Director, Payment Operations

The Director, Payment Operations is a strategic, hands-on execution role, ideal for a leader who thrives in building structure, driving improvement initiatives, and harnessing technology (including AI) to elevate customer, partner, and internal experiences. Success in this role will be determined by the velocity, quality and scale of the payment operation teams’ implementation and support of new projects, feature releases, product launches and cross-functional objectives.  You’ll work cross-functionally with Finance, Risk, Engineering, Customer Experience, and Partner Success to design, implement, and refine operational processes that ensure reliability, scalability, and exceptional service delivery. Additionally, you will work with the Payment Operations team to prepare for any upcoming changes, solicit feedback, and ensure the necessary tools are provided to successfully support them.

Key Responsibilities & Objectives

• Act as a strategic and operational partner to the VP of Payment Operations in shaping the vision, roadmap, and priorities for the payments operations organization.
• Lead and execute critical projects to improve operational performance, automate workflows, and enhance scalability.
• Architect and execute against a best-in-class customer experience
• Scope new or changing processes, create project plans and work with the team to oversee execution
• Closely monitor and report on project updates, sharing key timelines and actively monitoring deliverables 
• Work with team to continually improve merchant and partner hand-offs from Sales, Commercial, and Underwriting to reduce controllable attrition
• Recognize trends and seek feedback from internal and end users on:
  • gaps post new launch of initiatives
  • desired product and feature updates
  • interactions with internal teams
• Consistently bring creative ideas to leadership on how to improve the end user experience either through cost-saving measures or experience enhancements
• Maintain control of complex issues, gathering information for escalation and strategies for resolution
• Audit documentation to ensure resources and processes for the team are available and current
• Execute on vision and future direction for the payment ops team through long-term strategic planning, while executing on near-term objectives and milestones
• Assist with budgeting and managing operations in accordance with established fiscal parameters

• 5-7 years of payments/Fintech experience in an operations role
• Strong project management, organizational, and communication skills with the ability to influence across teams and levels
• Excellent problem solving, analytical and decision-making skills
• Understanding of planning frameworks and methods
• Shows flexibility and always goes the extra mile to meet the needs of the business, Partner and client
• Commitment and self-motivation to work within deadlines with minimum supervision
• Deeply analytical by nature, questioning that which cannot be proven
• Knowledge of relevant payments processes, products and regulations
• Solution­-oriented, with the ability to think strategically and creatively while making decisions
• Comfortable in a fast-paced, evolving environment with competing priorities.