Product Lead - UPI Acquiring

airtel; Gurugram District; On-site; INR 4,000,000 - 7,000,000; Full time

Job summary

Airtel Payments Bank is hiring a senior product leader to own the UPI acquiring charter, driving merchant and payment-aggregator ecosystems, and delivering revenue growth with a focus on reliability and fraud control.

You will lead product strategy, execution, and regulatory alignment, manage a small team, and collaborate with engineering, alliances, and sales to expand offline and online acceptance at scale.

Qualifications

• 9–12 years in payments/product management, with UPI acquiring experience.
• Deep understanding of UPI, NPCI guidelines, and merchant payments.
• Experience with Payment Aggregators/PSPs and large-scale merchant ecosystems.
• Strong analytical, execution, and stakeholder management skills.

Responsibilities

• Own the UPI acquiring charter and merchant ecosystem strategy.
• Lead product roadmaps, regulatory alignment, and revenue growth.
• Manage backlog via JIRA and ensure reliable, scalable delivery.
• Drive partnerships with payment aggregators and merchants.
• Oversee onboarding, activation, lifecycle management.
• Ensure RBI/NPCI guidelines adherence.
• Lead a team of 2–3 PMs and product Ops.
• Provide leadership visibility through roadmap reviews.
• Collaborate with Alliance, GTM and sales teams.

Skills

Payments

UPI acquiring

Stakeholder management

Analytical

Strategy

Leadership

Regulatory alignment

Job description

Role Overview

Lead the UPI acquiring charter for Airtel Payments Bank, owning merchant & payment aggregator ecosystem, driving product strategy, execution, regulatory alignment, and revenue growth while ensuring high reliability, fraud control, and superior merchant experience at scale.

Key Responsibilities

• Product Strategy & Roadmap


• Own the end-to-end roadmap for UPI acquiring (static and dynamic QR, intent, collect, autopay/subscriptions)


• Drive feature enhancements through market & competitor analysis and ecosystem trends


• Perform cost-benefit analysis (CBA) to prioritize high-impact initiatives


• Manage a well-groomed backlog (JIRA), balancing revenue growth, cost efficiency, and platform stability


• Define and drive quarterly & annual roadmaps, ensuring alignment with business goals


• Identify and work on additional opportunities leading to an incremental impact on bank’s key matrix.


• Provide leadership visibility via structured reviews on roadmap progress, delivery, and outcomes


• Merchant & Aggregator Ecosystem


• Build and scale partnerships with Payment Aggregators and key merchants


• Drive solutions for merchant onboarding, activation, lifecycle management


• Expand online & offline acceptance footprint in collaboration with Alliance, GTM and sales teams


• Growth & Monetization


• Drive TPV, transactions, and active merchant growth for UPI acquiring


• Identify and scale monetization levers (pricing, VAS, cross-sell opportunities)


• Optimize merchant journey: onboarding → activation → engagement → retention


• Execution & Stakeholder Management


• Partner with engineering teams to ensure timely delivery (grooming, sprint planning, execution)


• Create clear PRDs, user stories, and Figma-based user flows/screens


• Ensure “First-Time-Right” delivery via:




• Well-defined acceptance criteria & test cases


• Strong oversight of UAT and release readiness




• Drive seamless cross-functional collaboration (risk, compliance, ops, finance)


• Manage NPCI & regulatory engagement:




• Work on/with NPCI communications, circulars, and discussions


• Respond to regulatory queries and ensure timely compliance implementation




• Collaborate with banking operations teams to:




• Ensure smooth refunds, reversals, and chargebacks


• Design & enhance SOPs to improve operational efficiency




• Collaborate with Alliance team to discuss possible business opportunities and build that in product roadmap.


• Work with internal control functional teams to identify potential suspicious patterns, build rules, and define consequence management around it.


• Lead a team of 2-3 product managers and product Ops and define career paths for them.


• Work will all the stakeholders in collaborative environments.


• Risk, Compliance & Operations


• Ensure adherence to RBI/NPCI guidelines


• Strengthen fraud detection, dispute management, and reconciliation processes


• Optimize settlements and merchant experience


• Data, Monitoring & Performance


• Own key metrics: TPV, success rates, merchant activation, retention, cost per transaction


• Enable reporting, dashboards, and real-time alerts for:




• Success/failure trends (overall & merchant-level)


• Fraud monitoring and risk signals


• System performance & stability




• Drive data-led decision-making and targeted merchant-level interventions

Qualifications

• 9–12 years in payments/product management (strong UPI acquiring experience preferred)


• Deep understanding of UPI ecosystem, NPCI guidelines, and merchant payments


• Experience with Payment Aggregators / PSPs / large-scale merchant ecosystems


• Strong analytical, execution, and stakeholder management skills