Head of Payment Operations

At Cardless, we’re building a credit card and loyalty platform that consumer businesses use to engage their customers. We’ve launched 14 credit cards, including for Alibaba and Qatar Airways. We help businesses bring imaginative card programs to life, and have pioneered technology to embed credit card features natively into their products.

We value curiosity, humility, and intensity — we move fast and take ownership. This is a place where a motivated, resourceful individual can have an enormous impact on our trajectory. We're headquartered in San Francisco, and have raised about $90M in equity funding from top venture capital firms and angels.

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We’re looking for an experienced and driven Head of Payment Operations, based in San Francisco, to work alongside us everyday to lead and scale our payment operations team. 

You’ll be responsible for both new and ongoing projects with all of our payment partners, reporting directly to our COO. You'll manage complex projects across card networks, processors, and banks to successfully manage and launch our co-brand programs.

There a few key "jobs to be done" for this role:

(1) Working closely with payment partners

Our payment ecosystem relies on strong partnerships with card networks (American Express, Visa & Mastercard), processors, credit bureaus, card manufacturers, and issuing banks - you'll be the key leader managing these relationships to keep Cardless running smoothly and growing quickly. This includes owning day-to-day operations, monthly reporting requirements, and technical integrations, while also driving strategic initiatives like new product launches and pricing negotiations. You'll manage complex timelines and dependencies across multiple payment partners during co-brand launches, from physical card production to processor integration, ensuring we can rapidly resolve issues while maintaining strong documentation of our evolving payment infrastructure.

(2) Managing all internal payment operations processes

The foundation of our business is a well-oiled payment operations machine - with tasks including network settlement reconciliation, exception reporting, credit bureau reporting, and collections management. You'll oversee these critical processes while building KPIs and dashboards that track processing success rates, settlement timing, and operational efficiency, plus create detailed playbooks documenting process steps and system dependencies. Your team will maintain robust payment processing and reconciliation procedures, lead root cause analysis on operational incidents and remediations, and partner with engineering to implement preventive measures and automation solutions that help us maintain accuracy while scaling.

(3) Supporting internal teams, including product and engineering, on new payment-related features and day-to-day processes

Most new features we build require deep integration with our payment partners, making your role crucial in bridging the gap between our product vision and technical implementation. As our primary subject matter expert on payment partner capabilities, you'll guide product and engineering teams from initial concept through launch, providing detailed insights into partner constraints and opportunities while managing technical requirements and integration timelines. This includes leading technical discussions with partners and ensuring our implementations align with industry standards while pushing the boundaries of what's possible. You'll also partner closely with other key teams across Cardless, like Finance, Compliance, and Risk to keep our payment operations running smoothly.

Requirements

• Payment Operations Experience: 6+ years of experience in the financial services sector with deep expertise in payment ecosystems - including direct experience managing relationships with issuing banks, processors, card networks, and card manufacturers.
• Banking & Payment Systems Expertise: Deep understanding of how money moves through the financial ecosystem - including authorization flows, settlement processes, and reconciliation across card networks, processors, and issuing banks. Must understand key payment concepts like interchange, network incentives, chargebacks, and credit balance refunds, plus how they impact different parts of our business.
• Regulatory Experience: Strong understanding of banking and lending regulations including Regulation Z, UDAAP, ECOA, FCRA, and BSA/AML requirements. Experience implementing and maintaining operational processes that ensure compliance with federal banking regulations and card network rules.
• Credit Bureau Management: Extensive experience managing credit bureau reporting requirements, including Metro 2 file specifications, dispute resolution processes, and regulatory compliance for consumer credit reporting. Must understand credit bureau data flows and have experience implementing reporting improvements at scale.
• Operational Risk Management: Experience identifying and mitigating operational risks in payment processing, including implementing controls, monitoring systems, and reporting frameworks. Must understand how to balance risk management with business objectives while maintaining strong operational controls.
• Leadership & Communication: Proven track record managing cross-functional projects and external partner relationships, with exceptional ability to communicate technical requirements and drive resolution of complex operational issues.
• Strategic Execution & Excellence: Demonstrated success leading major payment initiatives while maintaining operational excellence - from implementing scalable automation solutions to managing critical incidents. Must thrive in a fast-paced environment and show strong attention to detail when handling complex payment workflows and partner relationships.

Benefits

We're headquartered in San Francisco, CA, with a beautiful office in the Mission District. We're proud to offer our team excellent benefits:

💸 Meaningful Start-up equity

🏥 100% health, vision & dental primary coverage

➕ 75% health, vision & dental dependent coverage

🍱 Catered lunches

🚎 $250/month Commuter benefit

👶 Parental leave

✈️ Team building events & happy hours

🌴 Flexible PTO with a minimum of 15 days off per year

🖥️ Apple equipment

💸 401k plan

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Cardless employees are required to be fully vaccinated and boosted against COVID-19, and to provide proof of vaccination prior to their first day. Cardless is an equal opportunity employer, and we value a diverse and inclusive workplace. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, national origin, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, protected veteran status, disability, age, or any other applicable legally protected characteristics.