Senior Card Payment Operations Specialist

Spectrum IT Recruitment; Greater London; On-site; GBP 50,000 - 70,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading recruitment agency is seeking an experienced Senior Payment Operations Specialist to ensure operational continuity across Visa and Mastercard payment schemes. In this role, you will oversee compliance, manage daily payment operations, and coordinate changes effectively. The ideal candidate will have strong analytical skills and experience with card schemes, along with a high attention to detail to thrive in a complex operational environment. This role requires superb communication skills and a collaborative spirit.

Qualifications

• Proven experience delivering card scheme implementations and mandatory changes.
• Strong understanding of card and payment scheme rules and governance.
• Experience in managing compliance checks and operational issue resolution.

Responsibilities

• Monitor and implement scheme bulletins and regulatory updates.
• Manage ICA/BIN registrations and programme configurations.
• Provide operational coverage across payment rails, monitoring processing.

Skills

Card scheme implementations and mandatory change

Understanding of card and payment scheme rules

Managing compliance checks

Governance and delivery discipline

Analytical and problem-solving skills

Attention to detail

Confident communication

Job description

We are seeking an experienced Senior Payment Operations Specialist (Cards) to support operational continuity across card and payment schemes, with a primary focus on Visa and Mastercard activity. This role combines scheme compliance oversight, BAU payment operations, and card-scheme change delivery, ensuring controls are robust and updates are implemented safely and effectively.

Skills & Experience

• Proven experience delivering card scheme implementations and mandatory change (e.g., scheme updates, BIN configuration, validations/certifications).
• Strong understanding of card and payment scheme rules, controls, and BAU readiness planning.
• Experience managing compliance checks, investigations, and operational issue resolution with external partners.
• Solid governance and delivery discipline (planning, RAID/action tracking, stakeholder coordination).
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to interpret data and drive practical improvements.
• High attention to detail in complex, high-volume operational environments.
• Confident communicator, comfortable presenting to stakeholders and senior audiences.

Key Responsibilities

Card Scheme Operations

• Monitor and implement scheme bulletins and regulatory updates.
• Manage ICA/BIN registrations, programme configuration, certifications, and validations.
• Perform compliance checks and liaise with networks and processors to resolve issues.

Payment Scheme BAU

• Provide operational coverage across payment rails, monitoring processing, and triaging issues.
• Ensure timely processing of payments and elevate exceptions where required.
• Support reconciliations and resolve discrepancies with Finance and operational partners.
• Act as SME for scheme-driven change, translating requirements into clear actions and controls.
• Coordinate readiness and BAU handover for scheme updates and implementations.
• Produce reporting, identify trends, reduce manual friction, and strengthen operational resilience.
• Support and mentor junior team members to promote consistent ways of working.