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, Woo. Commerce, 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, Ru. Pay), 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.