Payments Acceptance - Head of Safeguarding & Finance Operations (GAIA)

Barclays and Brookfield Asset Management Ltd., through its Financial Infrastructure strategy, have announced a long-term strategic partnership to grow and transform Barclays’ payment acceptance business, previously referred to as its merchant acquiring business.  Barclays and Brookfield are working together to create a standalone entity to support a full carve out and independent licencing of the merchant acquiring business. Barclays payment business provides critical infrastructure to the UK economy, processing billions of pounds of payments annually for small businesses, and domestic and international corporate clients. The Partnership will drive business growth by broadening the range of services offered and enhancing the experience for both existing and prospective clients.  As a result, the Partnership is intended to support meaningfully improved financial performance of the Business. 

Finance Operations will be part of the broader Finance Department of NewCo, The broader Finance support team will include Financial Control, FP&A, Financial Operations, Capital Markets & Treasury, and Taxation.

• Strategic & Operational Leadership role focused on the NewCo design of the Finance Operations team, including daily reconciliation and settlement process, merchant billing and invoicing, accounts receivable/payable, and platform & controls. 

• To provide strategic and operational leadership of all Finance Operations across a high-volume payments/acquiring business, ensuring end-to-end excellence in transaction-level reconciliation, merchant settlement, billing, receivables/payables, and platform controls.

Purpose of the role

To develop business capabilities for Finance through key stages of functional design, data, end-to-end-process and controls, delivery, and functional testing. 

Accountabilities

• Functional Design: leveraging best practice concepts, and in collaboration with Line SMEs, support options analysis and recommendations as part of decision making.
• Data Analysis/Modelling/Governance: design conceptual data model underpinning all phases of the processes, and governance requirements in accordance with GDMS standards and principles.
• End-to-End Process & Controls - development of target process and controls design/documentation and operational runbooks and aligning these components with organisational and role/service model design definitions.   .
• Delivery/Implementation Support: update design/functional requirements throughout the development cycle, and resolve RAIDS related to functional requirements and business processes. Project management for change programmes that have limited technology investment.
• Functional Testing: develop scripts and data to test alignment to requirement definitions, ahead of user testing cycles.

Director Expectations

• To manage a business function, providing significant input to function wide strategic initiatives. Contribute to and influence policy and procedures for the function and plan, manage and consult on multiple complex and critical strategic projects, which may be business wide..
• They manage the direction of a large team or sub-function, leading other people managers and embedding a performance culture aligned to the values of the business. Or for an individual contributor, they lead organisation wide projects and act as deep technical expert and thought leader, identifying new ways of working and collaborating cross functionally. They will train, guide and coach less experienced specialists and provide information affecting long term profits, organisational risks and strategic decisions..
• Provide expert advice to senior functional management and committees to influence decisions made outside of own function, offering significant input to function wide strategic initiatives.
• Manage, coordinate and enable resourcing, budgeting and policy creation for a significant sub-function.
• Escalates breaches of policies / procedure appropriately.
• Foster and guide compliance, ensure regulations are observed that relevant processes in place to facilitate adherence.
• Focus on the external environment, regulators, or advocacy groups to both monitor and influence on behalf of Barclays, when appropriate.
• Demonstrate extensive knowledge of how the function integrates with the business division / Group to achieve the overall business objectives.
• Maintain broad and comprehensive knowledge of industry theories and practices within own discipline alongside up-to-date relevant sector / functional knowledge, and insight into external market developments / initiatives.
• Use interpretative thinking and advanced analytical skills to solve problems and design solutions in often complex/ sensitive situations.
• Exercise management authority to make significant decisions and certain strategic decisions or recommendations within own area.
• Negotiate with and influence stakeholders at a senior level both internally and externally.
• Act as principal contact point for key clients and counterparts in other functions/ businesses divisions.
• Mandated as a spokesperson for the function and business division.

All Senior Leaders are expected to demonstrate a clear set of leadership behaviours to create an environment for colleagues to thrive and deliver to a consistently excellent standard. The four LEAD behaviours are: L – Listen and be authentic, E – Energise and inspire, A – Align across the enterprise, D – Develop others.

All colleagues will be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Values of Respect, Integrity, Service, Excellence and Stewardship – our moral compass, helping us do what we believe is right. They will also be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Mindset – to Empower, Challenge and Drive – the operating manual for how we behave.