Financial Operations & Merchant Mandates Oversight Executive

Bank of America; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 178,000 - 281,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Benefits eligible

Job summary

Bank of America in Chicago seeks a senior payments leader to oversee biannual network releases, pricing incentives, and robust risk controls across the payments ecosystem. You will coordinate across processors, networks, and merchants, ensuring accurate financial and regulatory outcomes.

You will partner with merchants and internal teams to drive process improvements, automate manual workflows, and lead a high-expertise team to deliver scalable, compliant payment solutions in a dynamic

Qualifications

• Merchant acquiring and issuing economics in four-party payments ecosystem
• Interchange and network fee management and implications
• Merchant pricing, discount economics, billing accuracy
• Merchant Services P&L management balancing value, revenue, cost and risk
• End-to-end transaction flows: authorization to settlement and reconciliation
• Payment network rules and compliance interpretation and implementation
• Payments regulatory environment knowledge for merchant acquiring, debit and interchange
• Financial controls: reconciliation, invoice validation, pricing controls, revenue leakage prevention

Responsibilities

• Lead biannual payment network releases across processors and networks.
• Oversee invoice review, reconciliation, and cost controls to protect revenue.
• Manage annual volume-tier reviews and pricing incentive changes with validation.
• Represent merchant/business interests to networks, regulators, and processors.
• Strengthen risk and control framework and remediation with Risk/Compliance/Audit.
• Provide deep payments expertise across networks, fees, and settlement flows.
• Lead and develop a high-expertise payments team and drive talent development.
• Automate manual processes.

Skills

Merchant acquiring and issuing econ

Interchange and network fees

Merchant pricing

Merchant Services P&L

End-to-end transactions

Payment network rules/compliance

Payments regulatory acumen

Financial controls

Job description

Job Description: At Bank of America, we are guided by a common purpose to help make financial lives better through the power of every connection. We do this by driving Responsible Growth and delivering for our clients, teammates, communities and shareholders every day. Being a Great Place to Work and providing a culture of caring is core to how we drive Responsible Growth. We are intentional about fostering an inclusive workplace where every teammate has the opportunity to succeed, build a career and contribute to our shared success. This includes attracting and developing exceptional talent, recognizing and rewarding performance, and supporting our teammates’ physical, emotional, and financial wellness through affordable, competitive and flexible benefits. We value the unique perspectives individuals bring from all backgrounds and career paths - whether shaped by military service, community college education, or a wide range of work and life experiences. These journeys foster resilience, leadership and innovation, strengthening our workforce and positively impact the communities we serve. Bank of America is committed to an in-office culture that supports collaboration, engagement, and career development. Our approach includes clear in-office expectations, while providing an appropriate level of flexibility based on role-specific responsibilities and business needs. At Bank of America, you can build a successful career with opportunities to learn, grow, and make an impact. Join us!

Responsibilities:

• 1. Lead Payment Network Releases and Mandates: Own execution of biannual payment network releases across multiple processors, internal technology platforms, and payment networks. Oversee the review of thousands of network bulletins and requirements, determine business applicability and financial impact, coordinate implementation across stakeholders, and validate accuracy following implementation.
• 2. Protect Merchant and Bank Economics: Provide oversight of significant payment network, processor, and vendor expenses through rigorous invoice review, reconciliation, and financial controls. Identify discrepancies, prevent unnecessary expense, protect merchant and bank revenue, and ensure accurate application of contractual and network economics.
• 3. Manage Client Volume Tiers and Pricing Incentives: Lead annual volume-tier reviews and client pricing incentive changes, ensuring changes are accurately calculated and implemented. Establish strong validation processes and drive rapid resolution when discrepancies or implementation issues are identified.
• 4. Serve as Merchant and Business Advocate: Represent the interests of merchants and the business when payment networks, regulators, processors, or other industry participants introduce new requirements. Assess operational and financial impacts, challenge requirements where appropriate, and ensure the necessary data, reporting, controls, and operating processes are established to support implementation and ongoing validation.
• 5. Maintain a Strong Risk and Control Environment: Own and continuously strengthen the risk and control framework across the function, including development and management of single-process inventories and associated controls. Proactively identify emerging risks and control gaps, elevate issues appropriately, and partner closely with Risk, Compliance, and Audit to resolve complex matters and deliver sustainable remediation.
• 6. Provide Deep Payments Expertise: Serve as a senior subject matter expert across interchange, network fees, merchant billing and pricing, acquiring and issuing economics, authorization through settlement transaction flows, debit routing, network rules, and applicable card regulations. Apply that expertise to identify financial, operational, and merchant impacts and inform executive decision-making.
• 7. Lead and Develop a High-Expertise Team: Provide strategic direction and hands‑on leadership to an experienced team of payments professionals. Preserve and expand critical institutional knowledge, develop future subject matter experts, create accountability for outcomes, and establish strong succession and talent development across the organization.
• 8. Automate manual processes.

Required skills:

• 1. Merchant acquiring and issuing economics, with a strong understanding of the complete four-party payments ecosystem and the financial relationship among merchants, acquirers/processors, networks and issuers.
• 2. Interchange and network fee management, including interchange qualification/optimization, network pricing structures, assessments and the financial implications of network changes.
• 3. Merchant pricing and billing, including an understanding of merchant discount economics, billing accuracy, revenue realization, expense management and profitability.
• 4. Merchant Services P&L management, with the ability to evaluate decisions through both the merchant/client lens and enterprise financial lens, balancing competitiveness, merchant value, revenue, cost and risk.
• 5. End-to-end transaction flows, including authorization, clearing, settlement, funding, reconciliation and exception management across card-present, card-not-present and digital payment environments.
• 6. Payment network rules and compliance, including the ability to interpret card-network mandates and rule changes, assess business and financial impact, and drive implementation across the organization.
• 7. Payments regulatory acumen, including a strong working knowledge of the regulatory environment affecting merchant acquiring, debit and interchange.
• 8. Financial controls and operational discipline, including reconciliation, invoice validation, pricing/billing controls, revenue leakage identification and expense recovery.

Shift: 1st shift (United States of America)

Hours Per Week: 40

Pay Transparency details US - IL - Chicago - 110 N Wacker Dr - Bank Of America Tower Chicago (IL4110), US - NY - New York - ONE BRYANT PARK - BANK OF AMERICA TOWER (NY1100) Pay and benefits information Pay range $178,000.00 - $280,500.00 annualized salary, offers to be determined based on experience, education and skill set. Discretionary incentive eligible This role is eligible to participate in the annual discretionary plan. Employees are eligible for an annual discretionary award based on their overall individual performance results and behaviors, the performance and contributions of their line of business and/or group; and the overall success of the Company.

Benefits This role is currently benefits eligible. We provide industry-leading benefits, access to paid time off, resources and support to our employees so they can make a genuine impact and contribute to the sustainable growth of our business and the communities we serve.

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At Bank of America, we are guided by a common purpose to help make financial lives better through the power of every connection. We do this by driving Responsible Growth and delivering for our clients, teammates, communities and shareholders every day. Being a great place to work for our teammates around the world. We’re devoted to being a diverse and inclusive workplace for everyone. We hire individuals with a broad range of backgrounds and experiences and invest heavily in our teammates and their families by offering competitive benefits to support their physical, emotional, and financial well-being. Bank of America believes both in the importance of working together and offering flexibility to our employees. We use a multi-faceted approach for flexibility, depending on the various roles in our organization. Working at Bank of America will give you a great career with opportunities to learn, grow and make an impact, along with the power to make a difference. Join us!

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Pay Transparency: https://careers.bankofamerica.com/en-us/pay-transparency