Consultant – Cards Acquiring & Merchant Business Transformation

Consultant – Cards Acquiring & Merchant Business TransformationExperience - 5+ Years Role PurposeDrive business growth, revenue expansion, operational excellence, and customer experience improvements across the Cards Acquiring ecosystem. The consultant will be responsible for optimizing the end-to-end merchant lifecycle, including merchant acquisition, onboarding, setup, servicing, settlement, reconciliation, dispute management, and continuous process improvement.Key ResponsibilitiesBusiness Growth & Revenue EnhancementIdentify new revenue opportunities through value-added services, payment solutions, and merchant partnerships.Analyze merchant portfolio performance and recommend growth initiatives.Support market expansion and merchant penetration strategies.Merchant Onboarding & IntegrationStreamline merchant onboarding processes to reduce turnaround time.Optimize KYC, risk assessment, underwriting, and compliance controls.Coordinate POS, payment gateway, QR, and e-commerce integrations.Improve first-time-right onboarding and activation rates.Merchant Setup OptimizationReview and redesign onboarding workflows for efficiency and scalability.Enhance automation opportunities across merchant setup activities.Improve SLA adherence and customer experience during implementation.Standardize operating procedures and governance controls.Merchant Servicing ExcellenceLead initiatives to improve merchant support and service quality.Establish service metrics, operational dashboards, and performance governance.Reduce merchant complaints and service-related escalations.Enhance relationship management frameworks for key merchants.Settlement & Reconciliation ManagementAssess settlement processes and identify opportunities for optimization.Improve reconciliation controls across acquiring, merchant settlement, and financial accounting.Minimize settlement delays, exceptions, and financial leakage.Strengthen operational controls and regulatory compliance.Risk, Compliance & Dispute ManagementEnsure adherence to Visa, Mastercard, RuPay, and acquiring regulations.Review chargeback and dispute management frameworks.Identify fraud prevention and risk mitigation opportunities.Enhance compliance monitoring and operational governance.Process Improvement & TransformationConduct process assessments covering People, Process, Technology, and Risk.Deliver automation and digitization initiatives.Define KPIs, MIS, and executive dashboards.Lead continuous improvement programs focused on efficiency, scalability, and cost reduction.Required SkillsDeep understanding of Cards Acquiring Operations and Merchant Lifecycle Management.Merchant onboarding, KYC, underwriting, and risk management expertise.Merchant servicing and settlement operations knowledge.Reconciliation, payments, chargebacks, and dispute management experience.Business process re-engineering and operational transformation.Data analytics, dashboarding, and performance management.Stakeholder management and consulting skills.Preferred Experience5+ years in Payments, Merchant Acquiring, Cards, FinTech, or Banking Operations.Experience with Visa, Mastercard, RuPay, Payment Gateway, POS, QR, and Digital Payments ecosystems.Experience in consulting, transformation, operational excellence, or business process optimization.Expected Value AdditionIncrease merchant acquisition and activation rates.Improve merchant satisfaction and retention.Reduce onboarding and servicing turnaround times.Improve settlement accuracy and reconciliation efficiency.Reduce operational costs through automation.Strengthen compliance, controls, and risk governance.Deliver measurable revenue growth and operational productivity.