UK

United Kingdom · Finance · Director/VP (16-20 years)

Director, Global Payments

Here is the whole job, in plain words. What it is, what you decide, how you're judged, how people get here and where they go next. Then the part no course gives you: twelve AI tutors who learn your work.

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  • Experience bandDirector/VP (16-20 years)
  • Direct reports25-100 reports
  • Reports toVP, Global Treasury & Payments
  • UK framework levelUsually a director, accountable for a division and its numbers

Also advertised as Head of Payments · VP, Payments Operations · Global Payments Lead

Built on 43,079 real UK job descriptions we analysed · grounded in qualifications employers recognise

Two short quizzes about you

1From this job to a course

The qualifications matched to this job

BIIAB Level 2 Certificate In Licensed Hospitality Skills BIIAB · Level 2 · covers 1 of 1 standard
City & Guilds Level 3 NVQ Diploma in Hospitality Supervision and Leadership City & Guilds Limited · Level 3 · covers 1 of 1 standard

Matched from the standards this job is measured against: a suggestion, not an official ruling.

The units you would start with

Managing Payments and Cash Handling in Licensed Premises BIIAB Level 2 Certificate In Licensed Hospitality Skills
Supervise Practices for Handling Payments City & Guilds Level 3 NVQ Diploma in Hospitality Supervision and Leadership

The future skills this job leans on

AI Fluency working with AI as a thinking partner
Data Fluency turning numbers into a decision
AI Governance Fluency using AI responsibly
Automation Fluency building AI into how work runs
Foresight Fluency seeing round the corner
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Your Plan Illustration

Built for Director, Global Payments

2 units that map to this job, from the qualifications that cover it.

  1. Managing Payments and Cash Handling in Licensed Premises BIIAB · covers 1 of 1 standards Level 2
  2. Supervise Practices for Handling Payments City & Guilds Limited · covers 1 of 1 standards Level 3
These are the real units behind this job, in the order they rank for it. Nothing here is marked done, because this plan has not been started by anyone yet. Yours would fill in as you go.

2AI and this work

Will AI change your work as a Director, Global Payments?

Nobody can say exactly how. Here is what this job is being asked for next, and where to start.

The new skill this role is being asked for

  • AI-Powered Strategic Analysis & Automation
Why each one is rising

The future skills this job leans on

We'll only ever tell you what we can actually back up. No hype, no scare tactics.

What happens when you start

Next, a free account. We build your Director, Global Payments plan as you set up, starting with a Future Fluency module on using AI in your job. No card.

Your first Future Fluency module is free. After that, your AI tutor is £70 a month.

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3What this role really is

A Director, Global Payments plans how a business accepts and moves money across countries, reliably and securely. The work covers multi-year plans and decisions affecting large sums of money, across payment infrastructure, cost, and risk.

4What you'd actually use

The tools this job runs on, and how well you'd need to know each one.

Payment Gateways (Stripe, Adyen, Braintree) Strategic

Leading vendor selection, negotiating multi-million-pound contracts, and architecting the overall payment orchestration strategy across multiple processors for global reach and redundancy.

Fraud Prevention Platforms (Cybersource, Kount, Sift, Forter) Architect

Owning the global fraud strategy, evaluating and implementing new platforms, building business cases for ML-based detection, and reporting on fraud loss KPIs to the C-Suite.

Reconciliation & Treasury Systems (BlackLine, ReconArt, Trovata) Strategic

Overseeing the entire financial close process related to payments, selecting and implementing enterprise-level reconciliation and treasury management systems, and ensuring data integrity for financial reporting.

ERP Systems (SAP S/4HANA FI-CA, Oracle NetSuite, Dynamics 365 Finance) Strategic

Partnering with the Finance Systems team to design and approve system architecture for how payment data flows into the general ledger and sub-ledgers, ensuring financial accuracy and compliance.

Data & Analytics Platforms (SQL, Tableau, Power BI, Anaplan, Workday Adaptive Planning) Strategic

Defining the key payment metrics for the entire business, using advanced planning tools to model the financial impact of payment strategies and costs, and presenting data-driven insights to executive leadership.

