Sr. Director, Payment Operations

Every day, ePayPolicy helps over 10,000 insurance companies speed up incoming and outgoing payments. By helping them move from manual, outdated forms of payment collection to modern payment tools, we help their companies work faster and more efficiently. (Check out our almost 5-star customer reviews.)

How do we do it? With powerful payment tools that just work. Our secure, online ACH and credit card payment page is the core product for many of our companies. But we also provide an integrated suite of helpful features for insurance companies of all sizes, including point-of-sale financing, payables network tools, and check reconciliation, all within a single dashboard.

Our expert, live support team helps deliver exceptional care every day, with an industry-leading 97% customer retention rate. Our customers love us. We love them.

Founded in 2014, our growing team is based in Austin, TX, and has clients in all 50 US states. We’ve grown over 300% in the last three years - with big plans for the future.

Job Description

The Senior Director, Payment Operations is responsible for leading, managing, and scaling the team that ensures the smooth, accurate, and efficient execution of all payment processing activities, underwriting and risk management. This leadership role involves overseeing daily operations (transaction monitoring, exception handling, reconciliation, dispute management, underwriting, risk management), driving strategic improvements, managing key external payment partnerships, mitigating operational risks, and fostering a high-performance team culture. You will be instrumental in optimizing our payment, underwriting and risk management flows, ensuring financial integrity, and supporting the company's growth objectives through operational excellence in payments.

Key Responsibilities:

1. Team Leadership & Development:

   • Lead, mentor, and manage a team of Payment Operations and Risk Specialists / Analysts

   • Collaborate with product managers and software engineers to build new payment operations, underwriting and risk management capabilities

   • Set clear team goals, manage performance, provide regular feedback, and support career development

   • Hire and onboard new team members as needed

   • Foster a collaborative, efficient, and results-oriented team environment

2. Operational Oversight & Performance:

   • Oversee the day-to-day payment operations, underwriting and risk management functions, including transaction monitoring, payment failure resolution, reconciliation processes to identify and resolve discrepancies, new customer underwriting and chargeback and transaction risk management, coordination and support of the annual ACH audit, and contributing to fraud prevention efforts

   • Establish, monitor, and report on key performance indicators (KPIs) for payment operations, underwriting and risk management (e.g., payment success rates, chargeback rates, reconciliation accuracy, operational costs, loss rates, underwriting onboarding time)

   • Ensure adherence to operational procedures, SLAs, and regulatory requirements

3. Strategy, Process Improvement & Scalability:

   • Improve and automate processes for daily cash reconciliations, customer underwriting and transaction risk management across multiple payment processors; develop and maintain comprehensive desktop procedures, process flows, and operational documentation

   • Support new product initiatives by providing payment requirements for new product functionality, including new payment modalities and outbound insurance claim disbursements

   • Develop and implement strategies to optimize payment approval rates, minimize payment failures, reduce chargebacks, and lower processing costs

   • Identify bottlenecks and inefficiencies; design and implement scalable processes and automation solutions

   • Lead projects related to new payment method integrations, partner migrations, or system enhancements from an operational perspective

4. Payment Partner Management:

   • Manage relationships with key external payment partners, including payment gateways, processors, acquiring banks, and alternative payment method providers, as well as handling and responding to partner bank inquiries and requests

   • Monitor partner performance, hold regular operational reviews, and address service issues

   • Participate in negotiating operational terms and SLAs with payment partners.

5. Risk Management & Compliance:

   • Collaborate closely with Compliance and Finance teams to ensure payment operations align with internal policies and external regulations (e.g., PCI DSS, PSD2, NACHA rules, KYC/AML)

   • Oversee the operational aspects of dispute resolution and chargeback management, ensuring compliance with card network rules

   • Mitigate and resolve financial losses

   • Identify and help mitigate operational risks within the payment lifecycle

   • Assist in the development and implementation of internal controls within payment operations to ensure accuracy, security, and compliance with regulatory requirements and company policies

6. Cross-Functional Collaboration & Reporting:

   • Serve as the primary point of contact and subject matter expert for Payment Operations across the organization

   • Collaborate effectively with Engineering, Product, Finance, Customer Support, and Legal teams on payment-related matters

   • Provide regular reporting and insights on payment operational, underwriting and risk management performance and trends to senior leadership

7. Incident Management:

   • Oversee the operational response to payment system incidents, ensuring timely communication, investigation, and resolution

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Finance, Economics, Management, or a related field, OR equivalent significant practical experience

• [5-7]+ years of experience in payment operations, underwriting, risk management, treasury operations, or a closely related field within FinTech, e-commerce, banking, or payment processing[2-3]+ years of direct people management experience, leading and developing an operations team

• Deep understanding of the end-to-end payments ecosystem, including various payment methods (Cards, ACH, Wallets, Checks, etc.), payment gateways, PayFac models, acquirers, and processors

• Strong knowledge of NACHA Operating Rules, card network rules, and Guidelines and payments regulations.

• Proven track record of successfully managing and scaling payment operations in a complex, high-volume environment

• Demonstrated experience in process improvement, optimization, and project management related to operations

• Strong analytical skills with the ability to interpret data, identify trends, and make data-driven decisions

• Excellent leadership, communication, interpersonal, and presentation skills

• Ability to operate strategically while also maintaining attention to detail

• Experience managing relationships with external vendors or partners

• Must be willing to pursue and obtain AAP (Accredited ACH Professional) or APRP (Accredited Payments Risk Professional) certification at the earliest opportunity if not already certified

Preferred Qualifications:

• Hands-on experience with specific payment gateway platforms (e.g., Adyen, Stripe, Braintree/PayPal, Cybersource, Authorize.Net) or processors

• Experience with chargeback management, underwriting and risk platforms and processes

• Proficiency with SQL and business intelligence/data visualization tools (e.g., Tableau, PowerBI, Looker)

• Experience working directly for a Payment Facilitator (PayFac), Payment Gateway, or large Processor

• Advanced degree (MBA) or relevant professional certifications (e.g., Accredited ACH Professional, Accredited Payments Risk Professional, CTP - Certified Treasury Professional)

• Experience navigating complex regulatory landscapes (e.g., PCI DSS, PSD2, NACHA rules)

• Experience developing and maintaining detailed operational procedures, process flow diagrams, and training materials

• Experience in a high-volume transaction environment

Why ePayPolicy

• Competitive salary

• Comprehensive benefits package with employer-paid basic life and disability premiums

• 401K

• Unlimited PTO

• Company-sponsored quarterly “ePayItForward” initiatives 

• Supportive and inclusive company culture with a focus on work/life balance

• Fully-stocked kitchen

• Lunch stipend when working onsite

• Open communication (We won’t box you in! If you have a cool idea for a product improvement or a suggestion on how to improve the customer experience, let’s talk about it. We value everyone’s ideas and opinions.)

• Huge opportunity for growth

We operate on a hybrid schedule for in-office employees. Standard schedules are three days per week in the office, however, the cadence and days are determined by each team and manager. 

We value diversity here at ePayPolicy and understand the importance of creating a safe and comfortable work environment, encouraging individualism and authenticity in every member of our team. We strive to create an accessible and inclusive experience for all candidates. If you need an accommodation during the application or recruiting process, please submit a request to our team via this Interview Accommodation form: https://forms.gle/xKppyKTSqfTUi7hz5