Job Description:
Managing Director
Jonas Fintech | UK Payments & SaaS
About Us
Jonas Fintech is a growing, profitable SaaS business at the heart of the UK payments market. We operate two established brands, Paygate and London & Zurich, delivering mission-critical Direct Debit and Bacs payment solutions that help businesses collect and manage recurring revenue at scale. Between them they serve a broad and loyal customer base built over more than 20 years of operating in this market.
The business has been commercially strong. We know how to sell, how to retain, and how to grow revenue. What we are now doing is matching that commercial engine with the product and technology capability it deserves. We are investing deliberately in modernisation, moving toward a product-driven model, and embedding AI across how we build, operate, and compete. This is the foundation for increasing the pace of the business's growth.
Jonas Fintech sits within Vesta Software Group, part of Jonas Software and Constellation Software Inc. This means we operate with the speed and focus of a standalone business, while having access to the capital, M&A pipeline, peer network, and long-term orientation of a global group operating across 17 countries. Vesta is a buy-and-hold acquirer of vertical market software businesses, in it for the long term, and Jonas Fintech is part of that family. That is the environment this MD will be operating in, and for the right person it is a genuinely significant advantage.
A full senior leadership team spanning commercial, product, technology, operations, and compliance is in place. The commercial infrastructure is established. The product investment cycle has started. What we need now is an MD who can lead the business through the next phase of growth with the ambition, credibility, and product-driven commercial instinct to get there faster.
The Opportunity
This is a full P&L leadership role. As MD you are accountable for the performance of the Jonas Fintech portfolio across revenue growth, margin improvement, and operational delivery. Both brands are in scope. Both have significant headroom.
The context matters. Jonas Fintech has historically been led with a strong commercial focus, and that has produced real results. The next phase requires something additional: the ability to see product and technology investment as the primary engine for accelerated commercial growth, not a support function for it. The right MD will understand that distinction instinctively and will know how to lead a business through it without letting revenue momentum slip for a moment.
This vacancy arises through a planned succession. The current CEO is stepping up into the Group Leader role within Vesta Software Group, remaining closely connected to the business. The incoming MD is their chosen successor, inheriting a business with real commercial momentum, a capable senior team, and a clear direction of travel.
The one near-term leadership priority is the appointment of a permanent CRO. An interim is in place to maintain commercial continuity, and the incoming MD will lead that recruitment in partnership with the Group Leader. It is an early opportunity to put your own stamp on a key part of the team.
The role reports to the Group Leader and carries regular upward reporting responsibilities to Group. You will manage that relationship with confidence, commercial rigour, and transparency. This is a hands-on leadership role: close to the numbers, close to customers, and genuinely engaged with what is happening across the business.
What You'll Be Doing
Commercial Growth
- Own and drive double-digit revenue growth across both businesses, maintaining and extending the commercial momentum already established
- Lead the recruitment of a permanent CRO in partnership with the Group Leader as an early priority, ensuring commercial leadership is strong, permanent, and aligned to the direction you set
- Ensure the transition to a product-driven model accelerates revenue rather than distracts from it: new capability should open new commercial conversations, improve retention, and justify better pricing
- Maintain close oversight of key accounts, commercial pipeline, and revenue quality across the portfolio
- Identify and pursue new commercial opportunities, including adjacent markets, product extensions, and partnerships aligned with the group's AI-first direction
- Ensure pricing strategy reflects the value the business delivers, and that commercial discipline is applied consistently across both customer acquisition and retention
Product-Driven Profitability
- Drive meaningful margin improvement across the portfolio, treating product and technology investment as the lever to get there sustainably
- Lead cost-to-serve reduction, with a clear line of sight between product capability improvements and operational efficiency gains
- Ensure every significant product investment has a commercial outcome attached to it, and hold the senior leadership team to account against those outcomes
- Apply commercial rigour to pricing, customer segmentation, and unit economics across both businesses, ensuring the product roadmap and the commercial model are properly aligned
Product and Technology Leadership
- Lead the business's move to a product-driven operating model with genuine conviction: product capability drives growth strategy, not the other way around
- Champion AI-first thinking across the business, embedded into product development, operational efficiency, and commercial decision-making, not confined to a pilot programme
- Hold the senior leadership team accountable for translating product and technology investment into measurable commercial outcomes
- Engage deeply enough with product and technology direction to challenge quality and prioritisation without running the functions: know what good looks like, and say so when it falls short
Regulatory Responsibility
Operating in FCA-regulated markets is not a constraint on this business. It is part of what makes the customer relationships sticky, the barriers to entry real, and the competitive moat defensible. The MD is expected to lead with that understanding.
