A Head of Tax at a fintech or payments company leads tax strategy, compliance, and reporting in a fast-moving, regulated business environment. The role typically includes overseeing direct and indirect tax matters, supporting commercial and operational activity, advising on new products and market expansion, and managing relationships with relevant tax authorities and external advisers.
Key Responsibilities
- Tax Strategy & Compliance: Lead the company’s tax strategy and oversee tax compliance and reporting requirements across relevant jurisdictions.
- Advisory & Growth: Provide guidance on business growth, cross-border activity, operating models, and the tax implications of new products, services, and market expansion.
- Operational Tax & Product: Partner with product, finance, and operations teams to support tax compliance across payments, financial products, and digital platforms.
- Tax Technology & Process: Improve tax processes, controls, and reporting through effective use of systems, automation, and scalable ways of working.
- Tax Risk Management: Manage tax risk, support governance and controls, and coordinate with external advisers and tax authorities as needed.
- Team Leadership: Lead and develop the internal tax team, fostering collaboration with finance and commercial functions.
Skills and Experience
- Experience: Strong experience in tax within financial services, fintech, payments, or other fast-paced regulated environments.
- Technical Expertise: Strong knowledge of corporate and indirect tax, with the ability to apply tax principles in evolving business models, products, and services.
- Technology Savvy: Comfortable working with finance, reporting, and compliance systems in a technology-enabled business.
- Leadership: Proven ability to lead, influence senior stakeholders, and manage large-scale tax projects.
Barclays’ payments acceptance business provides critical infrastructure to the UK economy, processing billions of pounds of payments annually for both small businesses and domestic and international corporate clients.
In April 2025, we announced a long-term partnership with Brookfield Asset Management to grow and transform the payments acceptance business by broadening the range of services offered, enhancing the experience for both existing and prospective clients. Leveraging extensive client relationships and deep experience of UK payments, we will create an environment of continuous innovation - activated by Brookfield’s global private equity expertise in payments, technology, operational transformation and corporate carve-outs - to ensure the business is strategically positioned for long-term growth.
Barclays will invest approximately £400m in the new business, the majority of which will be incurred during the first three years. Performance-linked incentives will drive greater alignment between the partners, underpinning the long-term commitment to the transformation. Barclays and Brookfield will work to create a standalone entity over time, continuing to use the Barclaycard Payments (BPL) brand and acting as the sole payments acceptance services provider to Barclays’ clients for a minimum of ten years.
For more information on our partnership with Brookfield, please visit Barclays.com.
Purpose of the role
To provide expert tax advice and guidance to the bank including, analysis of complex tax issues advising on appropriate tax risk management of business activities (including M&A) and managing tax authorities and other stakeholders.
Accountabilities
- Provision of tax planning, in accordance with Barclays tax principles, and advisory services to the bank.
- Management of tax risks arising from the bank's business activities, investments, and financial transactions and development of tax risk management strategies to mitigate potential tax liabilities and protect the bank's financial interests and reputation.
- Analysis on complex tax issues to support tax planning strategies, compliance matters, and risk management initiatives. .
- Analysis of the tax implications of potential mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, restructurings, and other strategic transactions, and development of tax-efficient structures for complex transactions.
- Liaising with tax authorities and resolving legacy tax risks.
- Identification and assessment of potential tax risks associated with complex transactions (including potential mergers, acquisitions, and restructuring) and development and implementation of tax risk mitigation strategies to minimise the potential impact.
- Stakeholder management to ensure that tax requirements and the associated risks are understood and appropriately managed.
- Analysis of relevant developments in tax law to ensure the impact on Barclays is understood and appropriately managed.
- Analysis of business and products changes from a tax risk perspective, and inputting into firm-wide processes such as NAPA (New and Amended Product Approval).
Director Expectations
- To manage a business function, providing significant input to function wide strategic initiatives. Contribute to and influence policy and procedures for the function and plan, manage and consult on multiple complex and critical strategic projects, which may be business wide..
- They manage the direction of a large team or sub-function, leading other people managers and embedding a performance culture aligned to the values of the business. Or for an individual contributor, they lead organisation wide projects and act as deep technical expert and thought leader, identifying new ways of working and collaborating cross functionally. They will train, guide and coach less experienced specialists and provide information affecting long term profits, organisational risks and strategic decisions..
- Provide expert advice to senior functional management and committees to influence decisions made outside of own function, offering significant input to function wide strategic initiatives.
- Manage, coordinate and enable resourcing, budgeting and policy creation for a significant sub-function.
- Escalates breaches of policies / procedure appropriately.
- Foster and guide compliance, ensure regulations are observed that relevant processes in place to facilitate adherence.
- Focus on the external environment, regulators, or advocacy groups to both monitor and influence on behalf of Barclays, when appropriate.
- Demonstrate extensive knowledge of how the function integrates with the business division / Group to achieve the overall business objectives.
- Maintain broad and comprehensive knowledge of industry theories and practices within own discipline alongside up-to-date relevant sector / functional knowledge, and insight into external market developments / initiatives.
- Use interpretative thinking and advanced analytical skills to solve problems and design solutions in often complex/ sensitive situations.
- Exercise management authority to make significant decisions and certain strategic decisions or recommendations within own area.
- Negotiate with and influence stakeholders at a senior level both internally and externally.
- Act as principal contact point for key clients and counterparts in other functions/ businesses divisions.
- Mandated as a spokesperson for the function and business division.
All Senior Leaders are expected to demonstrate a clear set of leadership behaviours to create an environment for colleagues to thrive and deliver to a consistently excellent standard. The four LEAD behaviours are: L – Listen and be authentic, E – Energise and inspire, A – Align across the enterprise, D – Develop others.
All colleagues will be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Values of Respect, Integrity, Service, Excellence and Stewardship – our moral compass, helping us do what we believe is right. They will also be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Mindset – to Empower, Challenge and Drive – the operating manual for how we behave.