Issue Tracking & Project Management (Jira, ServiceNow) Strategic

Using aggregated ticket data to identify systemic issues across the global payments landscape, justifying headcount or technology investments to improve operational efficiency, and overseeing project delivery.

5What you get to decide, and how that grows

Power in a job isn't your title. It's what you're allowed to decide. Here's how it grows as you move up.

The choiceComing in Where you are nowThe step above
Vendor Selection & Contract Negotiation No authority. Follows established vendor processes and uses pre-approved suppliers. Escalates any issues to their manager. Can recommend preferred vendors for specific, smaller tools (e.g., a niche fraud data provider for a pilot) within a defined budget (£5K-£10K). Needs manager approval. Can lead the evaluation and selection process for mid-tier payment tools or services (e.g., a new local APM provider). Negotiates terms up to £100K with Director input/approval. Makes recommendations to leadership.
Payment Strategy & New Market Entry Executes defined payment processes for existing markets. Reports on performance metrics. No input on strategy. Identifies opportunities for minor process improvements within existing markets. Can propose new local payment methods for review, but does not make final decisions. Leads the implementation of new payment methods or features in existing markets. Provides data-driven recommendations for optimising payment flows. Contributes to new market entry assessments with payment-specific insights.
Team Hiring & Organisational Design No hiring authority. May participate in interviews as a peer. Can provide feedback on junior candidates. No direct hiring authority. Can interview and provide strong recommendations for junior and mid-level hires. May informally mentor new joiners.

6How you'll be judged

The scoreboard, and what is not on it. The hard targets, how often each is actually looked at, and the quiet signals that never reach a dashboard.

Total Cost of Acceptance (TCOA)
The overall cost of processing payments, including interchange, scheme fees, processor fees, and fraud losses, expressed as a percentage of Total Processing Volume (TPV).
Target · Reduce TCOA by 5-10 basis points (bps) year-on-year.

If our TCOA was 1.50% last year, we'd aim for 1.45% or lower this year, through optimising routing, negotiating better rates, and reducing fraud.

Global Fraud Loss Rate
The total value of confirmed fraud losses (including chargebacks not won) as a percentage of Total Processing Volume.
Target · Maintain fraud losses below 0.08% of TPV, even as transaction volumes grow.

If we process £100M, our fraud losses shouldn't exceed £80,000. You'll be constantly adapting strategies to keep this number low without impacting legitimate sales.

Vendor Negotiation Savings
The quantifiable annual savings achieved through renegotiating contracts with payment processors, fraud vendors, and other payment service providers.
Target · Secure >£1M in annualised savings from strategic vendor contracts.

Successfully renegotiating our primary processor contract to save 2 bps on all transactions, leading to £1.2M in annual savings based on current volumes.

Revenue Uplift from Payment Optimisation
The incremental revenue generated from optimising payment flows, improving authorisation rates, and launching new, relevant alternative payment methods (APMs).
Target · Attribute >£2M in incremental revenue from payment strategy initiatives.

Launching a new local APM in a key market that results in a 5% increase in conversion for that region, translating to £2.5M in new revenue over a year.

Strategic Influence & Thought Leadership
Being seen as the definitive expert on payments within the organisation, proactively shaping business strategy rather than just reacting to requests.
  • Regularly invited to C-Suite strategic planning sessions
  • sought out by Product and Legal for input on new market entries
  • presenting to the board on payment trends and risks
  • publishing internal whitepapers or leading workshops on payment innovation.
Team Development & Organisational Health
Building a high-performing, resilient global payments team that is well-structured, motivated, and capable of executing complex strategies.
  • Low attrition rates within your team
  • positive feedback in employee engagement surveys
  • clear succession plans for key roles
  • successful internal promotions
  • a reputation for developing talent
  • effective cross-training programmes.
Robust Risk & Compliance Framework
Establishing and maintaining a comprehensive framework that ensures full compliance with global payment regulations (e.g., PSD2, PCI DSS) and effectively manages payment-related risks.
  • Zero material compliance breaches or fines
  • successful external audits (PCI DSS, financial audits)
  • proactive identification and mitigation of emerging risks
  • clear, well-communicated policies and procedures across the business.
Cross-Functional Partnership
Building strong, productive relationships with key internal stakeholders, ensuring payment strategies are integrated and supported across the business.
  • Positive feedback from Product, Engineering, Legal, and Treasury leads
  • joint projects delivered successfully
  • early involvement in new product development or market expansion initiatives
  • clear, consistent communication channels with other departments.