- Hold executive accountability for the regulatory and compliance framework across both businesses, ensuring it is robust, current, and genuinely embedded in how the business operates day to day
- Work closely with the Head of Compliance and MLRO, acting as the senior executive sponsor for regulated activities and maintaining a clear, trusted, and well-functioning working relationship with both
- Maintain full oversight of AML, KYC, safeguarding, and transaction monitoring obligations, and ensure the business consistently meets the standards required of an FCA-regulated operation
- This role does not carry SMF designation, but the MD is expected to operate with the judgement, accountability, and cultural authority that the regulated environment demands
- Treat regulatory strength as a commercial differentiator: customers choose Jonas Fintech in part because they trust us. Protect and build on that
Leadership and Organisational Performance
- Lead the full senior leadership team with authority, holding each member clearly accountable for delivery in their domain while giving them the space to run it
- Build a high-performance culture with clear expectations, honest feedback, and genuine ownership at every level
- Manage the Group relationship with transparency and commercial rigour, owning the reporting cycle and representing the business credibly at Group level
- Drive the business's ongoing modernisation and product investment programme, ensuring it delivers commercial outcomes and does not dilute operational performance in the process
THE CANDIDATE PROFILE
Experience
- Current or recent MD or CEO in a SaaS or payments business
- Has inherited and improved a business, not only built one from scratch
- Has delivered growth and margin improvement simultaneously, not sequentially
- Has successfully navigated the transition from a commercially-led to a product-driven model, or joined a business mid-transition and accelerated it without sacrificing revenue performance
- Has operated in a technically constrained or legacy environment and driven commercial performance through it, not waited for the environment to improve first
- Has led through in-flight change without losing operational momentum
- Experience operating in or alongside FCA-regulated businesses is expected; candidates without regulated environment experience will not be considered
Payments Domain Knowledge
Direct Debit and Bacs experience is a hard requirement. This applies across both Paygate and London & Zurich. Broader payments experience is not treated as equivalent.
- Deep understanding of the Direct Debit and Bacs commercial model, the regulatory framework, and the practical levers available to improve margin, pricing, and collection efficiency
- Experience monetising recurring payment volumes: pricing strategy, volume economics, and the relationship between collection performance and cost-to-serve
- Understanding of how Direct Debit and Bacs constraints shape product, operational, and commercial decisions at a business level
- Additional experience in card payments and/or open banking is preferable and will be weighted positively: the payments landscape is moving and so are we
Commercial and Product Acuity
- Proven ability to drive aggressive commercial growth through product investment: not instead of it, not despite it, but because of it
- Strong understanding of pricing strategy, customer segmentation, and unit economics: sufficient to set the standard and hold the commercial leadership to account
- A product-driven commercial mindset: can articulate clearly how better product capability translates into faster revenue growth and stronger margin, and has done it
- Genuinely engaged with AI and its practical application in a payments and SaaS business: not theoretically interested, but actively thinking about where it creates competitive advantage
- Understands that growth without commercial discipline is a structural problem: revenue quality matters as much as revenue volume
Leadership Style
- Credible and decisive: earns authority through quality of judgement, not by crowding functional leads
- Low ego, high ownership. Accountable for outcomes, including when decisions are uncomfortable
- Close to the numbers, close to customers, and comfortable building and presenting materials personally
- Knows the difference between a genuine operational constraint and a convenient explanation
- Brings energy and sets a standard that others rise to, without needing to be the loudest voice in the room
Business Unit:
London & Zurich
Scheduled Weekly Hours:
37.5
Number of Openings Available:
1
Worker Type:
Regular
Career Site:
More About Jonas Software:
Jonas Software is a leading provider of enterprise management software solutions, serving a wide range of vertical markets including hospitality, healthcare, construction, education, personal care, fitness, leisure, moving and legal services, to name a few. Within these markets, Jonas is comprised of over 65 distinct brands, each a respected leader in its domain.
Jonas’ vision is to be the branded global leader across these verticals and to be recognized by customers and industry stakeholders as the trusted provider of “Software for Life.” We are committed to technology, product innovation, quality, and exceptional customer service.
Jonas Software supports over 60,000 customers in more than 30 countries. We employ over 6,000 skilled professionals, including industry experts and technology specialists. Across our broader network, we support a global workforce of more than 30,000 employees.
Headquartered in Canada, Jonas Software has a global footprint with offices around the world. We’re a 100% owned subsidiary of Constellation Software Inc., based in Toronto, publicly listed on the TSX (CSU.TO), and a member of the S&P/TSX 60 Index.
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