Head of Payments

Solance; Leinster; On-site; EUR 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Solance is building a tech-enabled payments platform with a mandate to own the entire payments foundation. You will steer rails, access models, and partner strategies, shaping how money moves and how Solance interacts with banks and schemes.

You will operate at the intersection of business, engineering and governance, driving thoughtful, scalable solutions. You will sit in a role that requires deep payments expertise, regulatory familiarity, and a proven track record of influencing vendors and

Qualifications

• Ten years or more in payments, mostly on the banking and rails side.
• Production payment infrastructure ownership, not just advisory.
• Architectural literacy across rails, ledger, settlement, scheme access and core platforms.
• Track record of challenging vendors on roadmap, scope and price, and winning.
• Current, verifiable relationships across sponsor banks, scheme operators and infrastructure providers.
• Time inside a regulated bank, EMI or payment institution, comfortable operating under supervision.
• Genuine passion for payments and where they are heading.

Responsibilities

• Own Solance's payment rails and core platform strategy.
• Attend vendor meetings and influence outcomes; challenge when needed.
• Interface with sponsor banks, scheme operators and infrastructure providers.
• Be credible with both the board and engineering teams.
• Set the long-term direction of Solance's payments foundation.

Skills

Payments expertise

Infrastructure leadership

Vendor management

Architectural literacy

Regulatory experience

Board credibility

Cross-functional communication

Sponsor banks relations

Job description

Solance is building a tech-enabled payments company. We are here for businesses that operate across multiple entities, jurisdictions and currencies, and for sectors that traditional banks generally overlook. Think family offices, internationally operating companies, corporate service providers and the clients they serve. We are going through the final steps of the authorisation process with the Central Bank of Ireland, one of the most respected financial jurisdictions in Europe, and we are only getting started.

Payments and cards are not a feature of Solance. They are the foundation everything else stands on. Every client relationship, every product we layer on top, every promise we make to a family office or an entrepreneur, all of it runs on the rails, the ledger and the partnerships underneath. Today that foundation is assembled from a set of strong external providers, and it works. What we do not yet have is one person who owns the whole picture, independently, and who sets its direction from Solance's own logic rather than inheriting it from someone else's roadmap. That is the seat we are opening.

The role, in plain terms

You own Solance's payment rails and core platform strategy. Which rails we run on, which access model we use, which partners we build with, over what horizon and at what cost. You are the person who can sit in a vendor meeting and tell the difference between something that is genuinely hard and something that is merely inconvenient, and change the outcome because of it. You will not be building or operating the infrastructure with your own hands. You will be the one who understands it well enough to challenge everyone who does, and to make sure Solance is never quietly locked in.

Who we are looking for

You have ten years or more in payments, and most of that time has been on the banking and rails side, not in acquiring or merchant services. You have been accountable for real payment infrastructure in production, not just advised on it from the outside. You understand how the pieces actually fit together: ledger and account structures, settlement and reconciliation, scheme access and sponsorship, pre-funding and liquidity, ISO 20022, the real differences between core banking platforms. You do not need to configure any of it. You need to follow the design conversation and ask the one question that exposes a weak answer.

You have managed serious infrastructure suppliers, and you can point to a moment where you challenged a roadmap, a scope or a price and actually moved it. You build knowledge that outlasts you, the maps, the dependency registers, the vendor scorecards, rather than keeping it all in your own head. You have current, real relationships across sponsor banks, scheme operators and infrastructure providers, not a list of names you knew five years ago. You have worked inside a regulated institution, a bank, an EMI or a payment institution, and a supervisory relationship does not faze you. And you are equally credible in front of a board and in front of an engineering team. This role fails if you can only do one.

Above all, you are genuinely into payments. You know how money moves today, and you are honestly curious and hungry about where it goes next: direct participation, stablecoins, tokenisation, whatever is coming down the line. If payments are just a job to you rather than something you find genuinely interesting, this is not your seat.

• Ten years or more in payments, mostly on the banking and rails side.
• Operator experience: accountable for payment infrastructure in production, not only advising on it.
• Architectural literacy across rails, ledger, settlement, scheme access and core platforms, without needing to build it yourself.
• A track record of challenging vendors on roadmap, scope and price, and winning.
• Current, verifiable relationships across sponsor banks, scheme operators and infrastructure providers.
• Time inside a regulated bank, EMI or payment institution, comfortable operating under supervision.
• Credible with a board and with engineers in the same week.
• A real passion for payments, both how they work now and where they are heading.

What is in it for you

You report straight to the CEO, not three layers down, and you own one of the most important mandates in the company. You get to set the direction of Solance's entire payments foundation at exactly the moment the market is being reshaped by new regulation, and you get to do it without the drag of a large organisation sitting above you. This comes with a competitive package and the rare chance to put your name on the infrastructure of a bank being built the right way, from the ground up. It is a builder's seat, not a caretaker's.

Where you are based

This is a Dublin role, and we mean it. We want you here, with the team, because the job only works if you are close to the people building the product and in the room when the decisions get made. You will also be on the road often, in front of sponsor banks, scheme operators and industry bodies, because that is where the relationships that matter actually live. So, in plain terms: based in Dublin, travelling regularly, not remote. If you are not willing to be here with us, this is not your role.

Let us talk

If this reads like you, get in touch. And if it reads like someone you rate, send them our way, or send us the introduction. The best people in this world almost always come recommended, so a good word from you carries weight.