Director, Payments Operations

Position Summary    

The Director of Payments Operations leads the end-to-end Payments function, with direct oversight of the Payments Managers and the Manager of Payments Compliance. This role is accountable for ensuring shareholder and closing-day payments are executed accurately, on time, and in accordance with deal requirements, internal controls, bank cutoffs, and regulatory/compliance standards. The Director partners closely with Reconciliation, Client Service, Relationship Management, Business Analysts, Product Managers and bank partners to drive operational excellence, reduce payment exceptions and failures, and continuously improve scalability and customer experience.

The successful candidate demonstrates a hands-on, self-motivated approach to leadership, brings strong operational judgment, and communicates effectively across internal and external stakeholders. They are highly organized in a fast-paced environment, able to manage competing priorities, and experienced in building and developing high-performing teams through hiring, coaching, and performance management. A Series 99 FINRA license is required for this position.

Location: This role follows a 1-2 days per week in the office hybrid schedule based in Denver, Colorado 

Compensation: The salary range for this position is between $125k and $135k, depending on experience level.

Primary Responsibilities    

• Owns daily execution and oversight of shareholder and closing-day payment operations, including payment file release governance, bank cutoffs, and Service Level Agreement (SLA) adherence.
• Leads and develops the Payments leadership team (Payments Managers and Manager of Payments Compliance), providing coaching, setting goals, and ensuring appropriate staffing, training, and coverage.
• Establishes, implements, and monitors operational controls for record review, payment instruction validation, customer validation, fraud prevention, and physical/electronic documentation retention.
• Oversees exception management for returned, delayed, or failed payments; ensures research cases are tracked through completion and escalations are executed with bank partners as needed.
• Ensures payment files contain required data elements and quality checks to reduce transaction failures and requests for additional information.
• Provides support for Foreign Exchange (FX) execution and operational readiness, including accurate instruction of FX trades and validation of system configuration for multi-currency payment batches.
• Owns reconciliation governance: reviews trends in breaks, ensures timely resolution, and ensures appropriate storage and auditability of supporting evidence.
• Partners cross-functionally (Reconciliation, Payments, Client Services Team, Relationship team leadership, Business Analysts, Product Managers and bank partners) to drive continuous improvement and deliver technology-enabled solutions.
• Maintains and enforces standard operating procedures, training materials, and a knowledge repository to ensure consistent execution and rapid onboarding.
• Produces and delivers regular statistical reporting to senior leadership on payment timeliness, exception volumes, reconciliation status, and root-cause trends; recommends actions to improve outcomes.
• Ensures team performance management processes are executed effectively, including hiring, performance reviews, recognition, corrective action, and terminations when necessary.
• Other duties as assigned.

 Required Qualifications & Skills  

• 5+ years of banking, financial services, payments, escrow, or transaction operations experience (or equivalent).
• 3+ years of people management experience, (preferably this experience includes managing managers), and leading multi-workstream teams.
• Bachelor's degree in finance, accounting, economics, or operations (or commensurate work experience) required.
• FINRA-licensed Series 99 Operations Professional or the ability to procure within the first year from hire date.
• Demonstrated expertise in payment operations, reconciliations, exception management (returns/delays), and operational controls.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, and decision-making skills, including the ability to interpret complex payment instructions and drive issues to resolution under time constraints.
• Experience partnering with bank operations and customer service teams to manage escalations and meet processing cutoffs.
• Working knowledge of foreign exchange processes and controls sufficient to participate in FX instruction and operational execution as needed.
• Advanced proficiency with Microsoft Office Suite; experience with sophisticated CRM/ERP systems (e.g., NetSuite) and the ability to drive adoption through training and standardization.

Desired Characteristics    

• High ownership mindset with the ability to set direction and drive execution through others
• Strong attention to detail balanced with an ability to scale processes and simplify complexity
• Experience with integrating AI into processes, or AI-curious with a mind to leverage AI for potential operational task lift
• Collaborative super communicator, calm under pressure, and effective at stakeholder management and escalation communications
• Continuous improvement orientation with a track record of implementing innovative solutions
• Commitment to operating with integrity, strong controls, and a customer-first mindset

Physical Requirements/Special Demands   

• Availability to work a non-traditional work-week that may require more than 40 hours per week if needed
• Ability to work under tight timelines and manage multiple critical deadlines
• If Denver-based, ability to come into the Denver office approximately once a month as needed to support oversight of physical documentation controls  

** We are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of employment visas. Candidates must be legally authorized to work in the United States without the need for current or future visa sponsorship to move forward in the hiring process. **

Fraud & spam screening. We use tools in our applicant tracking system to help detect potentially fraudulent or spam applications. These tools analyze limited technical and contact information (such as IP address, device/browser signals, and email/phone characteristics) to flag patterns that may indicate automated, inauthentic, or suspicious activity. Flags are used to prioritize human review and do not, by themselves, determine hiring outcomes. Learn more in our Privacy Policy.

If you apply for a role with us, we may collect and process recruiting-related information through our applicant tracking system, including your resume/CV, work history, education, references, communications, and recruiting-related metadata. For US candidates, we may also use tools within our applicant tracking system to help detect potentially fraudulent or spam applications by analyzing limited technical and contact information (such as IP address, device/browser signals, and email/phone characteristics) to flag suspicious patterns for human review. US candidates at certain stages of the recruiting process may be required to complete identity verification through CLEAR. In that process, candidates provide information directly to CLEAR, including biometric data, such a facial and iris scans, as well as government-issued identification. CLEAR acts as an independent controller for the information it collects during verification. We receive only limited identity verification results/status and certain cross-reference fields (such as name, email, phone number, and IP address) within our applicant tracking system, and we do not receive or store government ID images, images, or biometric data from CLEAR. For information on how CLEAR collects, retains, and destroys biometric data, please visit: https://www.clearme.com/clear1-credential-policy-crp

This job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties, or responsibilities that are required of the employee. Duties, responsibilities, and activities may change, or new ones may be assigned at any time with or without advanced notice.   

With respect to its programs, services, activities, and employment practices, SRS Acquiom Inc. assesses qualified individuals without regard to their race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, or gender identity), age, national origin, disability, veteran status, genetic information, or other protected status.  Requests for reasonable accommodation or the provision of auxiliary aids should be directed to Human Resources.