Senior Payments Consultant

Key responsibilities: Lead client assessmentsWork with client teams to understand their payment processes, commercial arrangements and business priorities. Analyse transaction data, merchant statements and payment costs to establish a performance baseline. Examine acquiring arrangements, interchange and scheme fees, authentication, foreign exchange and the mix of payment methods. Use relevant benchmarks to identify performance gaps and opportunities for improvement. Develop payment recommendationsInvestigate authorisation and decline patterns to identify opportunities to improve payment acceptance. Review payment costs and identify potential fee optimisation opportunities. Assess the financial impact of authentication performance, declined transactions and foreign exchange losses. Evaluate potential improvements and prioritise those with a credible commercial benefit. Produce financial analysisBuild financial and return-on-investment models grounded in client data. Set out assumptions clearly and validate them with relevant stakeholders. Develop business cases that explain the expected benefits and dependencies of proposed changes. Turn findings into practical roadmaps that finance, technology and treasury teams can use. Present complex payments analysis in a clear and accessible way. Respond confidently to questions about calculations, assumptions and recommendations. Work collaboratively with client teams to confirm findings before final sign-off. Act as a payments subject matter expert during consulting engagements. Help develop internal benchmarking resources and strengthen consulting methods. Experience and skillsSubstantial experience in payments consulting, payments strategy, acquiring, payment service providers or payment cost optimisation, ideally six years or more. Strong knowledge of interchange structures, scheme fees and payment economics. A detailed understanding of authorisations, declines and authentication, including 3DS and Strong Customer Authentication. Practical experience analysing transaction-level data and merchant statements. Proven ability to build financial models and demonstrate the value of proposed payment improvements. Confidence working with senior finance, technology and treasury stakeholders. Strong problem-solving skills, attention to detail and commercial judgement. The ability to explain technical issues clearly and translate analysis into actionable recommendations. Experience with high-volume online payments, payment benchmarking or foreign exchange cost analysis would be particularly useful.