Senior Project Manager – Payments

Role Overview

• Lead end-to-end delivery of strategic payments programs, including product launches, platform migrations, FinTech integrations, and regulatory compliance initiatives.
• Develop and maintain comprehensive project plans, RAID logs (Risks, Assumptions, Issues, Dependencies), and status dashboards for executive and working-group audiences.
• Drive project execution through structured agile/hybrid delivery frameworks, adapting methodology to fit the complexity and compliance requirements of payments projects.
• Manage project budgets, resource planning, and vendor contracts in collaboration with Finance and Procurement.
• Proactively identify schedule risks and develop mitigation strategies; escalate blockers with clear recommended paths to resolution.
• Apply deep knowledge of the payments ecosystem to shape project scope, anticipate integration challenges, and guide technical teams through payments-specific complexity.
• Serve as the internal subject matter authority on payment rails and schemes including Visa, Mastercard, American Express, NACHA/ACH, RTP, FedNow, SWIFT, and emerging real-time networks.
• Partner with Product and Technology to define acceptance criteria for payment flows, ensuring compliance with network rules, regulatory requirements (PCI-DSS, Reg E, PSD2, NACHA Operating Rules), and security standards.
• Champion best practices in payments security, fraud mitigation, tokenization, and authentication (3DS, biometrics) throughout the project lifecycle.
• Build trusted relationships with senior stakeholders across Product, Technology, Risk, Compliance, Finance, and external partners.
• Facilitate and lead cross-functional steering committees, working groups, and executive readouts — distilling complex technical and regulatory issues into clear decisions and actions.
• Produce high-quality written communications including project charters, executive briefings, business cases, and post-implementation reviews.
• Act as the primary point of contact for third-party payment partners and vendors during integration and certification phases.
• Define and continuously improve PMO standards, playbooks, and governance frameworks specific to payments programs.
• Conduct post-mortem reviews and embed lessons learned into future project planning and team capability building.
• Support the development of junior project managers through mentorship, coaching, and structured knowledge sharing.
• Contribute to strategic planning cycles by helping translate business objectives into executable roadmaps and investment cases.

Requirements

• Bachelor's Degree
• 7+ years of experience in project or program management experience, with at least 5 years in a payments, fintech, or financial services environment.
• 5+ years of experience with project management tools such as Jira, Monday.com or something similar
• Strong understanding of project lifecycle methodologies (e.g., Waterfall, Iterative, Agile/Scrum) and project management processes and standards
• Strong aptitude in both business and technology
• Excellent verbal and written communications skills; ability to explain project risks and issues, and IT related concepts clearly and concisely to multiple layers of peers and leadership
• High motivated with strong organizational, analytical, decision making, and problem solving skills
• Ability to work in a fast-paced environment and to handle multiple priorities and effectively prioritize them
• Ability to provide strong program and project leadership during periods of uncertainty, ambiguity, and change
• Willingness and drive to learn and understand detailed software solutions
• High level of professionalism and confidence with the ability to build credibility with leadership, team members, and business partners and establish effective working relationships
• Ability to initiate and facilitate change, whether indicated by corporate needs, market or regulatory requirements
• Experience leading large, cross-functional information technology programs and projects

Tech Stack

• Ruby on Rails
• Swift

Benefits

• health insurance coverage
• wellness program
• life and disability insurance
• retirement savings plan
• paid leave programs
• paid holidays
• paid time off (PTO)