Kamran Saeed
Market Expansion, Director.
Merchant Services, UK & CEMEA
05/2016 - 07/2019
Team - 2: 1 PM and 1 Project Manager
Business Model - Transactional and financial services
Competencies - BA, PM, GTM, Compliance, Financial Analysis, Localisation
Location - London, UK
I was promoted to Director of Market Expansion as part of PayPal's organisational restructuring in Europe and the broader region. In this role, I was responsible for ensuring that regional product requirements for core products and special projects on the merchant side of the network were captured and prioritised on the international development roadmap, managed out of HQ in San Jose. My responsibilities included:
1. Promoting and driving a greater share of checkout via the payment mark for SME, SMB, Mid-Market, and Enterprise customers. This focused on two key product lines: PayPal's Hosted Checkout solution and the Braintree SDK.
2. Continuing efforts to ensure product lines were compliant with PSD regulations across Europe, including applying for an EMI (stored value) license in Turkey, a key market for PayPal.
3. Regularly reporting to the European CEO’s office on product progress, recommending future initiatives, and seeking approval for new business cases.
4. Leading the product consolidation project to integrate PayPal’s Hosted Checkout feature set into the Braintree SDK for Enterprise customers, following PayPal’s acquisition of Braintree.
OUTCOME I oversaw the localisation of the Enterprise checkout solution in five of PayPal’s core markets across CEMEA, including Spain, France, Turkey, Israel, and Germany, which collectively processed over $1 billion in payment volume. This involved expanding multi-currency acceptance and settlement in four new currencies, in collaboration with Treasury, Compliance, and other teams. Additionally, I played a key role in redeveloping the Marketplace solution to support other popular marketplaces in Europe beyond eBay, following the PayPal-eBay split in 2015. This included creating a new marketplace onboarding process, payment hierarchy, and settlement solution.
Senior Solutions Manager.
Stored Digital Wallet and Merchant Services, UK & CEMEA
09/2014 - 05/2016
Role - Individual Contributor
Business Model - Transactional and financial services
Competencies - PM, GTM, Compliance, UX Research, Localisation
Location - London, UK
I joined PayPal in 2014 with the responsibility of localising products and coordinating regional requirements for the European roadmap across 120 EMEA markets. During this time, I focused on solutions for both sides of the network, primarily enhancing the consumer experience at checkout and increasing the market share of PayPal’s payment mark.
One of my key projects involved launching PayPal 'OneTouch' across Europe, one of the industry's first frictionless checkout experiences for web and mobile apps. This feature utilised biometric authentication to eliminate the need for a username, password, or PIN. I conducted UX research studies in France, Germany, and the UK to tailor the checkout flow to each market, ensuring maximum adoption at launch. Additionally, I worked closely with the Compliance team to align product specifications with the European Central Bank's (ECB) Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) requirements under the Payment Services Directive (PSD2).
OUTCOME PayPal 'OneTouch' was successfully rolled out across 30 markets in CEMEA within a 6-month timeframe.