Project Manager

Project Lead (Payments)

Location: Hybrid, London Office at 1 Royal Exchange London, EC3V 3DG.

About Us

We are global experts in payments modernization, using the latest applied AI and deep payments expertise to deliver end-to-end payment transformation projects. Our solutions help clients accelerate their payments modernization programs while reducing costs and regulatory risk.

The RedFlag Accelerator sets the industry standard for detecting human trafficking related crime, assisting both financial institutions and law enforcement. Using a persona-oriented approach, it identifies the actors behind transactions, including victims, money-laundering professionals, perpetrators, and others. By combining AI, the latest red flags, crime models, and OSINT data, our system helps detects crimes across labor, sex trafficking and child sexual exploitation.

With offices in London, Warsaw, Brussels, Miami, Toronto, and Pune, we support clients worldwide.

To learn more about RedCompass Labs and our services, visit: www.redcompasslabs.com.

The Role

The Project Lead role at RedCompass Labs demands a sharp focus on quality delivery, predictable outcomes, and disciplined execution. This is a role for someone who plans thoroughly, anticipates risk early, and takes personal ownership of keeping scope, time, and budget firmly on track. Project Leads are expected to resolve issues before they escalate - not after.

Successful candidates are highly adaptable, able to embed themselves within varied client cultures and work effectively across complex, cross-functional environments. They communicate with clarity and consistency, keep stakeholders well-informed, and are equally comfortable working through the detail of a delivery plan as they are presenting to a Steering Committee.

Levelling communication appropriately is a critical capability here. Project Leads at RedCompass Labs can translate operational complexity into concise, well-structured updates for senior audiences - framing progress, risk, and recommendations in a way that enables executives to act with confidence. At the same time, they roll up their sleeves in weekly delivery sessions, tracking dependencies and driving momentum at ground level.

RedCompass Labs welcomes both emerging and seasoned Project Leaders. What distinguishes our Project Leads is not just their project management pedigree - it is their judgement, their resilience, and their ability to get things done in ambiguous, fast-moving environments. They act as delivery leads, trusted advisors, and problem-solvers, often simultaneously, and they take genuine pride in bringing projects home.

Key Responsibilities:

• Accountable for the full project lifecycle: initiation, planning, execution, monitoring, control, budgeting, and closure
• Ensuring project goals and deliverables are clearly defined, communicated, and understood by all responsible parties
• Building, maintaining, and tracking a Mid-Level Project Plan that serves both as a quality gate for RedCompass Labs management and a measure of client delivery
• Facilitating client workshops to present, validate, and achieve consensus on business approaches, requirements, plans, and timelines
• Asking incisive questions, surfacing unstated assumptions, and resolving conflicts constructively
• Developing and maintaining contingency and recovery plans as required
• Acting as a bridge between project, business, operations, and technical teams - without bias
• Ensuring risks and issues are identified, tracked, actioned, and mitigated promptly to protect the delivery schedule
• Supporting the Programme Manager in delivering the project as part of a wider portfolio
• Managing stakeholder expectations with regard to deliverables, timelines, and any impacts to go-live
• Producing clear, balanced internal and external status reports for all levels of management
• Owning project reporting end-to-end - to the client and internally at RedCompass Labs - with accuracy, consistency, and appropriate judgement

What We Are Looking For:

• Proven experience leading global or cross-functional teams
• Strong planning, reporting, and budget management capabilities
• A sharp analytical mind with the ability to work through complex challenges independently and offer well-reasoned options
• Confidence and polish in senior stakeholder engagement
• Experience working alongside vendors and technical or development teams
• The ability to read a client environment quickly and build the right relationships within it
• Excellent time management and the composure to re-prioritise under pressure without losing momentum
• Clear, authoritative communication - written and verbal - with the ability to adapt style and register for different audiences
• A pragmatic, decisive approach to problem-solving
• A working knowledge of the payments landscape

Desirable:

• Familiarity with payment schemes (SEPA, SCTInst, UKFP, and others)
• Understanding of Clearing and Settlement Systems (e.g. Euro1, Step2, TARGET2, BACS, STET, Equens, Bundesbank)

Qualifications (not essential):

• PRINCE2 or equivalent project management certification.
• Project Management Professional (PMP)
• Experience at a tier 1 consultancy (Accenture, Deloitte, PwC, Bain, or equivalent) also highly valued

What We Offer

Work with real purpose. At RedCompass Labs, your projects carry weight beyond the delivery plan. Our work sits at the intersection of global financial infrastructure and some of the most important crime-fighting efforts in the world. Through our RedFlag Accelerator, we help financial institutions identify the financial traces of human trafficking and child sexual exploitation - and the Project Leads who keep our client engagements on track are a vital part of making that possible. This is delivery leadership with a genuine reason to care.

A place where your judgement is trusted. RedCompass Labs is built on expertise, not hierarchy. As a Project Lead, you will have real ownership of client relationships and delivery outcomes - not a supporting role on someone else's programme. Your perspective will be sought, your decisions respected, and your contribution visible at the highest levels of the organisation.

A team that genuinely invests in its people. We are committed to your development - not just your output. You will have access to a dedicated Career Development Manager, structured performance reviews, and a culture that encourages continuous learning. Whether you are an emerging Project Lead building your foundation or an experienced practitioner ready for a more complex challenge, we will meet you where you are.

A global community of specialists. With colleagues across London, Warsaw, Brussels, Toronto, Pune, and Miami, you will work alongside some of the sharpest minds in payments. Our engagements span institutions, geographies, and regulatory environments - no two projects are alike, and the breadth of exposure is consistently one of the things our people value most about working here.

Your package:

• Competitive salary + up to 10% performance-based annual bonus
• Life insurance and Group Income Protection
• Private health and dental insurance for you and your family
• Pension: 4% employer contribution + 4% employee (with the option to increase)
• 28 days' annual leave plus public and bank holidays
• Hybrid working: 60% office-based annually at our London office, 1 Royal Exchange, London EC3V 3DGUp to 10% of annual earnings as a personal performance bonus

RedCompass Labs is committed to promoting and supporting a diverse and inclusive workplace, ensuring fair and equitable treatment for all. This fuels innovation and enables us to work better together with each other and for our clients.