Head of Payment Operations

Shift; Sydney; Hybrid; AUD 220,000 - 300,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible working environment

Hybrid work policy

26 weeks parental leave

Collaborative culture

Job summary

Shift is seeking a Head of Payment Operations to design and scale our payments capability in Australia. You will lead a team, reduce regulatory and fraud risk, and drive expansion of Direct Entry and NPP with future rails in sight.

Your role establishes governance, KPI-driven performance, vendor management, and stakeholder education across Product, Risk, Customer Service and Leadership on payment operations trends and incidents.

Qualifications

• Experience establishing or embedding payment operations capabilities within regulated financial services.
• Expertise in Direct Entry and NPP payment rails, fraud monitoring, and disputes/chargebacks processes.
• Strong regulatory fluency and ability to translate requirements into operational controls.
• Experience managing vendors, SLAs, or MSPs in payments context.
• Proven people leadership, including building teams from a low base.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement bank-quality payment operations processes across Direct Entry and NPP, scalable for new channels.
• Enhance transaction monitoring with mature risk-based detection and escalation.
• Collaborate with Product/Technology to grow fraud monitoring and case management.
• Build disputes and chargeback capabilities, governance, and regulatory compliance.
• Lead a 24/7 payment operations team and oversee vendor relationships and SLAs.
• Establish governance framework and KPI-driven performance measures.
• Manage payment incidents and provide updates to leadership on risk trends.

Skills

People leadership

Payment operations

Regulatory compliance

Fraud monitoring

Vendor management

Data analysis

Stakeholder communication

Tools

Direct Entry rails

NPP rails

Job description

Who is Shift?

At Shift, we’re business specialists dedicated to helping Australian SMEs take control of their cashflow, streamline trade terms and choose the right financial products.

We believe Australian businesses are the driving force behind our economy and are core to our communities. That’s why our business expertise, focus on relationships, and market-leading technology is at the core of everything we do. We’ve helped solve the credit and payment pain points for more than 30,000 businesses, providing over $6 billion in aggregate funding.

Our unique approach to product innovation combined with our collaborative culture means you can build your career in a supportive environment. You’ll be joining a diverse team of over 300 people who are always looking to deliver better outcomes for Australian businesses.

About the role:

As Head of Payment Operations, you will be responsible for building and scaling Shift's payment operations function. You will play a key role in reducing regulatory, reputational, and fraud risk to the business and lead the team that manages payment operations on an ongoing basis. The initial focus will be on Direct Entry and NPP, but the role’s scope will expand alongside Shift’s growing payments product offering, including future rails and methods such as card issuing, BPAY, or PayTo, as well as the related vendor and infrastructure relationships.

What you'll do:

• Design and implement bank-quality payment operations processes across Direct Entry and NPP, with scalability for additional payment channels as Shift's offerings grow.

• Enhance transaction monitoring capability, moving from foundational rules to mature, risk-based detection, including rule design, alert triage and escalation.

• Collaborate with Product and Technology to grow Shift’s fraud monitoring function, covering detection, investigation, and case management.

• Build robust disputes and chargeback capabilities, managing scheme rules, regulatory obligations, customer dispute handling, and recovery processes.

• Recruit, build, and lead a skilled payment operations team, providing 24/7 coverage and service.

• Establish and maintain payment operations policies, procedures, and controls to meet regulatory expectations, embedding a governance framework within operations.

• Oversee SLAs for vendors, payment infrastructure, and processing partners in partnership with Product and Line 2 Risk, ensuring performance and risk obligations are met.

• Define and embed a performance framework using KPIs, data, and client insights to drive accountability and continuous improvement.

• Manage operational incidents for payment processing and fraud events, driving root cause analysis and response.

• Act as the business’ primary point of engagement for payment operations, educating stakeholders across Product, Risk, Customer Service, and executive leadership.

• Report on payment operations performance, risk posture, and incident trends to the Director of Operations and SLT as required.

What you'll bring:

• Demonstrated experience establishing or embedding payment operations capabilities, including people leadership, policy, and governance within regulated financial services.

• Expertise in Direct Entry and NPP payment rails, fraud monitoring, and disputes/chargebacks processes.

• Strong regulatory fluency and ability to translate requirements into operational controls.

• Experience managing vendors, service level agreements, or managed service providers in a payments or financial services context preferred.

• Proven people leadership skills, including experience building teams from a low base.

• Financial services industry experience.

• Skills in process mapping and optimisation, customer journey analysis, requirements definition, and data-led analysis.

• Experience in options analysis, business case development, stakeholder management, and executive communication.

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Key benefits:

• Collaborative teams – a flat structure means everyone can learn from colleagues and senior leaders around the business.

• Be involved – come together with all of your colleagues every 100 days to share the product and technology roadmap and business strategy.

• Flexible working environment – we’re headquartered in North Sydney with state-based workplaces and offer a flexible work policy.

• Family support – industry leading 26 weeks paid parental leave.

• Purpose built spaces within our office – designed for collaboration, brainstorming, socialising, and focused work.

• Range of benefits supporting your physical, psychological and financial wellbeing. From a day off on your birthday to excellent end of trip facilities.

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