Payments Architect, Manager, FS Consulting

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Job description

About the role

There is significant market growth expected over the coming years in Financial Services payments transformation, driven by the following factors:

• Traditional banks have been addressing complex and costly payment infrastructures, while challenger banks have been building new payment platforms.. Cost minimisation and improved resilience are driving these programmes.
• In parallel, there are industry initiatives such as New Payments Architecture, RTGS re-platforming, Open Banking, ISO20022 messaging, Confirmation of Payee and regulatory tightening that are collectively transforming the payments landscape.
• It is generally acknowledged that 'custom build' payment platforms by incumbents is not a good strategy and that traditional 'payment platform replacement' programmes destroy value.
• Covid has accelerated the move away from cash through a shift to alternative payments channels, bringing digital capabilities front and centre. Migration to digital banking just accelerated this shift by 3-4 years
• Banks are now looking to transform using business led, cloud based ecosystem solutions for payments that can be configured, deployed and adapted quickly.

PwC has developed a unique and innovative set of assets, platforms and ecosystem partnerships to support our clients capitalising on that growth.
Working with our clients' leadership teams, our payments specialists will lead the architectural design and solution components of highly complex, business critical payments environments that will increase resilience and enable and unlock new value streams within the client's technology base. They will have a wealth of experience of hands on delivery of multi-year payments technology delivery programmes at global, multinational clients or worked at tier 1 technology firms to implement their solutions to clients. They have participated in large, multi-disciplinary teams which may include partner teams, across the full life-cycle of a project, practising agile delivery methods and utilising technologies such as ISO20022, digital wallets, advanced fraud detection, AML, . They are able to provide diagnostic leadership on current architectures and be the technical and solution lead in senior client discussions in both proposal and delivery phases.

The core platform architect will bring a breadth of experience in architecting and delivering core banking transformation in financial services. They will lead architectural designs by bringing deep understanding of the technology trends in financial services and several years of experience architecting and delivering cloud native, API enabled and data led architectures in the industry. They will quickly become a trusted advisor for our clients in the area of core banking transformation and customer/products migration and be able to advise and reach consensus on architectural decisions and technology choices at senior executive level.

They set themselves apart in being able to develop solutions for both emerging and often cloud based technologies and client legacy systems in a way that delivers value to the client and enables the client to move to an agile technology estate. They will work with partners to make appropriate software and vendor choices to support this plan and apply several best of breed technologies to create an overall solution. Ultimately working with clients to grow revenue, remove complexity, scale globally, reduce costs and set our clients for success in the digital age.
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Requirements
The payment specialist will have a proven track record helping Banking & Capital Markets clients transform their payments capabilities by taking lead roles in developing solution and technical architectures as well as supporting the delivery of payment transformations by providing architecture oversight, solution design and leadership. Furthermore, the ideal candidate will:

• Have extensive examples of leading the transformation of payment platforms in the financial services industry encompassing the wide range of multi-disciplinary skills required to deliver change through emerging technologies;
• Be a trusted adviser, with a track record of advising senior executives and company boards on executing value led technical transformation within leading organisations;
• Proven commercial experience as a payment systems specialist - with a successful track record of designing and delivering complex payments projects including established and emerging technologies underpinned by cloud components and API, in one or more industries

The candidate will have a good understanding of some or all of the following areas:

• Payment schemes: Understanding of domestic payment schemes including BACS, Faster Payments, LINK, Cheque and Credit Clearing, and CHAPS; scheme operating rules; and cross border capabilities such as SEPA, TARGET2, SWIFT and RTP
• Payment channels: Understanding of mobile and online payments, open banking channels
• Payment lifecycle: Understanding of payment messaging, real time and deferred net settlements, exception processing (including failed payments and repairs), and reconciliations
• Digital payments: Understanding of wallets, digital currencies, blockchain based payments, and central bank digital currencies
• Card payments: Understanding of issuers, acquirers and card schemes, interchange, cardholder authentication,
• Payment operations: Understanding of back office functions, including fraud, AML and sanctions operations, liquidity management,
• RTGS: Understanding of central bank real time payments and settlements; role of central bank money; management of liquidity and collateral; gridlock management and commercial bank interfaces
• Payment technologies: Understanding of payments switching, routing, use of cryptography, PIN operations, contact and contactless protocols
• Emerging payment technologies: Understanding of emerging developments such as Open Banking, new payment rails, digital payments, new payment channels such as wallets, smart Point of Sale and ATMs, real time cross border, blockchain-enabled crypto payments, central bank digital currencies, data in payments and financial crime developments
• Payment Fintechs: knowledge of Fintech niches offerings in the payments value chain

• They will have market presence, having a personal significant track record of delivering impactful results across a large network of clients;
• An inspiring team leader, able to rapidly establish and lead high-performing, multi-disciplinary teams, drawn from across PwC, our clients' staff and third party organisations;
• Be accomplished in building effective relationships with third-party delivery organisations through the process of sourcing selecting, and managing the technical engagement with vendors/software providers;
• A confident and impactful communicator, both written and verbal, able to clearly explain solution design to non-technical audiences, and technical design to technical audiences;

Additional information

• Opportunity for working from home? (Yes)
• Amount of time client based (up to 70%+)
• Opportunity for job sharing? (No)
• Need to travel/overnight stays away from home (Yes)
• Opportunity for flexible working (hours)? (Yes)
• Typical amount of time PwC office based (20%)

Consulting
In Consulting we deliver practical, far-sighted advice that gets straight to the heart of clients' business issues and delivers amazing results by helping our clients improve the way they operate, reduce costs, manage risks, leverage talent or fundamentally change the way they do business, the work you do will be all about helping organisations of all shapes and sizes work smarter and grow faster. You could find yourself working with household names in a diverse range of industries - everyone from big-name broadcasters and high-street banks to multinational telecoms operators and energy companies.

The skills we look for in future employees
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The Deal
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Diversity
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We work in a changing world which offers great opportunities for people with diverse backgrounds and experiences. We seek to attract and employ the best people from the widest talent pool because creating value through diversity is what makes us strong as a business, enabling us to solve important problems and deliver value to our clients. We encourage an inclusive culture where people can be themselves, are valued for their strengths and are empowered to be the best they can be. As an organisation with an increasingly agile workforce, we also support different ways of working offering flexible working arrangements. Learn more here about our work to support an inclusive culture.