7Would you like it

Both sides. What people enjoy, and what grinds them down.

What people enjoy
Driving Global Financial Impact

You'll spend your days architecting payment flows that save millions, negotiating multi-million-pound contracts, and building strategies that directly contribute to the company's top and bottom lines. It's about seeing your decisions manifest in real financial results.

Leading a project to optimise our payment routing across 10 countries, resulting in a 0.05% reduction in processing fees globally, which translates to £3M in annual savings.

Building High-Performing Teams & Capabilities

You'll be hiring, mentoring, and developing a team of payments experts, empowering them to solve complex problems and grow their careers. You'll also be building out new capabilities within the organisation, from advanced fraud detection to new payment method integrations.

Recruiting a new Head of Payments Operations and working with them to restructure the team, improving efficiency by 20% and increasing employee satisfaction.

Navigating & Shaping a Complex Landscape

The payments industry is a constant puzzle of new regulations, technologies, and fraud schemes. You'll thrive on the challenge of making sense of this complexity, turning it into a competitive advantage, and even influencing industry best practices through your work.

Developing our strategy for PSD2 compliance, not just meeting the minimum requirements, but using it as an opportunity to enhance customer experience and data security.

What frustrates people
  • Explaining the nuances of interchange fees and scheme fees to a board member who just wants to know why our rates aren't 'the cheapest'.
  • Dealing with the inertia of large organisations when trying to implement significant strategic change or deprecate an old, clunky system.
  • The constant cat-and-mouse game with fraudsters, where every solution seems to breed a new problem.
  • Vendor lock-in: knowing you're paying too much for a service but the cost of switching is astronomically high.
  • The sheer volume of regulatory changes across different jurisdictions, each requiring a slightly different interpretation and implementation.
What this role does not give you
  • A quiet, heads-down environment where you can focus solely on technical tasks.
  • A role where you're handed a perfect problem statement and all the resources you need to solve it without negotiation.
  • An environment free from ambiguity, shifting priorities, or political considerations.
  • Guaranteed immediate implementation of every strategic recommendation you make.

8Who you work with

This role directly shapes the company's ability to generate revenue, manage costs, and mitigate financial risk on a global scale. Your decisions impact customer acquisition, retention, and our overall financial health. You're essentially the guardian of our payment rails, ensuring they're efficient, compliant, and ready for future growth. Get it right, and we unlock new markets and save millions. Get it wrong, and we face significant financial and reputational damage.

Inside the business
  • CFO and other C-Suite executives
  • Board Audit Committee
  • Legal and Compliance teams
  • Product and Engineering leadership
  • Regional General Managers
  • Treasury and Tax departments
Outside the business
  • Major Payment Processors (e.g., Stripe, Adyen)
  • Card Schemes (Visa, Mastercard, Amex)
  • Financial Regulators (FCA, regional bodies)
  • Key Banking Partners
  • Fraud Prevention Vendors
  • Industry Bodies and Consultants

9What you need before you start

Not a wish list. The things you would be expected to already have.

  • Extensive experience (10+ years) leading global payments functions within a large, complex organisation.
  • Demonstrable track record of driving significant cost savings and revenue uplift through payment optimisation strategies.
  • Proven ability to negotiate multi-million-pound contracts with major payment processors and vendors.
  • Deep understanding of the global regulatory landscape for payments and a track record of ensuring compliance.
  • Experience building, leading, and mentoring large, diverse teams, including managers.
  • Strong financial acumen, including P&L management and business case development.
  • Experience presenting complex financial and technical information to C-Suite executives and Board members.

