The Telegraph

About the Role

As the Payments Optimisation Manager and Technical Lead, you will play a pivotal role in supporting The Telegraph’s priority strategy of global digital subscriptions growth, with a focus on payment success. Embedded within our Subscriptions team and working cross-functionally, you will collaborate with developers, stakeholders, and third-party vendors to drive the end-to-end optimisation of payment APIs, platforms, and processes.

This role sits at the intersection of technology and business, requiring a strategic mindset and strong technical execution. You will take overall responsibility for the technical delivery of key projects that underpin highly optimised subscription payment processes — including the seamless processing of payments through our APIs and supporting an ongoing programme of payment success optimisation.

Your deep understanding of payment systems, API integration, and payment industry trends will be critical in improving payment conversion, reducing costs, ensuring compliance, and maintaining a secure and seamless subscriber payment experience. Ultimately, your work will directly impact subscriber retention and revenue growth.

Key Responsibilities

• Payments Strategy & Optimisation: Develop and execute a payments optimisation roadmap that balances cost efficiency, conversion improvement, and user experience. Monitor payment gateway performance and implement data-driven strategies to reduce payment friction and decline rates.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Work closely with Marketing, Strategy, Finance, and Product teams to align payments initiatives with broader business goals, such as customer acquisition, retention, and revenue forecasting.
• Vendor & PSP Management: Collaborate with the Operations Manager, who oversees day-to-day operational relationships with Payment Service Providers, while taking ownership of the strategic partnership. Drive improvements, influence product roadmaps, evolve new payment features, and stay abreast of industry trends and regulatory changes to ensure our PSP integrations continually support evolving business needs and optimise payment success.
• Fraud Management & Risk Mitigation: Take ownership of fraud prevention and risk mitigation strategies in collaboration with internal stakeholders and external partners. Implement best practices to minimise payment fraud, reduce chargebacks, and protect subscriber data, ensuring a secure and trusted payment experience.
• Regulatory Compliance & Tax: Collaborate with Legal, Tax, and Finance teams to ensure all payment operations comply with relevant regulations across different regions, including tax reporting and handling of cross-border payments.
• Payment Methods & Innovation: Research and recommend new payment methods and technologies to keep the subscription payment experience modern, accessible, and customer-friendly.
• Data-Driven Insights: Utilise analytics tools to track key payment metrics, create actionable reports, and present findings to senior leadership to influence business decisions.

Essential Skills

• Demonstrated experience managing payment systems and Payment Service Providers (PSPs) within subscription-based or digital commerce environments, focused on driving continuous improvement.
• Proven expertise in payments optimisation, improving conversion rates, and reducing costs while maintaining a positive subscriber experience.
• Ability to identify, recommend, and implement improvements that deliver measurable ROI.
• Strong technical knowledge of payment gateways, APIs, and integration challenges, with a proactive approach to resolving issues in collaboration with engineering teams.
• In-depth understanding of the card payment industry, including optimising recurring payment acceptance, improving new transaction approval rates, and comprehensive knowledge of card scheme rules.
• Deep awareness of nuances across card schemes, issuers, and geographic markets, including country-specific payment behaviours and requirements.
• Knowledge of emerging alternative payment methods such as digital wallets and open banking transfers.
• Familiarity with relevant payment technologies, compliance standards, and security protocols.
• Up-to-date knowledge of regulations affecting card and electronic payments, including PCI DSS, PSD2, and Network Tokenisation.
• Proven ability to work cross-functionally with marketing, finance, product, and legal teams, delivering actionable payment insights and influencing business decisions.
• Strong analytical skills with proficiency in data analysis and reporting tools to monitor and enhance payment KPIs, coupled with excellent attention to detail and confidence in handling large datasets.
• Effective leadership skills to collaborate with and influence cross-functional teams toward shared goals.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to clearly present findings and insights to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Passion for innovation, maintaining awareness of industry trends, emerging payment technologies, and best practices to continuously evolve payment capabilities.

Desirable Skills

• Ability to thoroughly understand complex business and technical issues and influence decision-making at all levels of the organisation.
• Strong stakeholder management skills, with the ability to balance and prioritise diverse needs effectively.
• Good understanding of user journey mapping, including conversion funnels and goal-focused journey optimisation.
• Proven success in developing and optimising operational platforms.
• Solid understanding of software architecture, with the ability to abstract and simplify complex systems from technical descriptions.
• Strong high-level knowledge of common web application architectures.
• Experience working across multi-disciplinary projects and teams.
• Experience in subscription organisations, ideally within digital media or news, but not essential.
• Comprehensive knowledge of local and international payment regulations.
• Background in payments, with a commitment to innovation and continuous learning.

Benefits

The nature of our industry means life at the Telegraph Media Group is fast-paced, demanding, and interesting. We also want it to be rewarding for everyone who works here by creating a suite of benefits that contribute to lifestyle choices and leisure activities. From dynamic working opportunities, medical cover, and parental leave (six months fully paid maternity leave and enhanced paternity/partner leave), to life assurance and season ticket loans, you can choose from a range of flexible benefits, designed to support your lifestyle and help you achieve a healthy work-life balance.

Training and development

With support from your manager and colleagues, you’ll also have access to a variety of training and development opportunities through The Academy. Covering a range of personal and professional skills, our courses enable you to develop an enjoyable and rewarding career.

Our commitment to inclusion

At Telegraph Media Group, we foster a diverse and inclusive workplace and we are committed to building a team that reflects a wide variety of skills, perspectives and backgrounds. We believe in equality of opportunity and welcome candidates from all backgrounds, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, socio-economic background, religion and/or belief.

We are proud to be a Level 3 Disability Confident Leader as part of the government’s Disability Confident Scheme. If you are disabled or have a long-term health condition and would like support in applying for any of our roles or if you require any reasonable adjustments in the recruitment process with us, please make us aware.

To find out more about Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging at Telegraph Media Group, and for more information on our purpose, beliefs, and people values, please visit our website.