Manager – Merchant Acquisition & Partnerships

Role Overview The Merchant Acquisition Manager is responsible for driving the expansion of our merchant acceptance network across online (Payment Gateway, SDKs, checkout APIs) and offline/omnichannel (Smart POS, QR, soundboxes, sound-based payments) channels. This individual will identify high-growth merchants, navigate enterprise and mid-market commercial discussions, negotiate Merchant Discount Rates (MDR) and processing fees, and oversee smooth onboarding through go-live and activation. The primary mandate is scaling Total Payment Volume and expanding the company’s digital payments market share.
Key Responsibilities
1. Business Development & Pipeline Generation
- Identify, prospect, and acquire mid-market, D2C, e-commerce, and enterprise merchants across target verticals (Retail, Travel, Healthcare, Education, SaaS, and Gig Economy).
- Manage the full enterprise/B2B sales cycle from cold outreach and discovery to solution demonstration, commercial closing, and contract execution.
- Build strategic partnerships with platform integrators, e-commerce platforms (Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento), ERP vendors, and system integrators to establish inbound acquisition funnels.

2. Solution Consulting & Commercial Negotiation
- Conduct detailed consultations to map merchant checkout flows, drop-off pain points, payment failure rates, and settlement cycles to the company's aggregator solutions.
- Structure commercially competitive yet margin-positive contracts, balancing MDR, platform fees, setup costs, settlement timeframes ( , , instant payouts), and chargeback liabilities.
- Cross-sell value-added financial products, including instant payouts, recurring billing/e-mandates, BNPL/EMI integrations, working capital financing, and fraud mitigation tools.

3. Onboarding, Integration & Go-Live Management
- Partner with the Technical Solutions / Integration Engineering team to ensure seamless API and SDK deployment on merchant platforms.
- Coordinate with Risk, Compliance, and Underwriting teams to navigate Know Your Customer/Business (KYC/KYB), Merchant Category Code (MCC) classification, and regulatory compliance standards.
- Track pipeline velocity to minimize onboarding turnaround time (TAT) and prevent drop-offs between contract signing and the first live transaction.

4. Portfolio Activation & Early Ramp-Up
- Own merchant activation and volume ramp-up for the first 60–90 days post-go-live to guarantee transaction velocity and wallet-share dominance.
- Analyze transaction analytics, success rates, route optimization, and failover configurations to troubleshoot early integration issues and ensure high authorization rates.

Handoff stabilized, high-performing accounts to the Key Account Management (KAM) team with comprehensive performance and revenue profiles
Required Qualifications & Experience
- Education: Bachelor’s degree in Business, Marketing, Finance, Computer Science, or a related field; MBA is preferred.
- Experience: 4–8 years of documented B2B sales, enterprise business development, or alliance management experience within a Payment Aggregator (PA), Payment Gateway (PG), Merchant Acquiring Bank, or Fintech company.
- Domain Knowledge:
- Comprehensive understanding of online and offline payment rails (Cards, UPI, Net Banking, Wallets, NACH/e-mandates, POS, Soundbox).
- Sound knowledge of interchange economics, card brand scheme rules (Visa, Mastercard, RuPay), and central bank payment aggregator regulations.
- Familiarity with technical integration mechanics (REST APIs, webhooks, mobile SDKs, server-to-server calls).
- Sales Track Record: Consistent history of meeting or exceeding quarterly and annual net revenue.
- Communication & Negotiation: Exceptional presentation, objection handling, and contract negotiation capabilities.

Preferred Competencies
- Established network of executive and operational contacts within mid-market and enterprise D2C, retail, or tech ecosystems.