10What to practise next

Where the job is going, and what to do about it starting this week.

Real-time Payments & Open Banking Architectures

The shift towards real-time payments and open banking is fundamentally changing how money moves, creating new opportunities for faster settlements, lower costs, and innovative customer experiences. As Director, you'll need to architect our strategy to leverage these new rails.

Instant Payment Schemes (e.g., UK Faster Payments, SEPA Instant, FedNow) · API-First Payment Infrastructure · Account-to-Account (A2A) Payments · Request to Pay & Payment Initiation Services (PIS)

  • This quarter: Commission a whitepaper from your team on the strategic implications of real-time payments for our business model.
  • Next 6 months: Engage with key banking partners and fintechs to understand their real-time payment offerings and roadmaps.
  • Next 12 months: Develop a phased strategy for integrating relevant real-time payment capabilities into our global payment mix.
  • Ongoing: Participate in industry forums and working groups focused on the future of instant payments and open banking.

Quick win: Identify one existing payment flow where real-time settlement could offer a significant business advantage (e.g., faster payouts to suppliers) and initiate a feasibility study with your Treasury team.

Decentralised Finance (DeFi) & Blockchain Payments

While still nascent for mainstream finance, blockchain and DeFi are evolving rapidly, offering potential for new payment rails, tokenised assets, and enhanced transparency. A Director needs to understand the long-term strategic implications and potential disruption.

Cryptocurrency Payments & Stablecoins · Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) for Cross-Border Payments · Smart Contracts for Automated Payments · Regulatory Landscape for Digital Assets

  • This quarter: Attend a reputable industry webinar or executive briefing on the future of blockchain in payments.
  • Next 6 months: Task a senior member of your team to conduct a deep-dive analysis on the competitive threats and opportunities presented by DeFi.
  • Next 12 months: Develop a 'watch list' of key blockchain payment innovations and a framework for evaluating their relevance to our business.
  • Ongoing: Build relationships with fintech leaders in the blockchain space to stay informed on emerging trends.

Quick win: Subscribe to a few trusted newsletters or podcasts focused on the intersection of blockchain and finance to build your foundational knowledge without significant time investment.

11Staying current once you are in

What people here do to keep up
  • Regular attendance and speaking engagements at major payments industry conferences (e.g., Money20/20, Sibos, MRC).
  • Participation in executive leadership programmes focused on digital transformation or global strategy.
  • Engagement with industry bodies and working groups to influence payment standards and regulations.
  • Mentoring rising talent within the finance and payments functions.
  • Continuous learning on emerging technologies like AI, blockchain, and real-time payment rails.

12The rising capability

The rising capability

Zavmo analysis

What's rising in its place

This is where the work is heading, and the higher pay with it. Get fluent here and the shift stops being a threat and starts being your edge.

AI-Powered Strategic Analysis & Automation

AI is rapidly transforming how we analyse market trends, predict fraud, and even draft complex strategic documents. Directors who can harness AI to augment their decision-making and automate strategic insights will gain a significant competitive edge, freeing up time for higher-level thinking.

  • Large Language Model (LLM) Integration for Strategy
  • AI for Predictive Analytics in Payments
  • AI-Driven Scenario Planning
  • Ethical AI & Bias in Financial Systems

13What you’ll use

What you’ll use

Skills this role draws on

Technical

  • Global Payment Flow Orchestration
  • Strategic Chargeback & Fraud Management
  • Interchange Optimisation & Scheme Fee Management
  • PCI DSS Compliance & Data Security Governance
  • Alternative Payment Method (APM) Strategy
  • Enterprise Settlement & Payout Reconciliation

14The pathway

The pathway

How you actually get there, here

How you become one varies far more by country than what one does. This is the UK route. Most people take one of these ways in; the right one depends on where you're starting from.

  1. 1

    Lead Payments Strategist / Head of Payments (from another large organisation)

    3-5 years in a similar senior leadership role.

    Skills to master

    • Enterprise-level strategic planning, large-scale team leadership, multi-million-pound P&L management, board-level stakeholder management, global market entry strategy.

