Senior Project Manager

The Senior Project Manager - Payments will have deep domain expertise in payments to join our growing Payments team. In this role, you will own the end-to-end delivery of complex, cross-functional payments initiatives. You will serve as the connective tissue between product, technology, operations, risk, legal, and external partners, ensuring programs are delivered on time, within scope, and with measurable business impact.

• Lead end-to-end delivery of strategic payments programs, including product launches, platform migrations, Fin Tech 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, Fed Now, 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.

• Bachelor's Degree
• 7+ years of experience in project or program management, with at least 5+ years in a payments, fintech, or financial services environment.
• 5+ years of experience with project management tools such as Jira,  or something similar

• Experience utilizing a variety portfolio project management tool and creating and tracking project schedules in MS Excel or MS Project
• 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…