Head of Retention

About the job

 Flatpay is one of Europe’s fastest-growing fintech companies and we’ve recently launched in the UK.

Role Details

Role: Head of Retention
Location: 5 days a week – London, White City
Reports to: Operations Director

About the Role

Flatpay is a fast-growing payment service provider for small and medium-sized businesses. As the company scales, protecting revenue is not a support function — it is a commercial one. Retention at Flatpay is a sales discipline: the team handles the most commercially sensitive conversations in the business, negotiates against competitors, and decides which customers are worth saving and how.

We are hiring a Head of Retention to build, lead and develop our Retention team in the UK. This person will own the save rate, the ARR protected, and the quality of every commercial decision their team makes.

This is a commercial leadership role. Not Customer Support. Not Account Management.

Your Mission

Own the revenue protection number for the UK. You are responsible for how much ARR the team saves, which customers they go after, and whether the decisions they make create long-term value or just short-term saves.

• Drive a measurable improvement in save rate across the at-risk portfolio
• Coach agents to run commercial conversations — handle objections, counter competitor offers, and close retention deals
• Build a team that prioritises by commercial value, not by volume
• Make the hard calls: which customers to fight for, which to let go, and when to use pricing to win

Success in this role is measured in ARR saved and active customer rate, not in calls made.

KPIs You Will Own

You will be held accountable to clear commercial targets:

• Save rate — % of worked at-risk cases resulting in a retained merchant — improving quarter-on-quarter
• ARR protected — Monthly ARR saved by the team as a primary commercial output
• Active customer rate — Portfolio-level % of active merchants; target set by market stage
• Infancy churn rate — Cancellations within the first 180 days of activation — a leading indicator of onboarding quality
• Time to first contact — Speed of outreach to at-risk signals; fast contact improves save probability materially
• Cancellation reason capture — ≥95% of cancellations have a structured reason recorded
• Rep performance spread — Narrowing variance in save rates across the team through structured coaching

Responsibilities

Lead the team commercially

• Build, hire and develop a Retention team that operates with sales discipline
• Set daily priorities based on commercial value: high TPV at-risk customers first
• Run a weekly pipeline review of all at-risk cases and hold the team to clear outcomes

Coach agents to sell

• Train agents to handle objections, counter competitive offers, and close retention conversations
• Equip the team with rate calculators, competitor matrices, and objection-handling scripts
• Shadow calls, give structured feedback, and narrow the performance gap between top and average agents

Own decision-making quality

• Decide which cases are worth working and deprioritise the rest
• Authorise defensive commercial actions — rate adjustments, counter-offers — with clear criteria
• Ensure saves are commercially sound: not every retained customer should be retained at any price

Drive process and data quality

• Enforce mandatory cancellation reason capture so diagnostic data is reliable
• Continuously improve tooling, workflows, and escalation paths
• Work closely with Sales, Ops, and Finance to close the loop on root causes

Skills & Attributes

• Commercial track record — retention, B2B sales, customer success, or a role where you owned revenue numbers
• Experience leading people in a sales or commercial environment
• Strong instinct for prioritisation: knows which customer conversations are worth having
• Confident running and coaching difficult commercial conversations — objections, competitor pressure, pricing negotiation
• Data-driven: reads pipeline metrics, diagnoses performance issues, adjusts the team’s focus accordingly
• Structured and outcome-oriented — builds repeatable processes, not just one-off wins
• Comfortable saying no internally and pushing back on decisions that undermine commercial discipline

Our Values

At Flatpay, how we work matters as much as what we achieve.

Happy Humans — We bring energy to our work and create teams people enjoy being part of.

No Assholes — We perform at a high level while treating colleagues and customers with respect.

It’s Our Business, Own It — Everyone takes responsibility and manages their work like it’s their own business.

Start With No — We challenge ideas, think commercially and focus on what truly creates value.

Sky-High Ambitions — We set bold goals and expect people to keep raising the bar.

The Best Argument Wins — Titles don’t decide outcomes. We debate openly to reach the best decisions.

Background & Requirements

• Demonstrable experience owning a revenue or retention number in a commercial role
• Track record of leading and coaching a sales or commercial team
• Native or near-native English required
• Right to work in the UK (visa sponsorship is not available for this role)
• Payments industry experience is not required