[Remote] Head of Payment Partnerships & Operations

Note: The job is a remote job and is open to candidates in USA. Paymend is an ambitious, remote-first fintech focused on building with scalability and quality. They are looking for a Head of Payment Partnerships & Operations to own the partner ecosystem that powers payment processing and recovery, optimizing authorization rates and managing operational hygiene.

Responsibilities

• Build and own a diversified network of PSPs and acquirers (Tier 1 to high-risk specialists), with a focus on the US market. Ensure sufficient MID capacity to process forecast volume with zero single-partner dependencies
• Move the needle on authorization rates through partner-side levers. You will negotiate better tiering, BIN-level optimization, and access to partner features (Network Tokens, 3DS) to drive measurable lift separate from product-side logic
• Maintain total oversight of MID health. You will keep Paymend out of Visa/Mastercard remediation programs (VAMP, VDMP, etc.) and lead the 'Crisis Stewardship' when scheme penalties or capacity threats land
• Own the full negotiation lifecycle for fee splits, rolling reserves, ramp commitments, and liability allocation. You will continuously improve Paymend’s 'take rate' through aggressive renegotiation and smart deal structuring
• Ensure payment operations run cleanly. You will own the early-stage manual work required, reading settlement files, resolving reconciliation breaks, and ensuring incidents are cleared within service-level targets
• Partner closely with Risk and Finance to ensure every deal meets rigorous safety and soundness standards. In our world, Risk always overrides Commercial

Skills

• High-Risk Acquiring Depth: You have lived the high-risk landscape. You are personally fluent in reserve mechanics, MATCH list dynamics, dispute lifecycles, and fraud loss attribution
• Existing US Bank Network: You bring a warm Rolodex of contacts at US sponsor banks and acquirers that actually take complex, high-risk volume. You can name the specific individuals you would call to secure a new BIN sponsorship today
• Operational & Technical Fluency: You can read raw settlement files without help and understand authorization decline reason codes. You are comfortable holding a technical conversation with a partner's engineering team about routing and retries
• Scheme Literacy: You have managed Visa and Mastercard remediation programs and know how to preserve partner relationships while fixing underlying risk issues
• Commercial Negotiation: A proven track record of signing the kind of complex agreements Paymend lives or dies on, including exclusivity carve-outs and liability shifts
• People Leadership: Experience building or significantly improving a Payments Operations or Partnerships team. You are comfortable running a rigorous operating cadence of weekly metrics and incident reviews

Company Overview