Sr. Manager, Enterprise Payment Systems

About this role

Senior Manager, Enterprise Payment Systems
Information Technology · Enterprise Payments
Department
Information Technology / Enterprise Payments
Reports To
VP / Director, Information Technology
FLSA Status

Exempt
Job Level
Senior Manager
POSITION SUMMARY

The Senior Manager, Enterprise Payment Systems is accountable for the strategy, architecture, delivery, and day-to-day operations of the organization's enterprise payment processing ecosystem. This leader owns payment platforms, integrations, and supporting infrastructure across all commerce channels — in-store, digital, and contact center — and ensures they are secure, reliable, scalable, and compliant with applicable industry standards.
The role leads a cross-functional team of Business Analysts / Product Owners, Software Engineers, and Project Managers, and serves as the primary technology partner for payment processing across business, finance, and operations functions. The ideal candidate combines deep payment domain expertise with proven people leadership, vendor negotiation skills, and the ability to deliver complex programs in a dynamic retail environment.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Team Leadership & Organizational Development

• Build, lead, and develop a high-performing team spanning business analysis, product ownership, engineering, and project management disciplines.

• Define team structure, capacity plans, and role expectations; conduct regular performance reviews and create individual growth plans.

• Establish and mature a BA/PO function responsible for backlog ownership, requirements definition, and stakeholder alignment.

• Mentor engineers and delivery leads; champion sound engineering practices, quality standards, and a continuous improvement mindset.

• Foster a collaborative, accountable team culture with clear goals, transparent communication, and high engagement.

Payment Platform Strategy & Architecture

• Own the long-term technology roadmap for enterprise payment processing capabilities across all channels and consumer-facing platforms.

• Lead architecture decisions for the payments abstraction layer, ensuring clean separation of concerns, vendor portability, and extensibility.

• Oversee the integration lifecycle for payment processors, acquiring banks, gateway providers, and alternative payment methods.

• Ensure platform designs meet requirements for high availability, zone-redundant resiliency, horizontal scalability, and graceful degradation.

• Govern API design, versioning strategy, and observability standards (logging, alerting, tracing) across payment services.

Payment Processing & Processor Governance

• Lead enterprise payment processor selection, onboarding, and migration initiatives, managing all technical and commercial dimensions.

• Own vendor relationships with payment processors, acquiring banks, gateway providers, and terminal manufacturers.

• Review and negotiate MSAs, SOWs, and SLAs; partner with Legal, Procurement, and Finance on commercial terms and pricing structures.

• Govern interchange optimization, settlement reconciliation, and dispute / chargeback management processes in collaboration with Treasury and Finance.

Point-of-Sale & Terminal Hardware

• Define and execute the strategy for in-store payment terminal infrastructure across a large, multi-location retail footprint.

• Manage PCI PTS compliance lifecycle for terminal hardware; lead hardware refresh, certification, and large-scale deployment programs.

• Oversee EFT software deployments, POS payment integrations, and pin pad certification activities in partnership with delivery vendors.

PCI Compliance & Payment Security

• Ensure all payment systems, integrations, and data flows maintain PCI DSS compliance; own scope definition and reduction strategies.

• Drive adoption of tokenization, point-to-point encryption (P2PE), and network segmentation to minimize cardholder data exposure.

• Partner with the CISO, IT Compliance, and Internal Audit teams on audit readiness, SAQ/ROC processes, and remediation of findings.

• Identify and mitigate operational, technology, and fraud risks associated with payment processing across all channels.

Program & Project Delivery

• Sponsor and govern major payment programs — processor migrations, platform re-architectures, hardware rollouts, and new channel enablement.

• Partner with Project Managers to maintain delivery roadmaps, manage cross-functional dependencies, escalate risks, and communicate status to leadership.

• Ensure alignment across Technology, Business Applications, Finance, Operations, and external implementation partners throughout the delivery lifecycle.

Financial Management

• Develop and manage the departmental operating and capital budget; forecast spend accurately and report on variances.

• Build and evaluate business cases for payment technology investments, with clear articulation of ROI, risk, and strategic alignment.

• Identify and execute cost optimization opportunities across processing fees, infrastructure, and vendor contracts without compromising reliability or compliance.

Operational Excellence

• Define and monitor payment system SLAs, uptime targets, and operational KPIs; hold vendors and internal teams accountable to agreed thresholds.

• Establish incident management procedures, on-call protocols, and post-incident review practices for payment platform issues.

• Own business continuity and disaster recovery planning for all payment systems and critical integrations.

• Drive automation and process improvement initiatives to reduce manual effort, increase accuracy, and improve team throughput.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor's degree in Information Systems, Computer Science, Business Administration, Finance, or a related field.

• 10+ years of experience in enterprise payment systems, financial services technology, or fintech.

• 5+ years of people management experience leading cross-functional technical or operational teams.

• Deep knowledge of…