Financial Services Consulting Director | Payment Specialist

What You Will Do: 

Guidehouse is a next-generation advisory, technology, and managed services consulting firm serving the public and commercial markets in financial services, healthcare, sustainability, and national defense. Our mission is to help clients solve their most complex and important challenges. Our vision is to build relationships, advance knowledge, insight, and capacity to implement solutions that increase trust in society.

We act as partners with our clients and industry: we work hand-in-hand with clients to develop and implement measurable, meaningful, and sustainable improvements that position them, and their organizations, for success. We connect leading practices with deep industry insight: Our professionals leverage experience gained from work with the government and in commercial industry, bringing the insight, capabilities, and cultural acumen required to develop well thought-out, sustainable solutions.

Our Commercial Financial Services practice works with financial industry leaders, including banks, life insurance companies, hedge funds, and nonbank financial institutions. With new competitors entering the marketplace, razor-thin margins, and a shifting regulatory focus, financial companies are exploring new business models, grappling with modernizing their processes and technology to remain competitive.

Guidehouse offers a challenging high-profile career working closely with prestigious clients at senior levels to deliver real value. Guidehouse is a flourishing company built on trust, teamwork, and enthusiasm that values and respects its employees and clients.

As a Director, you will be responsible for sustaining and growing Guidehouse’s consulting relationships across the Payments ecosystem with both new and existing clients. You will oversee delivery on at least one large existing account and work to develop additional work across new and existing accounts. You will advise clients at the highest strategic level on both big-picture and tactical matters - showcasing how technology enables a wide range of business outcomes. You will collaborate with delivery leaders to bring the best solutions to our clients that result in measured profitable sales for Guidehouse. 

As a Payments Director with Guidehouse, your role will be pivotal in driving our payment modernization initiatives, focusing on digital assets, operations, and technology. The ideal candidate will have extensive experience across the intersection of payments modernization, digital transformation, and operational risk and compliance, particularly within banks, card networks, non-bank financial institutions, and payment technology companies. You will leverage your Payments subject matter expertise to help stakeholders navigate the changing payments landscape – disruptive technology, regulation, changing customer expectations – to develop growth strategies and deliver business results through well-delivered implementation.As a key member of our leadership team, you will be instrumental in shaping our future in the rapidly evolving payments landscape. Your responsibilities will include:

• Sales and Business Development:

• Lead sales initiatives and foster relationships with new and existing clients

• Develop and execute strategies for business expansion in the Payments domain

• Identify and pursue opportunities in emerging payment technologies and digital assets

• Build and maintain strong relationships with clients, understanding their needs and providing tailored solutions

• Project Execution and Management:

• Oversee project delivery, ensuring excellence and adherence to timelines and budgets

• Manage cross-functional teams to execute projects related to payment systems and technologies

• Capability Development:

• Enhance the organization’s payments capabilities and develop innovative solutions.

• Stay abreast of industry trends and advancements in payment technologies.

• Risk and Compliance Expertise:

• Provide expert guidance on risk management and compliance matters related to payment systems.

• Ensure that payment solutions adhere to regulatory standards and best practices.

• Thought Leadership and Subject Matter Expertise:

• Serve as a subject matter expert in payments, digital assets, and related technologies.

• Contribute to thought leadership through speaking engagements, publications, and research.

• Team Leadership and Mentorship:

• Lead and mentor team members, fostering a culture of excellence and continuous learning.

What You Will Need: 

To be successful at Guidehouse, you will need to be sales savvy and capable while having the substance required to add value on projects and lead the project teams. You should have a solid and diverse management consulting and client service background. You will need to incorporate outstanding leadership and people management skills, financial services industry expertise, consulting project and business management, and general business skills. You must have the ability to be hands-on in a business development role and in the delivery of the project. As an incoming director, you will need:

• 12+ years of Payment Modernization / Digital Assets related experience with proven experience in a senior role and viewed as an industry leader related to payments, digital assets, or financial technologies

• Proven experience in a senior role related to payments, digital assets, or financial technologies

• Extensive knowledge of risk and compliance for financial institutions

• Strong background in consulting, with an emphasis on financial services

• Demonstrated ability in sales, business development, and client relationship management.

• Experience in leading and executing complex projects

• Excellent communication and leadership skills

• Ability to innovate and adapt in a fast-paced industry

• Demonstrated experience leading high-valued, complex, Digital Payment solutions: strategy, design, architecture, process engineering, testing, operating model and org design, implementation, and change management

• Viewed as key leader within the Payments consulting practice preferably inclusive of: FinTech trends, Real Time Payments (RTP), and Embedded Payments

• Proven ability to successfully lead large, complex client service delivery teams that deliver the highest quality consulting engagement work to timeline, scope, and budget at sizes of $2M+

• Demonstrated strong network of potential sales targets and proven history of consulting engagement sales of $several M+ annually year over year

• A thorough understanding of risk management and compliance with respect to payments

• Flexibility with respect to travel up to 50%

• Bachelor’s degree

What Would Be Nice to Have: 

• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced challenging environment

• MBA or MA/MS degree

• Experience in EMV (chip & pin), contactless, open fare collection (transit), mobile payments and offers, blockchain, QR code, tokenization, express checkout, two-factor authentication (3-D Secure), prepaid and virtual card

• Proven leader who can work directly with client senior management and lead Guidehouse colleagues

• Aptitude for networking and sales

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills

• Creative problem-solving ability and a collaborative, consultancy mindset

• Relationship-oriented with the ability to thrive in an organization where team building and authentic relationships are vital

• High energy, persuasive, and someone who leads by example