    You're ready to move on when

    • Proven track record of driving significant, measurable financial impact in a previous role.
    • Experience leading a team of 15+ individuals, including managers.
    • Demonstrable ability to influence C-Suite decisions and manage complex vendor relationships.
    • A clear vision for the future of payments and how it applies to our business.
  2. 2

    Manager, Digital Payments & Fraud (Internal Promotion)

    5-8 years as a Manager, demonstrating exceptional leadership and strategic capability.

    Skills to master

    • Expanding scope beyond team management to functional strategy, developing a global perspective, mastering board-level communication, significant P&L ownership, driving cross-functional transformation programmes.

    You're ready to move on when

    • Consistently exceeding performance targets for your current payments function.
    • Successfully mentored and developed multiple team members into more senior roles.
    • Proactively identified and championed strategic initiatives that delivered significant business value.
    • Demonstrated ability to operate with autonomy and influence decisions beyond your direct team.
  3. 3

    Director of Treasury Operations (Internal or External)

    3-6 years in a senior treasury leadership role with significant payments exposure.

    Skills to master

    • Deepening payments specialisation, understanding the intersection of payments with broader treasury functions (FX, liquidity), leading large operational teams, strategic vendor management.

    You're ready to move on when

    • Strong understanding of the end-to-end flow of funds and financial controls.
    • Experience managing large-scale financial operations and associated risks.
    • Demonstrated ability to drive efficiency and cost savings in a financial operations context.
    • A clear passion and demonstrated expertise in the payments domain.

15Where this role leads

The long view: This role leads a function that touches most of the business, handling risk and cost at scale. It can lead towards a Chief Financial Officer or Chief Operating Officer role, or a Non-Executive Director position.

The ten Future Fluencies

Zavmo analysis

The credential is what you can do today. These are what keep you valuable.

A qualification proves you can do the job as it's defined today. These ten are what decide whether you're still the obvious person for it in five years. They're the capabilities employers are now writing into senior roles faster than people are learning them. Zavmo weaves them through whatever you study, so you come out with both: the credential and the fluency.

The highlighted ones are the Fluencies your role leans on hardest, from how Director, Global Payments is actually changing.

Where it leads

Roles this leads to

How you would learn this

One to one, on the work you already do

A tutor sets the task against your own job and marks the reasoning, at your pace. There is no cohort to fall behind.

A lesson from Managing Payments and Cash Handling in Licensed Premises, worked against Director, Global Payments.

Managing Payments and Cash Handling in Licensed Premises Level 2

Applied to your work in Director, Global Payments

The objective of this unit is to provide learners with the ability to manage payments and cash handling procedures in licensed premises. Learners will be able to supervise customer payments, ensure accurate cashing up, carry out banking procedures, and effectively resolve payment-related issues.

How the thinking builds
  1. 1 Remember
  2. 2 Understand
  3. 3 Apply
  4. 4 Analyse
  5. 5 Evaluate
  6. 6 Create
An illustration of a Zavmo lesson, built from this role’s own route. The unit, its objective and every criterion above are the awarding body’s own words, not an example.

It is £70 a month, billed monthly. Your free first module is Future Fluency, and you can cancel any time.

Start my Director, Global Payments plan, free
See Your Progress Grow Illustration
Director, Global Payments
  • Global Payment Flow Orchestration
  • Strategic Chargeback & Fraud Management
  • Interchange Optimisation & Scheme Fee Management
  • PCI DSS Compliance & Data Security Governance
  • Alternative Payment Method (APM) Strategy
  • Enterprise Settlement & Payout Reconciliation
This is your Mind Palace on learn.zavmo.ai. Every skill above comes from this role's own record, not an example borrowed from another job. A node lights up when you evidence it, and what you build stays yours between jobs. That is the part a course cannot do.

16The detail, folded away

Everything else the record holds

The career branches in full, how AI is already showing up in the day-to-day, and the questions people ask about this job. Here when you want them, out of the way while you decide.

