Associate Director, Payments

Aztec Group

10d•Hybrid

About The Position

The purpose of this role is to lead the Payments function within the Banking Domain, ensuring it is robust, scalable and aligned to the Group’s strategic growth ambitions. The role is responsible for delivering an outstanding payments service to clients and internal stakeholders, while strengthening operational resilience, governance, technology enablement and service performance across jurisdictions.

Requirements

Significant banking experience, ideally gained in a multi-jurisdictional financial services, fund administration, corporate services or banking environment
Extensive experience of international payment systems, cross-border processing, payment messaging standards and banking connectivity
Practical experience of SaaS treasury management systems, payment hubs, payment workflow tools and related implementation or optimisation activity
Strong understanding of the payments processing cycle, operational controls, reconciliation, exception management and client service requirements
Sound knowledge of relevant laws, regulations, industry standards and common practices across payments and banking operations
Strong ownership and accountability, with the judgement to make decisions and drive outcomes in a fast-moving environment
Excellent relationship-building skills, with the ability to work effectively across the Banking Domain, Technology, Risk, Compliance, Operations and client-facing teams
Experience leading high-quality operational service teams across multiple jurisdictions to support business growth and service excellence
Understanding of the asset servicing environment and the jurisdictions in which Aztec operates
A strong service delivery mindset, with the ability and desire to deliver exceptional client service at scale
Solution-oriented critical thinking and strong problem-solving capability
Excellent organisational skills, with the discipline to meet deadlines, prioritise effectively and allocate resources efficiently
Excellent attention to detail and a strong control mindset
Understanding of the Aztec Risk Framework, including AML, and a commitment to internal policies, procedures and jurisdictional regulatory requirements
Strong people leadership and management skills, with the ability to recruit, motivate, develop and retain a high-performing Payments team
Quick to learn new systems
Confident building strong working relationships with colleagues, clients and external partners

Nice To Haves

Discretionary bonus scheme
Flexible, hybrid working
Ability to work abroad for up to 3 weeks per annum
Generous holiday allowance
Pension scheme
Private medical insurance, including eye care
Life assurance (death in service and critical illness benefit)
Worldwide travel insurance
Health and wellbeing programmes
On-site parking

Responsibilities

Lead and manage the end-to-end payments process, including the operating model, controls, configuration, performance management and continuous improvement
Develop the future payments offering, ensuring it supports the Group’s strategic growth, jurisdictional requirements and client service ambitions
Provide leadership and subject matter expertise across international payment rails, cross-border processing, payment hub solutions and related banking infrastructure
Support the selection, implementation and ongoing optimisation of SaaS treasury management systems and payment technologies
Manage relationships with key banking and technology providers, including negotiations to improve commercial, operational and service outcomes
Work closely with Risk, Compliance, Technology, Operations and client-facing teams to maintain a strong governance and control framework
Implement contingency and resilience plans to minimise disruption and support continuity of critical payment services
Build and maintain reporting, dashboards and management information to monitor performance, identify risks and drive service improvement
Ensure departmental OKRs, service standards and control obligations are consistently met