Cards & Payments Consultant

Greymatter Innovationz; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Greymatter Innovationz seeks a Consultant/Senior Consultant (Cards & Payments) in Chicago, IL. You will own product roadmaps for network processing domains, turning requirements into well-defined increments and collaborating with architects and engineering to apply Domain-Driven Design and API-first solutions.

Ideal candidates have 8-10 years in payments, with 3-4 years in PM/PO roles on payment networks, and strong regulatory and KPI tracking skills in an agile setup.

Qualifications

• 8-10 years in payments, with leadership experience in product/domain roles.
• 3-4 years as a Product Manager/Owner/domain lead on payment networks.
• Strong knowledge of network processing: authorization, switching, clearing, settlement, reconciliation, disputes, pricing.

Responsibilities

• Own the roadmap and backlog for one or more product areas aligned to strategy.
• Translate mandates and customer needs into epics, user stories, and acceptance criteria.
• Collaborate with architects/engineers on DDD, bounded contexts, domain events, and a consistent language.
• Prioritize work by business value, deadlines, and technical dependencies; escalate trade-offs as needed.
• Decompose legacy systems into modular, API-first services and sequence migrations.
• Define pricing, fee, and interchange logic, and reconcile dispute workflows and SLAs.
• Track KPIs such as approval rates, latency, settlement accuracy, and dispute resolution time.
• Coordinate certifications with schemes, QA, and operations; report progress and risks.

Skills

Payments domain

PM/PO experience

DDD concepts

Event-driven architecture

APIs

Agile methodologies

Stakeholder management

Pricing logic

ISO 8583

Regulatory awareness

Tools

Cloud/microservices

Data analysis

Job description

Job Title: Consultant and Sr. Consultant (Cards & Payments)

Experience: 8-10 Years

Location: Chicago, IL (100% onsite, 5 days a week)

Budget: Open for now

Employment Type: FTE

Duration: Long term

About the Role

We are looking for a consultant to own a defined set of network processing capabilities across authorization, switching, clearing, settlement, reconciliation, disputes, and pricing. You will turn network requirements and customer needs into well-defined product increments, working closely with architects and engineering teams who apply Domain-Driven Design to build modular, modern systems. You will contribute to roadmap planning and own execution within your product area.

Key Responsibilities

• Own the roadmap and backlog for one or more product areas (e.g., authorization and switching, or clearing and settlement), aligned to the broader product strategy.
• Translate network and scheme mandates, regulatory changes, and customer needs into clear epics, user stories, and acceptance criteria.
• Work with architects and engineers to apply DDD concepts such as bounded contexts, domain events, and aggregates, and maintain a consistent ubiquitous language across teams.
• Prioritize work based on business value, compliance deadlines, and technical dependencies, escalating trade-offs to senior product leadership where needed.
• Support the decomposition of legacy systems into modular, API-first services, and help sequence migration work.
• Define requirements for pricing, fee, and interchange logic, and for reconciliation and dispute workflows, including exception handling and SLAs.
• Track and report product KPIs such as approval rates, latency, settlement accuracy, dispute resolution time, and reconciliation break rates.
• Coordinate network certifications and mandate releases with schemes, QA, and operations.
• Collaborate with operations, risk, finance, and compliance to gather input and validate solutions.
• Run sprint ceremonies and backlog grooming, and keep stakeholders updated on progress, risks, and dependencies.
• Analyze production issues and customer feedback to identify product improvements.

Required Skills and Experience

• 8-10 years of experience in payments, including at least 3-4 years as a Product Manager, Product Owner, or domain lead on network-side or processing platforms.
• Solid working knowledge of:
• Authorization and switching: ISO 8583, routing, stand-in processing, tokenization, EMV
• Clearing and settlement: file formats, settlement cycles, cut-offs, FX basics
• Reconciliation: exception handling, break resolution
• Disputes: chargeback lifecycle, representment, reason codes, timelines
• Pricing: interchange, scheme fees, fee calculation
• Good understanding of Domain-Driven Design and its practical application: bounded contexts, aggregates, domain events.
• Working knowledge of event-driven and microservices architectures, APIs, and idempotency, enough to collaborate effectively with engineers.
• Experience delivering complex, regulated, high-volume products in an agile environment.
• Ability to write clear requirements and prioritize a backlog.
• Experience defining and tracking product KPIs.
• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with major networks or schemes (Visa, Mastercard, RuPay, UPI/NPCI, or equivalent) and certification processes.
• Exposure to real-time payments, SWIFT or ISO 20022.
• Awareness of fraud, risk, and compliance frameworks (PCI DSS, RBI guidelines).
• Exposure to legacy modernization or cloud migration programs.
• Participation in Event Storming or domain-modelling workshops