Associate Director, Payments

Aztec Group; Saint Helier; Hybrid; GBP 75,000 - 110,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Discretionary bonus

Hybrid working

Work abroad up to 3 weeks per year

Generous holiday allowance

Pension scheme

Private medical insurance

Life assurance

Worldwide travel insurance

Health and wellbeing programmes

On-site parking

Job summary

Aztec Group is seeking a seasoned Payments Lead to head the Payments function within the Banking Domain, ensuring a robust, scalable service across jurisdictions. You will drive governance, resilience and performance, while collaborating with Risk, Compliance, Technology and Operations to deliver excellent client service.

You will oversee end-to-end payments operations, optimise systems, and build reporting to monitor service levels.

Qualifications

• Significant banking experience, ideally gained in a multi-jurisdictional financial services, fund administration, corporate services or banking environment.

Responsibilities

• Lead and manage the end-to-end payments process, including operating model, controls, configuration, performance management and continuous improvement
• Develop the future payments offering, ensuring it supports the Group’s growth and client service ambitions
• Provide leadership across international payment rails, cross-border processing and banking infrastructure
• Support the selection, implementation and optimisation of SaaS treasury management systems and payment technologies
• Manage relationships with key banking and technology providers and negotiate outcomes
• Collaborate with Risk, Compliance, Technology, Operations and client-facing teams to maintain governance and controls
• Implement contingency and resilience plans to minimise disruption
• Build and maintain reporting and dashboards to monitor performance and risks
• Ensure department OKRs and service standards are met

Skills

Banking experience

International payments

Leadership

Stakeholder mgmt

Risk governance

Vendor management

Problem solving

Attention to detail

Cross-border processing

Service delivery

Tools

Treasury SaaS

Payment hub

Payment workflow tools

Job description

At Aztec, we’re committed to building and nurturing a diverse and inclusive workforce where everyone feels valued, respected, and able to grow. We know that different backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences strengthen our business and we welcome applications from all individuals. So, if your experience doesn’t exactly match with every part of the job description, but you are excited about the role, we would still like to hear from you. If you are passionate, curious, innovative and data driven, you could still be a good fit.

About The Role

The purpose of this role is to lead the Payments function within the Banking Domain, ensuring it is robust, scalable and aligned to the Group’s strategic growth ambitions. The role is responsible for delivering an outstanding payments service to clients and internal stakeholders, while strengthening operational resilience, governance, technology enablement and service performance across jurisdictions.

Key Role Responsibilities

• Lead and manage the end-to-end payments process, including the operating model, controls, configuration, performance management and continuous improvement
• Develop the future payments offering, ensuring it supports the Group’s strategic growth, jurisdictional requirements and client service ambitions
• Provide leadership and subject matter expertise across international payment rails, cross-border processing, payment hub solutions and related banking infrastructure
• Support the selection, implementation and ongoing optimisation of SaaS treasury management systems and payment technologies
• Manage relationships with key banking and technology providers, including negotiations to improve commercial, operational and service outcomes
• Work closely with Risk, Compliance, Technology, Operations and client-facing teams to maintain a strong governance and control framework
• Implement contingency and resilience plans to minimise disruption and support continuity of critical payment services
• Build and maintain reporting, dashboards and management information to monitor performance, identify risks and drive service improvement
• Ensure departmental OKRs, service standards and control obligations are consistently met

Skills, Knowledge, Expertise

• Significant banking experience, ideally gained in a multi-jurisdictional financial services, fund administration, corporate services or banking environment
• Extensive experience of international payment systems, cross-border processing, payment messaging standards and banking connectivity
• Practical experience of SaaS treasury management systems, payment hubs, payment workflow tools and related implementation or optimisation activity
• Strong understanding of the payments processing cycle, operational controls, reconciliation, exception management and client service requirements
• Sound knowledge of relevant laws, regulations, industry standards and common practices across payments and banking operations
• Strong ownership and accountability, with the judgement to make decisions and drive outcomes in a fast-moving environment
• Excellent relationship-building skills, with the ability to work effectively across the Banking Domain, Technology, Risk, Compliance, Operations and client-facing teams
• Experience leading high-quality operational service teams across multiple jurisdictions to support business growth and service excellence
• Understanding of the asset servicing environment and the jurisdictions in which Aztec operates
• A strong service delivery mindset, with the ability and desire to deliver exceptional client service at scale
• Solution-oriented critical thinking and strong problem-solving capability
• Excellent organisational skills, with the discipline to meet deadlines, prioritise effectively and allocate resources efficiently
• Excellent attention to detail and a strong control mindset
• Understanding of the Aztec Risk Framework, including AML, and a commitment to internal policies, procedures and jurisdictional regulatory requirements
• Strong people leadership and management skills, with the ability to recruit, motivate, develop and retain a high-performing Payments team

We will provide relevant in-house training and support for professional development. You will need to be quick to learn new systems and confident building strong working relationships with colleagues, clients and external partners, as collaboration is central to how we deliver high-quality service.

Benefits

• Discretionary bonus scheme
• Flexible, hybrid working
• Ability to work abroad for up to 3 weeks per annum
• Generous holiday allowance
• Pension scheme
• Private medical insurance, including eye care
• Life assurance (death in service and critical illness benefit)
• Worldwide travel insurance
• Health and wellbeing programmes
• On-site parking