Where it leads next, rung by rung

Where it leads

The career path, and where it branches

Director, Global Payments is a start, not a ceiling. Each step below asks for new skills and hands back more autonomy.

  1. VP, Global Treasury & Payments (L7)

    3-5 years as Director, Global Payments.

    This is a significant step up, moving from leading a function to owning the entire flow of funds for the enterprise, reporting directly to the CFO.

    • Global liquidity management and funding strategy.
    • Corporate finance and capital markets engagement.
    • Advanced foreign exchange risk management.
    • Strategic tax planning related to global funds flow.
Working with AI on the job

Working with AI

Where AI is starting to help

As Director, Global Payments, your time is best spent on strategic vision, high-stakes negotiations, and team leadership. The good news is, AI isn't just for junior analysts anymore. It's a powerful tool that can free you from operational oversight and data synthesis, giving you back precious hours to focus on what truly matters: shaping our global payment future.

Imagine having a personal assistant that can instantly summarise complex regulatory changes, draft compelling business cases, and even predict future fraud trends. That's the power AI brings to your role. It's about augmenting your strategic capabilities, not replacing your expertise.

Automated Reconciliation Oversight

AI tools ingest vast amounts of settlement data, automatically flagging anomalies and providing concise summaries of reconciliation status across all global processors. You'll get executive-level dashboards that highlight only the critical exceptions, letting you quickly grasp the financial health without drowning in detail. This means less time chasing down discrepancies and more time acting on insights.

Predictive Fraud Strategy

Use AI/ML models to not just detect current fraud, but to predict emerging fraud patterns and attack vectors before they become widespread. This allows you to proactively adjust global fraud rules, evaluate new prevention platforms, and build a more resilient defence, rather than constantly reacting to losses. It's about staying one step ahead of the bad actors.

Global Market Entry Intelligence

Leverage AI assistants to rapidly research and summarise the payment landscape for new target countries. Get instant insights into local payment methods, regulatory requirements, consumer preferences, and competitive analysis. This dramatically accelerates your strategic planning for international expansion, allowing for faster, more informed decisions on where and how to grow.

Strategic Document Drafter

AI can generate first drafts of complex documents like board presentations, policy updates, vendor RFPs, or detailed business cases for new payment initiatives. You'll provide the strategic direction and key data points, and the AI will handle the heavy lifting of structuring and drafting, freeing you to refine and add your unique leadership perspective.

Common questions

Common questions

How do you become a Director, Global Payments?

Common routes in include Lead Payments Strategist / Head of Payments (from another large organisation) (3-5 years in a similar senior leadership role.), Manager, Digital Payments & Fraud (Internal Promotion) (5-8 years as a Manager, demonstrating exceptional leadership and strategic capability.) and Director of Treasury Operations (Internal or External) (3-6 years in a senior treasury leadership role with significant payments exposure.). Times vary with prior experience.

Where can a Director, Global Payments progress to?

This role can lead on to VP, Global Treasury & Payments (3-5 years as Director, Global Payments.), depending on the skills you build.

What new skills matter most for a Director, Global Payments?

Increasingly, AI-Powered Strategic Analysis & Automation. These are the skills our record of this role lists as growing.

Free tools

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17Where to go from here

Other roles at Level 7

Same depth of qualification, different job. Useful if the work appeals but this particular role does not.

 More jobs in finance

Stay in the field you know and move sideways rather than up.
If you leave this industry

Skills in global payments carry across e-commerce, fintech, banking, retail, and technology. Moving money efficiently and securely is a challenge common to many industries.

This role profile is © 2026 Growth Engineering Technologies Ltd. Built from UK occupational standards and regulated qualification data, and written for Zavmo.

You're not behind. You're right on time. The shift is only just beginning. Your role won't look the same in two years. Be the one who leads the change, not the one it happens to. Start my Director, Global Payments plan, free What happens next: a free account, then we build your plan as you set up. No card. Build your plan, see your roadmap and meet the twelve tutors matched to you. All free. When you're ready to start learning, it's £70 a month, billed monthly. Cancel any time and billing stops.