), Payment Gateway (PG), Merchant Acquiring Bank, or Fintech company.
• Domain Knowledge:
  • Comprehensive understanding of online and offline payment rails (Cards, UPI, Net Banking, Wallets, NACH/e-mandates, POS, Soundbox).
  • Sound knowledge of interchange economics, card brand scheme rules (Visa, Mastercard, RuPay), and central bank payment aggregator regulations.
  • Familiarity with technical integration mechanics (REST APIs, webhooks, mobile SDKs, server-to-server calls).
• Sales Track Record: Consistent history of meeting or exceeding quarterly and annual net revenue.
• Communication & Negotiation: Exceptional presentation, objection handling, and contract negotiation capabilities.

Preferred Competencies

• Established network of executive and operational contacts within mid-market and enterprise D2C, retail, or tech ecosystems.