Job Description

Role Overview

The Payments Industry Lead will own the strategic growth, industry positioning, and delivery leadership of the Cards & Payments Practice. This role requires a seasoned payments executive capable of building trusted CXO-level relationships, driving consulting-led business development, leading complex payment transformation initiatives, and developing market-leading payment solutions and offerings.

The successful candidate will serve as a thought leader within the payments ecosystem, leveraging domain expertise, industry relationships, and consulting capabilities to drive revenue growth, client success, and practice expansion.

Key Responsibilities

Practice Leadership

• Define and execute the strategic vision for the Cards & Payments practice.
• Build and scale consulting and technology capabilities across the payments landscape.
• Develop differentiated offerings, accelerators, frameworks, and solution assets.
• Lead capability development, talent growth, mentoring, and succession planning.
• Represent the organization at industry forums, conferences, client events, and analyst interactions.

Business Development & Client Relationship Management

• Develop and maintain executive-level relationships with banks, payment processors, fintechs, and payment infrastructure providers.
• Drive consulting-led sales and support pursuit teams in identifying, qualifying, and winning strategic opportunities.
• Own revenue growth, pipeline development, and practice profitability targets.
• Lead strategic pursuits, proposal development, solution shaping, and client presentations.
• Collaborate with global account teams to expand wallet share and identify transformational opportunities.
• Manage senior stakeholder relationships and serve as a trusted advisor to client executives.

Program & Delivery Leadership

• Provide governance and oversight for large payment transformation programs.
• Guide solution architecture, implementation strategy, migration roadmaps, and operating model transformation.
• Lead engagement reviews, risk management, issue resolution, and executive reporting.
• Drive delivery excellence across implementation, modernization, migration, and managed services engagements.

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Mandatory Domain Expertise

The candidate should possess strong functional and technical knowledge across modern payment ecosystems and demonstrate experience with payment transformation programs.

 Payment Systems & Architecture

• Deep understanding of payment architectures and core payment processing platforms.
• Knowledge of payment hubs and surrounding banking ecosystem architecture.
• Understanding of payment workflows, orchestration, routing, repair, enrichment, and exception handling.
• Familiarity with cloud-native and microservices-based payment architectures.
• Experience with payment modernization initiatives and enterprise integration patterns.

Payment Processing

Strong knowledge across:

• Real-Time Payments
• High-Value Payments
• ACH and Batch Payments
• Cross-Border Payments
• Bulk/Mass Payments
• Corporate Payments
• Retail Payments
• Clearing and Settlement Processes

 Payment Platform Components

Good understanding of:

• Process Engines
• Rules Engines
• Workflow Engines
• Format Designers
• Exceptions Management
• Alerts and Notification Frameworks
• Network Wait Queues
• Repair and Investigation Functions
• Monitoring and Operational Dashboards

 Payment Messaging Standards

Working knowledge of one or more:

• ISO 20022
• SWIFT MT/MX
• SEPA
• Fedwire
• CHIPS
• Faster Payments
• RTP
• NPP
• Other domestic clearing formats

Production Support & Operational Excellence

• Understanding of payment operations and production support.
• Experience in defect triaging and root cause analysis.
• Knowledge of incident management, problem management, and service governance.
• Understanding of regulatory, compliance, and operational risk considerations within payments environments.

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Preferred Experience

• Experience with leading payment hub platforms and payment modernization solutions.
• Exposure to cards processing platforms, issuer systems, merchant acquiring, and digital payments ecosystems.
• Experience with cloud transformation programs in the payments domain.
• Consulting experience with global system integrators or major payment technology vendors.
• Strong industry network within banks, payment processors, fintechs, and regulators.

  Required Leadership Competencies

  • Executive presence with strong client engagement skills.
  • Proven ability to influence C-level stakeholders.
  • Strong commercial acumen and business development capability.
  • Exceptional communication, presentation, and negotiation skills.
  • Ability to operate effectively in a global, matrix organization.
  • Strategic thinking combined with execution excellence.
  • Strong team-building and people leadership skills.

  Success Metrics

  • Practice revenue and profitability growth
  • New logo acquisition and pipeline generation
  • Strategic deal wins and pursuit conversion
  • Client satisfaction and relationship expansion
  • Industry recognition and thought leadership
  • Capability development and talent retention
  • Successful delivery of large-scale payments transformation programs

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3. Thought Leadership

• Recognised as an industry thought leader and ensures all thought leadership is shared with GCG/Wipro is one of the various channels. Responsible for leading, challenging and explaining current, emerging and future industry trends and themes. Heads the development of industry leading thought leadership/insight in practice area and ensures adequate thought leadership for own practice to support growth
• Ensures case studies and track records are utilized across Wipro in sales efforts. Presents Wipro thought leadership  at external industry forums. Able to demonstrate the impact of said thought leadership. Ensures thought leadership is utilised externally and generates sales opportunities

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4. Contribution to Practice/Wipro

• Continually delivers all Wipro admin in a timely manner (timesheets, appraisals expenses, etc.,) Owns and drives a system to manage internal initiatives to the benefit of the practice. Evangelizes the importance of innovation and IP creation
• Holds people accountable for leveraging IP and knowledge assets from the central knowledge repository of Wipro and GCG and promotes reuse
• Ensures the practice engagement teams effectively contribute tools, methods and assets, information sources and IP to the knowledge management platform. Encourages the team to create and share IP, PoV/White papers, represents the company at strategic industry and analyst conferences
• Ensures the practice has market relevant capabilities and service offerings, ensures a recruitment service pipeline to support future business and new capabilities and service offerings. Builds active partnerships including, but not limited to solution providers, alliance partners, and analysts
• Participates in industry solution related networks, serves on a committee, presents papers, etc. Manages team targets and goals in line with practice plan