Payments Consultant

The Opportunity

SR2 Consulting is actively looking to connect with senior Payments SMEs for a number of consulting and transformation engagements currently in our pipeline across the financial services sector. These are not speculative conversations. We are working with some of the UK’s leading consulting firms and financial institutions on live and upcoming payments programmes and need credible, commercially grounded specialists who can operate at the front of engagements.

The payments landscape is moving faster than at any point in the last decade. ISO 20022 migration, real-time payments infrastructure, PSD3 and the PSR’s ongoing reform agenda, open banking evolution, digital assets and stablecoin regulation, scheme change programmes and the modernisation of acquiring and issuing operations are all generating significant demand for expertise that sits across both strategy and delivery.

If you have built your career in payments, understand how institutions, regulators and schemes interact, and can operate credibly as a named specialist on consulting engagements and programmes of change, we want to hear from you.

What We Are Looking For

You will bring deep payments expertise and a track record of delivering in at least one of the following areas:

Payments Strategy and Advisory

• Payments strategy development for banks, payment service providers, fintechs or scheme participants.
• Operating model design for payments functions, covering governance, technology, operations and vendor management.
• Regulatory strategy and response across PSD3, PSR, FCA payments supervision, open banking and digital assets frameworks.
• Scheme engagement and change management across Mastercard, Visa, SWIFT, Faster Payments, CHAPS or BACS.
• Market entry, proposition development or M&A advisory with a payments focus.

Payments Programme Delivery

• Senior delivery leadership on payments transformation programmes, including ISO 20022 migration, real-time payments infrastructure builds and core banking integration.
• Change and implementation management across acquiring, issuing, processing or correspondent banking operations.
• Regulatory change delivery in response to PSR, FCA or PRA requirements affecting payments businesses.
• Technology programme management across payments platforms, API-based infrastructure, digital wallets or CBDCs.
• Programme governance, assurance and recovery on complex, multi-workstream payments engagements.

What Makes You Stand Out

• You have operated at Director, Partner or C-suite level inside a bank, payment institution, scheme or consulting firm and your credibility in the room is not in question.
• You understand the payments ecosystem end to end, from scheme rules and regulatory obligations through to technology architecture and operational execution.
• You can move between strategic advisory and programme delivery without losing authority in either.
• You bring a point of view, not just a CV.