Business Development Manager

Company: WorldFirst
Apply for the Business Development Manager
Location: London
Job Description:

Overview

As a Business Development Manager for UK markets, you will lead merchant acquisition, store activation, and growth for Alipay+ in offline retail and key commercial districts. You will own the end-to-end sales cycle and collaborate with partners to expand cross-border payment adoption. You will help drive initiatives that connect merchants with a global audience and support marketing campaigns to boost usage. This role sits at the intersection of payments, retail activation, and cross-border commerce, offering meaningful impact in a fast-growing platform.

Responsibilities

  • Acquire and manage key merchant accounts including retail chains and premium brands
  • Own end-to-end sales cycle for in-store payments and marketing solutions from lead gen to go-live and post-launch
  • Collaborate with acquiring partners, ISOs, and payment service providers to distribute Alipay+
  • Plan and execute store activations (visits, engagement, POSM visibility, testing, staff training)
  • Support merchant growth through marketing campaigns, promotions, and daily operations
  • Build relationships with merchant decision-makers and acquiring partners at strategic and operational levels
  • Monitor performance, identify gaps, and propose improvements
  • Coordinate with marketing, operations, finance, legal, compliance, product & tech across Europe and HQ
  • Support partnerships with brands, retailers, marketing partners, institutions, and trade associations
  • Contribute to local ecosystem visibility through media, PR, and industry initiatives

Key requirements

  • Proven experience in sales or business development, ideally in payments, fintech, retail, or digital platforms
  • Experience managing key account merchants and/or retail stores, including negotiation and relationship management
  • Solid understanding of offline/online payments including wallets, QR, BNPL, A2A
  • Familiarity with merchant acquiring models, acquirers, ISOs, and payment ecosystems
  • Strong communication and persuasion skills with a hunter mindset and results orientation
  • Comfortable in a fast-paced, international environment and adapting to strategic changes
  • Knowledge of mobile payments, digital marketing, and in-store activation is a plus
  • Well-connected with major European key accounts and ecosystem players, with C-level and operational relationships with global acquirers and merchants
  • Understanding of Asian/Chinese consumer payment behaviors and cross-border shopping/travel retail is a plus
  • Team player with ownership, autonomy, and execution mindset
  • On-the-ground experience in retail is a plus
  • English fluency; additional European or Asian languages (Mandarin) a plus
  • strong communication and persuasion
  • hunter mentality
  • result-oriented
  • offline and online payments knowledge (wallets, QR, BNPL, A2A)
  • merchant acquiring models and ecosystems
  • in-store activation and digital marketing familiarity

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Posted: October 1st, 2026