About Liquid Group
Liquid Group is a Singapore-headquartered payments technology company enabling digital payment acceptance and cross-border payment interoperability across a growing network of merchants, financial institutions, payment partners and ecosystem participants globally.
Through our payment infrastructure, merchant acquiring capabilities and ecosystem partnerships, we help businesses participate in domestic and international payment networks, expand customer reach, and accelerate digital payment adoption.
Operating across multiple markets and payment ecosystems, Liquid Group works closely with merchants, issuers, acquirers, banks and payment partners to deliver secure, seamless and scalable payment experiences.
ROLE OVERVIEW
The Director, Merchant Growth & Partnerships is responsible for driving the expansion and commercial performance of Liquid Group's merchant network in Singapore, with particular focus on acquiring strategic, enterprise and high-value merchants.
This is a hands-on commercial leadership role requiring an experienced business hunter who can personally originate opportunities, open doors with senior decision-makers, lead complex commercial negotiations and convert opportunities into signed and activated merchants.
The Director will personally lead strategic and enterprise merchant opportunities while guiding the Merchant Growth team in building and converting the broader merchant pipeline.
Success in this role is measured not simply by partnerships signed, but by activated merchants, transaction volumes and revenue generated.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
Strategic & Enterprise Merchant Acquisition
- Personally identify, prospect and acquire strategic and enterprise merchants across retail, F&B, hospitality, tourism, lifestyle, services, digital commerce and other priority sectors.
- Build direct relationships with business owners, C-suite executives, Heads of Payments, Commercial Directors and other senior decision-makers.
- Develop account strategies to penetrate major merchant groups, brands, chains and strategic merchant segments.
- Lead merchant pitches, commercial proposals, solution discussions and negotiations from initial engagement through contract execution.
- Navigate complex organisational and procurement structures to progress and close strategic opportunities.
- Build and maintain a strong personal pipeline of high-value merchant opportunities.
Commercial Growth & Deal Leadership
- Structure commercially viable merchant propositions balancing merchant requirements, competitive positioning, transaction potential and Liquid Group's commercial objectives.
- Lead pricing and commercial negotiations for strategic merchant opportunities.
- Identify opportunities to expand payment acceptance and transaction volumes across merchant portfolios.
- Develop commercial propositions that differentiate Liquid Group from competing payment providers.
- Take direct accountability for converting commercial opportunities into measurable transaction and revenue growth.
Merchant Growth Team Leadership
- Lead, coach and provide commercial direction to the Merchant Growth team.
- Establish clear merchant acquisition, pipeline, conversion, activation and transaction targets.
- Conduct regular pipeline and deal reviews, challenge stalled opportunities and driving clear next actions.
- Support team members in complex pitches, negotiations and senior merchant engagements.
- Develop the team's prospecting, relationship-building, negotiation and closing capabilities.
- Maintain personal merchant acquisition responsibilities while leading the team's overall performance.
Merchant Activation & Transaction Growth
- Ensure signed merchants progress efficiently from agreement through onboarding, activation and transaction go-live.
- Work with merchants to identify opportunities to increase payment adoption, usage and transaction volumes.
- Develop merchant activation initiatives in collaboration with Marketing, Partnerships and other internal teams.
- Monitor merchant performance and identify underperforming relationships requiring commercial intervention.
- Build deeper relationships with strategic merchants to identify expansion and cross-selling opportunities.
Strategic Merchant Partnerships
- Build long-term relationships with major merchant groups and strategic commercial partners.
- Identify partnership opportunities that extend beyond individual merchant acquisition and create broader ecosystem value.
- Develop relationships with industry associations, business groups, aggregators and other channels capable of accelerating merchant acquisition.
- Represent Liquid Group at relevant merchant, commercial and industry engagements.
Market Intelligence & Growth Strategy
- Maintain strong understanding of the Singapore merchant acquiring and payments landscape, including competitor propositions, pricing and market developments.
- Identify priority merchant segments and develop targeted acquisition strategies.
- Provide management with actionable market intelligence and recommendations on merchant growth opportunities.
- Translate market insights into executable commercial initiatives rather than strategy alone.
Cross-Functional Execution
- Work closely with Product, Operations, Customer Success, Marketing, Technology, Compliance and Finance to support merchant acquisition and activation.
- Represent merchant requirements internally while balancing commercial opportunity, operational feasibility and regulatory considerations.
- Drive internal resolution of issues that may prevent strategic merchant opportunities from progressing or transacting successfully.
SUCCESS MEASURES
Performance will be measured primarily on commercial outcomes, including:
- Strategic and enterprise merchants acquired and activated
- Merchant acquisition performance against target
- Transaction volume generated from acquired merchants
- Revenue contribution
- Value and quality of personal merchant pipeline
- Pipeline conversion and sales cycle performance
- Growth of existing strategic merchant relationships
- Team merchant acquisition and activation performance
- Strategic merchant partnerships secured
- Merchant retention and transaction growth
REQUIREMENTS
Education
- Bachelor's Degree in Business, Marketing, Finance, Economics or a related discipline.
- MBA or postgraduate qualifications are advantageous.
Experience
- 8–12+ years of progressive commercial, business development, merchant acquisition or partnerships experience, ideally within payments, fintech, merchant acquiring, banking, digital commerce, technology or adjacent industries.
- Strong and demonstrable track record of personally originating and closing significant enterprise or strategic merchant deals.
- Proven ability to engage and influence C-suite executives, business owners and senior commercial decision-makers.
- Experience managing complex sales cycles involving multiple commercial and operational stakeholders.
- Demonstrated commercial ownership of revenue, transaction, sales or business growth targets.
- Experience leading or coaching business development or merchant acquisition teams.
- Experience in payments or merchant acquiring is strongly preferred.
SKILLS & COMPETENCIES
Senior Commercial Hunter
- Strong hunter mentality with the ability and willingness to personally originate opportunities and open new doors.
- Demonstrated ability to progress relationships beyond introductory discussions and convert them into commercial agreements.
- Strong closing instincts and resilience when navigating long or complex enterprise sales cycles.
- Comfortable developing business through direct outreach, networks, referrals and strategic relationship building.
Executive Engagement & Negotiation
- Confident engaging senior executives and commercial decision-makers.
- Strong commercial negotiation and influencing capabilities.
- Able to understand a merchant's commercial priorities and develop compelling propositions around them.
- Credible and persuasive communicator capable of representing Liquid Group in senior external engagements.
Leadership & Execution
- Hands-on leader who leads through execution rather than delegation alone.
- Able to coach less experienced commercial team members while maintaining personal sales accountability.
- Strong pipeline management discipline and ability to identify why opportunities are not progressing.
- Highly accountable for outcomes and comfortable operating against demanding commercial targets.
IDEAL CANDIDATE PROFILE
We are particularly interested in candidates who:
- Have an established network across Singapore's merchant, retail, F&B, hospitality, tourism or broader commercial ecosystem.
- Can demonstrate specific examples of major merchants or enterprise accounts they personally opened and closed.
- Know how to identify and reach the actual decision-maker, rather than allowing opportunities to remain at working level.
- Are comfortable picking up the phone, opening doors, attending merchant meetings and negotiating deals personally despite operating at Director level.
- Combine strategic commercial thinking with strong execution capability.
- Measure success through merchants activated, transactions generated and revenue delivered—not simply meetings held or partnerships announced.
- Enjoy building businesses and teams but remain willing to get personally involved wherever necessary to close an opportunity.
