Head of Payments Operations (London)

The Role

Reporting directly to the Chief Payments Officer, the Head of Payments Operations will lead the operational execution of Fresha’s global payments strategy.

This role sits at the centre of Payments, Commercial, Product, Finance, and Operations - acting as the operational engine behind the payments organisation and ensuring strategic priorities are translated into scalable execution and measurable business outcomes.

You’ll lead high-impact initiatives across payment acceptance, terminals, pricing, optimisation, and merchant adoption, bringing structure to ambiguity and driving delivery across multiple concurrent priorities.

This is a highly strategic and execution-focused role suited to someone who thrives in fast-moving, high-growth environments and has deep experience operating within payments, fintech, acquiring, or POS ecosystems.

While initially structured as a highly autonomous individual contributor role, this position carries significant cross-functional leadership responsibility and has strong scope to evolve as the payments organisation scales.

Core Responsibilities & Outcomes

• Translate payments strategy into clear operational priorities, execution plans, and measurable business outcomes
• Drive delivery across key initiatives including payment acceptance, terminals, pricing, optimisation, and merchant adoption
• Build scalable operational processes, governance frameworks, and execution cadence across the payments organisation
• Create visibility and reporting across all active payments initiatives, operational performance, and strategic priorities
• Lead terminal and hardware initiatives including device rollouts, upgrade cycles, replacement strategies, and optimisation programmes
• Act as the operational bridge across Payments, Commercial, Product, Finance, and Operations teams to ensure alignment and accountability
• Define ownership, timelines, KPIs, and delivery frameworks across complex cross-functional programmes
• Proactively identify blockers, risks, and dependencies and drive resolution to maintain execution momentum
• Deliver measurable improvements in payment adoption, wallet share, operational efficiency, and execution performance
• Improve cross-functional collaboration, delivery predictability, and operational scalability across the payments function
• Provide clear, regular updates and actionable insights to the Chief Payments Officer and broader leadership team
• Become a trusted operational partner to leadership, helping scale and strengthen Fresha’s global payments organisation

What We’re Looking For

Essential:
Significant experience in payments, fintech, acquiring, merchant services, or POS/terminal environments
Proven track record delivering complex cross-functional initiatives at scale within high-growth businesses
Strong operational leadership capability with the ability to drive execution across multiple concurrent priorities
Deep understanding of payment acceptance, acquiring, payment optimisation, merchant operations, or terminal ecosystems
Experience working closely with commercial and go-to-market teams to drive adoption, revenue growth, wallet share, or pricing initiatives
Exceptional ability to bring structure to ambiguity and drive execution with limited direction
Strong stakeholder management and influencing skills across Product, Commercial, Operations, and Executive leadership
Commercially minded with strong analytical and problem-solving capabilities
Highly execution-oriented with a strong sense of ownership, pace, and accountability
Comfortable operating in fast-moving, evolving environments with high levels of autonomy
Nice to Have:
Experience within global or multi-market payments organisations
Exposure to payment hardware, terminal estate management, or in-person commerce
Experience working within a scaling fintech or marketplace business
Familiarity with acquiring, PSPs, payment optimisation, or merchant growth strategies