Payment Operations Lead

Rozgoo; United States; Remote; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Mercury Bank is seeking a Payment Operations Lead to build and scale the desks that support our payment rails—international wires, domestic wires, RTP, ACH, and checks. You will lead a high-trust team, drive process design, tooling, automation, and AI to improve efficiency without sacrificing accuracy.

You’ll partner with Product, Engineering, Compliance, Risk, Banking Partnerships, and other Operations teams to set priorities, define metrics, and create operating rhythms that scale with growing

Qualifications

• 3–5+ years of experience in payments, banking operations, or related field.
• Deep knowledge of payment rails (international/domestic wires, RTP, ACH, checks).
• Experience leading an operations team with clear expectations and rhythms.
• Interest in scaling operations via process improvement, tooling, AI, dashboards.
• Ability to operate in a regulated environment balancing speed, experience, risk, compliance.

Responsibilities

• Lead and develop a Payment Operations team responsible for supporting Mercury Bank’s payment rails.
• Build and scale payment operations desks across international wires, domestic wires, RTP, ACH, and checks, with workflows, escalation paths, controls, documentation, and quality standards.
• Apply payments expertise to operational decision-making, navigating exceptions, investigations, returns, recalls, and partner requirements.
• Improve operational efficiency through better processes, tooling, automation, AI-enabled workflows, dashboards, and measurement systems.
• Partner with Product, Engineering, Compliance, Risk, Banking Partnerships, and other Ops teams to identify bottlenecks and scale workflows.
• Define and track metrics that matter for payment operations, including productivity, quality, SLA adherence, exception trends, control health, and customer impact.

Skills

Payments expertise

Team leadership

Process design

Automation

AI-enabled workflows

Tools

SQL

Excel

Automation tooling

Job description

In the early days of the telephone, switchboard operators were the invisible infrastructure of modern communication. They connected calls by hand, memorized patterns, resolved routing problems in real time, and kept whole cities speaking to one another.

Their work was technical, precise, human, and operationally essential. As networks grew, the best systems preserved the operator’s judgment while automating the repetitive paths.

Mercury is building a complete finance stack for startups. We work hard to create the easiest and safest banking* experience possible, so entrepreneurs and business owners can spend less time managing financial complexity and more time building what comes next.

Underneath that experience is a network of payment rails, bank partners, operational desks, controls, exceptions, and workflows that keep customer funds moving safely and reliably. These rails include international wires, domestic wires, RTP, ACH, and checks. When it all works, customers do not have to think about the machinery underneath. Their money lands where it should, when it should, with clarity and confidence.

We’re looking for a Payment Operations Lead to help build and scale the operational desks that support Mercury Bank’s payment rails. You’ll bring deep payments knowledge, strong team leadership, and a systems-minded approach to making operational work more efficient through process design, tooling, automation, and AI.

This is a high-trust role for someone who understands both the precision and pace required in payment operations. You’ll lead a team responsible for keeping money movement running smoothly across international wires, domestic wires, RTP, ACH, and checks, improving how work gets done, and building the operating rhythms, controls, and tools that help Mercury scale without losing quality.

*Mercury is a fintech company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided through Choice Financial Group and Column N.A., Members FDIC.

In this role, you’ll:

• Lead and develop a Payment Operations team responsible for supporting Mercury Bank’s payment rails, ensuring the team has clear priorities, strong operating standards, and the coaching needed to do excellent work.
• Build and scale payment operations desks across international wires, domestic wires, RTP, ACH, and checks, including the workflows, escalation paths, controls, documentation, and quality standards needed to support reliable money movement at increasing volume.
• Bring deep payments expertise to operational decision-making, helping the team navigate exceptions, investigations, returns, rejects, recalls, partner requirements, and the tradeoffs that come with moving money in a regulated environment.
• Improve operational efficiency through better processes, tooling, automation, AI-enabled workflows, dashboards, and measurement systems that reduce manual effort while preserving judgment and control.
• Partner closely with Product, Engineering, Compliance, Risk, Banking Partnerships, and other Operations teams to identify bottlenecks, improve workflows, and ensure payment operations are built for scale.
• Define and track the metrics that matter for payment operations, including productivity, quality, SLA adherence, exception trends, control health, payment rail performance, and customer or partner impact.
• Create a culture of ownership, urgency, and high quality, where the team understands not just what needs to happen, but why it matters for customers, partners, and Mercury.

You should:

• Have 3-5+ years of experience in payments, banking operations, payment operations, business operations, or a related operational function, ideally in a financial institution, bank, fintech, or regulated technology company.
• Bring deep working knowledge of payment rails such as international wires, domestic wires, RTP, ACH, and checks, including money movement operations, payment exceptions, operational risk, controls, and the systems that support reliable payment processing.
• Have experience leading, coaching, or managing an operations team, with a track record of setting clear expectations, improving performance, and building strong team operating rhythms.
• Be excited to make operations more scalable through process improvement, tooling, automation, AI, documentation, dashboards, and thoughtful measurement.
• Understand how to operate in a regulated environment, including how to balance speed, customer experience, risk, compliance, and o