Director, Payment Intelligence

CellPoint Digital; Dallas (TX); On-site; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

CellPoint Digital seeks a Director, Payment Intelligence to lead diagnostics and ROI modelling across payments data for top travel clients. You’ll translate complex data into actionable recommendations for CFOs, CTOs and client teams, shaping strategies that improve interchange, FX and payment performance.

You’ll act as the domain SME, guiding client conversations and feeding insights back into CellPoint’s benchmarking library to strengthen future engagements.

Qualifications

• 6+ years in payments strategy or related field.
• Knowledge of interchange structures, authorisation/decline mechanics and 3DS/SCA.
• Track record building robust ROI models and defending assumptions.

Responsibilities

• Lead client facing diagnostics across acquiring, interchange, 3DS/SCA, FX and payment methods.
• Baseline and benchmark performance against airline, travel and large merchant peers.
• Build ROI models using real numbers to support business cases and roadmaps.
• Explain findings clearly to CFOs, CTOs and client teams.

Skills

Payments strategy

Interchange optimisation

ROI modelling

Executive presentation

Data storytelling

Job description

Airlines, OTAs and hotel groups scrutinise every cent of fuel cost and room rate, but millions can still be left on the table when it comes to payments. Declines. Interchange. Scheme fees. 3DS performance. FX. Payment method mix. Behind every one of them is data that can tell a commercial story. We’re looking for someone who knows how to it, quantify it and turn it into action.

At CellPoint, we’re hiring a Director, Payment Intelligence to work with some of the world’s leading travel businesses and help them understand exactly where their payments performance can improve.

The role

This isn’t a sales role. You’ll be the payments expert behind the numbers. You’ll lead diagnostics using real client transaction and commercial data, benchmark performance, identify opportunities and build ROI models that stand up to scrutiny. Just as importantly, you’ll be able to take complex analysis and explain it clearly. You’ll work directly with senior stakeholders across finance, treasury, technology and payments, helping them understand not only what the data is telling them, but what they should do about it.

What you’ll do

• Lead client facing diagnostics, analysing transaction, cost and commercial data across acquiring, interchange, 3DS/SCA, FX and payment methods.
• Baseline and benchmark performance against relevant airline, travel and large merchant peers.
• Build ROI models using real numbers across areas such as authorisation uplift, interchange optimisation, soft decline recovery and FX leakage.
• Turn analysis into business cases and roadmaps that stand up to scrutiny from CFOs, CTOs and client finance, IT and treasury teams.
• Act as the consulting SME in client conversations, validating findings alongside client stakeholders before recommendations are signed off.
• Feed what you learn back into CellPoint’s benchmark intelligence library and methodology, helping make every future engagement even stronger.

What you bring

You know payments in detail, but you can also see the bigger commercial picture. You’re comfortable getting into transaction data and merchant statements, finding what matters and translating it into a clear story that senior stakeholders can act on. Ideally, you’ll bring:

• 6+ years of experience in payments strategy, interchange or scheme fee optimisation, merchant payments consulting, acquiring or PSP environments.
• Hands-on knowledge of interchange and optimisation structures, authorisation and decline mechanics, 3DS/SCA and payment economics.
• A track record of building robust ROI models and being able to explain and defend the assumptions behind them.
• Confidence presenting complex payments analysis to senior client stakeholders and answering challenging questions about the numbers.
• Strong analytical thinking combined with the commercial judgement to understand which opportunities will make a meaningful difference to a client.

Experience within airline, OTA, hotel or wider travel payments would be a real advantage, particularly if you’ve worked with BSP/ARC/GDS settlement or high-volume card-not-present environments. But we’re more interested in deep payments expertise than ticking every industry box. If you know payments inside out and can apply that knowledge to complex client problems, we’d like to hear from you.

Why CellPoint?

This is a specialist role with real influence. You’ll work with airlines, OTAs and hotel groups around the world, using data to uncover opportunities that can have a measurable impact on their payments performance. Your analysis won’t disappear into a presentation. You’ll have a direct line of sight between the opportunities you identify, the recommendations you make and the decisions our clients take. You’ll also help build CellPoint’s payment intelligence capability. The insight you uncover will contribute to our benchmarking, methodology and expertise, making the work we do with every client stronger. If you can read transaction data like a P&L, spot the commercial opportunity inside it and explain it like a strategist, we’d love to talk.