Head of Owl Payments Limited

 12 Month FTC

About Tripadvisor 
The Tripadvisor Group connects people to experiences worth sharing, and aims to be the world’s most trusted source for travel and experiences. We leverage our brands, technology, and capabilities to connect our global audience with partners through rich content, travel guidance, and two-sided marketplaces for experiences, accommodations, restaurants, and other travel categories. The subsidiaries of Tripadvisor, Inc. (Nasdaq: TRIP), include a portfolio of travel brands and businesses, including Tripadvisor, Viator, and TheFork

About the Role
We're seeking an experienced leader to head up the operations of Tripadvisor's FCA-regulated Payment Institution in the UK. This is a hands-on leadership role within a high-volume marketplace environment, where you'll tackle complex commercial and regulatory challenges with agility and precision.
The Head of Owl Payments will provide strategic leadership, commercial direction, and operational oversight for the Payments Institution and will be responsible for driving sustainable revenue growth whilst embedding a culture of regulatory compliance.
Based in Oxford/London with hybrid flexibility, you'll report to the Global Head of Payments. The position requires close collaboration with global functional teams across the Tripadvisor Group and extensive cross-functional business partnering with product, engineering, legal, and operations.
The role will carry with it a nominated PSD individual status with the FCA.

Job Location: Oxford or London- UK

What You'll Do:

Regulatory Compliance & Governance

• Ensure full compliance with FCA regulatory requirements, serving as primary FCA liaison and regulatory point of contact
• Establish and maintain robust internal controls, governance frameworks, and risk management processes
  Reporting to the board to provide business insight, regulatory updates and strategic direction
• Ensuring company policies and legal guidelines are fully compliant and clearly communicated with all key stakeholders within the business

Strategic & Commercial Leadership

• Developing, gaining agreement to and executing payment-led strategies to achieve both short-term and long-term objectives
• Developing and implementing operational business plans to drive optimal efficiency in payment processing and the cost of payments
• Accountable for the monetisation and profitability of payment strategy across the UK operation

Stakeholder Management

• Creating and developing trusted partnerships with wider functional area stakeholders throughout the Tripadvisor Group to foster close working relationships across UK and US-based geographies
• Working closely with functional leads across Risk, Compliance, Operations and Legal etc. to ensure that the UK entity is operating efficiently
• Leading, guiding and delegating effectively to executives in their duties

Skills & Experience:

Essential Qualifications

• Degree-level education or equivalent
• Minimum 8 years of professional finance experience
• Previous experience in regulated financial services, fintech, or payments sectors

Core Expertise

• Comprehensive knowledge of payment institution regulatory frameworks and compliance requirements
• Exceptional analytical skills with meticulous attention to detail
• Ability to quickly master complex processes and systems

Professional Attributes

• Proven ability to thrive in high-growth, fast-paced fintech environments
• Experience managing international or multi-jurisdictional operations
• Hands-on approach with the ability to balance strategic oversight and operational execution
• Proven track record in leading and developing teams
• Demonstrated ability to use AI tools to improve efficiency, quality, and decision-making in day-to-day work.
• Proven ability to operate effectively with a global-first mindset 

What We Offer 

• Competitive compensation packages (routinely benchmarked against the latest industry data), including base salary and annual bonuses
• “Work your way” with flexibility to suit your lifestyle. Tripadvisor Group takes a remote-friendly approach to collaboration across a worldwide team, with the option to join on-site as often as you’d like or as required by your team.
• Flexible schedule. Work-life balance is ingrained in our culture by design. Trust and accountability make it work.
• Donation matching. Give back? Give more! We match qualifying charitable donations annually.
• Tuition assistance. Want to level up your career? We love to hear it! Receive annual support for qualified programs.
• Lifestyle benefit. An annual benefit to spend on yourself. Use it on travel, wellness, or whatever suits you.
• Travel perks. We believe that travel is employee development, so we provide discounts and more.
• Employee assistance program. We’re here for you with resources and programs to help you through life’s challenges.
• Health benefits. We offer great coverage and competitive premiums.
• Generous referral scheme. Help us grow and be rewarded with generous awards for referring successful candidates.

Our Cultural Pillars

Traveler first
We exist to create value for our customer, the traveler. We enable our suppliers and partners to unlock this value. Their collective behaviors and insights are what drives us. 
Execution is our edge
We act fast, experiment, learn from failure, iterate, and improve the solutions of tomorrow across every aspect of our business. Our execution is agile, data-driven, prioritised, and built to scale. We assume no problem is someone else’s problem and finish what can be done today, knowing tomorrow will bring fresh challenges. 
We succeed together
The best outcomes are driven by empathic, humble, and diverse subject matter experts working toward shared goals. We collaborate relentlessly, challenge assumptions, give actionable feedback, and set each other up for success through empowered teams with a clear charter. We transparently take ownership of our growth, individually and as a team. We celebrate the quality of our effort, our learnings, and our collective achievements.

We strive to create an accessible and inclusive experience for all candidates. If you need a reasonable accommodation during the application or the recruiting process, please make sure to reach out to your individual recruiter or our team at [email protected].
If you have any additional questions about careers at Tripadvisor you can email us at [email protected]. We have all the answers!