Open to opportunities

Paula Millington

@paulamillington

Message

Strategic payments leader driving pricing, interchange, and acceptance optimisation.

United Kingdom

Message

What I'm looking for

I am seeking senior product or pricing roles in payments where I can lead pricing transformation, influence cross-functional stakeholders, and drive acceptance and margin optimisation in a collaborative, growth-focused environment.

I am a strategic and analytical payments professional with over a decade of experience leading global pricing, interchange management, and regulatory alignment initiatives across acquiring, processing, and scheme ecosystems.

I have a proven track record executing pricing transformation and managing complex stakeholder environments, translating financial models into actionable commercial narratives to influence regulatory and commercial strategy across Europe and global markets.

My hands-on experience covers acceptance optimisation across POS and e-commerce channels, including technical configuration of field values and transaction routing logic, and I regularly partner with schemes such as Visa, Mastercard, Discover, JCB and UPI to operationalise mandates and fee programmes.

I bring advanced financial modelling and analytics skills, strong stakeholder leadership, and practical product-level guidance to ensure compatibility across gateways and terminals, delivering simplified merchant billing, improved margin performance, and reduced implementation timelines.

Experience

Work history, roles, and key accomplishments

Current

Global Acquiring Product Director

Current

Verifone Payments

Nov 2022 - Present (2 years 10 months)

Lead cross-functional initiatives to optimise processing economics and executing scheme fee and interchange programs, improving acceptance and routing compliance across POS and e-commerce channels. Partner with card schemes and regional stakeholders to align commercial and regulatory strategy and translate technical changes into strategic messaging.

Scheme Fees Acceptance Optimisation Stakeholder Management Product Strategy

Pricing Director (Contract)

Tide

Nov 2024 - Jan 2025 (2 months)

Developed and implemented pricing transformation for a new product rollout, delivering governance, execution plans, and impact assessments to senior stakeholders to enable go-live decisions. Coordinated change readiness and delivery timelines across Product, Risk, and Operations.

Pricing Strategy Change Management Governance Impact Assessments Product Launch Financial Modelling

Interchange & Scheme Fees Manager

Cashflows

Aug 2021 - Nov 2022 (1 year 3 months)

Owned interchange program execution and scheme fee modelling, delivering improved margin performance across EU acquiring flows and simplifying merchant billing through transparent structures and automation. Produced pricing intelligence and supported terminal testing and merchant onboarding.

Scheme Fee Management Competitive Analysis

Interchange & Scheme Operations Manager

Visa

Dec 2012 - Jan 2019 (6 years 1 month)

Oversaw execution of pricing, certification, and scheme mandates for acquiring partners across Europe, coordinating readiness, risk approval, and implementation to reduce onboarding timelines and boost operational resilience. Managed compliance programmes and partner product changes.

Onboarding Certification Management