Payment Lifecycle Manager - Vice President

Make your mark leading payments operations and market expansion—driving strategy, controls, and automation to deliver safer, better client outcomes.

As a Lead in payments operations, you lead strategic market expansion and payments operations initiatives, ensuring regulatory alignment and operational readiness. You oversee end-to-end payments lifecycle operations, risk and control execution, and governance practices while managing escalations and stakeholder expectations. You deliver measurable improvements through data-driven insights, automation, and inclusive people leadership that develops talent and elevates service quality.

Job Responsibilities:

• Lead strategic market-entry/expansion programs, ensuring regulatory alignment and operational readiness.

• Partner with cross-functional teams to deliver expansion initiatives in line with long-term strategy and local/global regulations.

• Provide concise program updates to senior leadership, with clear insights, risks, and recommendations.

• Build and maintain senior stakeholder partnerships to enable market expansion and strategic collaboration.

• Track effectiveness of expansion strategies, course-correcting plans to deliver targeted outcomes.

• Own end-to-end payments operations across the lifecycle—daily performance, objectives, escalations, and service quality.

• Embed strong risk, control, and compliance standards in execution; actively identify and escalate emerging issues.

• Leverage deep payments/product knowledge to translate client needs into operational improvements, using AI/automation for efficiency and compliance.

• Drive initiatives to enhance processing and client experience, including process optimization, cybersecurity, and anti-fraud controls.

• Execute operational strategy and communicate business updates to key internal stakeholders and external clients, adhering to policies and guidelines.

• Strengthen the operating model and talent: governance/PMO methodology, SOP/control documentation, and an inclusive culture through coaching and development.

Required qualifications, skills, and capabilities:

• 7+ years of experience in payments operations leadership or management, with a track record leading high-performing teams to achieve business priorities and objectives.

• Advanced knowledge of global payment processing operations, market products, systems architecture, and industry regulations to support operational efficiency, change management, and transformation.

• Demonstrated ability to plan and execute strategy, including implementing automation technologies to optimize payments processing across global and cross-functional teams.

• Strong data analysis skills, with the ability to interpret and communicate insights to inform senior stakeholder decision-making in fast-paced environments.

• Strong stakeholder management and collaboration skills across cross-functional teams, with experience managing projects, solving problems, and driving continuous improvement.

• Understanding of cybersecurity controls and anti-fraud strategies, with a track record enhancing customer experience while protecting information and systems.

• Demonstrated commitment to Diversity, Inclusion & Opportunity through inclusive leadership and talent development practices.

Preferred qualifications, skills, and capabilities:

• Knowledge of ISO and SWIFT message processing or management.

• Experience delivering project management within complex, cross-functional programs.

• Experience using automation and analytics tools such as Tableau, Alteryx, or machine learning.