Senior Product Manager - BPL

Join us as a Senior Product Manager, where you will lead the strategy, optimisation and performance of card payment transactions across Barclaycard's acquiring platforms. You will be responsible for identifying opportunities to improve authorisation approval rates, reduce transaction costs, optimise interchange and scheme fees, and deliver better commercial outcomes for both Barclays and our customers.

Working across product, technology, scheme partners, operations, risk and commercial teams, you will use data-driven insights to shape transaction strategies, influence investment decisions and drive initiatives that improve payment performance at scale. This role sits at the centre of balancing customer experience, commercial value, regulatory requirements and operational effectiveness within a complex, high-volume payments environment.

You will own and drive the transaction optimisation strategy across acquiring payment journeys, identifying opportunities to improve authorisation rates, reduce unnecessary declines, and deliver better payment outcomes for customers and the business. Leading initiatives to optimise interchange, scheme and processing costs, while working closely with scheme partners to maximise value from new products, services and regulatory changes. By analysing payment performance trends, you will turn data-driven insights into actionable product investment priorities and collaborate with risk, fraud, operations and technology teams to balance approval performance with risk appetite. You'll define success measures for optimisation initiatives and use your expertise and recommendations to influence future payment capabilities and the strategic roadmap.

To be successful in this role you will need:

• Experience within card acquiring, payments processing or transaction optimisation.
• Solid understanding of card payment transaction flows, authorisation processes and approval rate drivers.
• Experience analysing payment performance data to identify opportunities for optimisation and commercial improvement.
• Knowledge of interchange, scheme fees, transaction routing and payment economics.
• Experience defining product strategy, roadmaps and business cases, and delivering through cross-functional teams.
• Ability to prioritise initiatives based on customer value, commercial outcomes, operational efficiency and risk.
• Excellent stakeholder management skills with the ability to influence senior leaders and communicate complex trade-offs effectively.
• Experience working in a regulated payments environment with an understanding of scheme and regulatory requirements.

It would be beneficial if you also have:

• Experience working with Visa, Mastercard and other payment schemes on optimisation and performance initiatives.
• Knowledge of authorisation uplift techniques, decline management and transaction routing strategies.
• Experience leveraging data analytics, machine learning or optimisation tools to improve payment performance.
• Exposure to payment processing platforms such as Base24, ACI, RS2 or other issuing/acquiring platforms.
• Experience delivering large-scale payments transformation or modernisation programmes.
• Understanding of emerging payment trends and alternative payment methods.

You may be assessed on the key critical skills relevant for success in role, such as risk and controls, change and transformation, business acumen, strategic thinking and digital and technology, as well as job-specific technical skills.

This role is based in London or Northampton.

Barclays’ payments acceptance business provides critical infrastructure to the UK economy, processing billions of pounds of payments annually for both small businesses and domestic and international corporate clients.

In April 2025, we announced a long-term partnership with Brookfield Asset Management to grow and transform the payments acceptance business by broadening the range of services offered, enhancing the experience for both existing and prospective clients. Leveraging extensive client relationships and deep experience of UK payments, we will create an environment of continuous innovation - activated by Brookfield’s global private equity expertise in payments, technology, operational transformation and corporate carve-outs - to ensure the business is strategically positioned for long-term growth.

Barclays will invest approximately £400m in the new business, the majority of which will be incurred during the first three years. Performance-linked incentives will drive greater alignment between the partners, underpinning the long-term commitment to the transformation. Barclays and Brookfield will work to create a standalone entity over time, continuing to use the Barclaycard Payments (BPL) brand and acting as the sole payments acceptance services provider to Barclays’ clients for a minimum of ten years. 

For more information on our partnership with Brookfield, please visit Barclays.com.

Purpose of the role

To manage a specific product or portfolio and set the strategic direction. Provide support to the bank's senior management team, and to manage product development risk across the organisation. 

Accountabilities

• Development of strategic direction for a specific product or portfolio, including the implementation of up to date methodologies and processes.
• Management of a specific product or portfolio, including oversight of colleagues and their performance, implementation of departmental goals and objectives, oversight of department efficiency and effectiveness.  .
• Relationship management of specific product or portfolio stakeholders, including identifying relevant stakeholders, and maintenance of the quality of external third party services.
• Development and implementation of policies and procedures for the specific product or portfolio.
• Management of specific product or portfolio risk, including identification of potential risks, development of strategies to mitigate those risks, and maintenance of alignment between the bank’s specific product or portfolio and compliance functions.  .
• Monitoring the financial performance of the specific product or portfolio, including revenue, profitability, and cost control.
• Conducting thorough market research to understand market trends, competitive landscape, and regulatory changes to identify market opportunities.

Vice President Expectations

• To contribute or set strategy, drive requirements and make recommendations for change. Plan resources, budgets, and policies; manage and maintain policies/ processes; deliver continuous improvements and escalate breaches of policies/procedures..
• If managing a team, they define jobs and responsibilities, planning for the department’s future needs and operations, counselling employees on performance and contributing to employee pay decisions/changes. They may also lead a number of specialists to influence the operations of a department, in alignment with strategic as well as tactical priorities, while balancing short and long term goals and ensuring that budgets and schedules meet corporate requirements..
• If the position has leadership responsibilities, People 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..
• OR for an individual contributor, they will be a subject matter expert within own discipline and will guide technical direction. They will lead collaborative, multi-year assignments and guide team members through structured assignments, identify the need for the inclusion of other areas of specialisation to complete assignments. They will train, guide and coach less experienced specialists and provide information affecting long term profits, organisational risks and strategic decisions..
• Advise key stakeholders, including functional leadership teams and senior management on functional and cross functional areas of impact and alignment.
• Manage and mitigate risks through assessment, in support of the control and governance agenda.
• Demonstrate leadership and accountability for managing risk and strengthening controls in relation to the work your team does.
• Demonstrate comprehensive understanding of the organisation functions to contribute to achieving the goals of the business.
• Collaborate with other areas of work, for business aligned support areas to keep up to speed with business activity and the business strategies.
• Create solutions based on sophisticated analytical thought comparing and selecting complex alternatives. In-depth analysis with interpretative thinking will be required to define problems and develop innovative solutions.
• Adopt and include the outcomes of extensive research in problem solving processes.
• Seek out, build and maintain trusting relationships and partnerships with internal and external stakeholders in order to accomplish key business objectives, using influencing and negotiating skills to achieve outcomes.

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.