Authorization Optimization Manager, Payments

Block•Los Angeles, CA

4h•Remote

About The Position

It all started with an idea at Block in 2013. Initially built to take the pain out of peer-to-peer payments, Cash App has gone from a simple product with a single purpose to a dynamic ecosystem, developing unique financial products, including Afterpay/Clearpay, to provide a better way to send, spend, invest, borrow and save to our 50+ million monthly active customers. We want to redefine the world’s relationship with money to make it more relatable, instantly available, and universally accessible. Today, Cash App has thousands of employees working globally across office and remote locations, with a culture geared toward innovation, collaboration and impact. We’ve been a distributed team since day one, and many of our roles can be done remotely from the countries where Cash App operates. No matter the location, we tailor our experience to ensure our employees are creative, productive, and happy. This Role: At Block, we’re building a more open, accessible financial system — and payments sit at the core of that mission. As part of the Cash App Card team, the Authorization Optimization – Payment Solutions role focuses on improving payment authorization performance at massive scale, where even small gains can unlock meaningful impact for millions of customers and the broader payments ecosystem. You’ll work at the intersection of issuers, merchants, processors, and networks to identify, design, and execute strategies that increase authorization rates while maintaining strong risk controls and a great customer experience.

Requirements

5–7 years of experience in payments, financial services, or a related field
Strong understanding of card transaction flows, authorization decisioning, and decline reason codes
Working knowledge of card network rules (e.g., Visa, Mastercard) and issuer/processor interactions
Experience designing or executing authorization optimization strategies
Comfort influencing outcomes without direct authority, across highly cross-functional teams
Ability to work directly with external partners including merchants, processors, and networks
Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to turn data into action

Nice To Haves

Direct experience with issuer-side or merchant-side optimization strategies
Experience working at scale with card products or consumer payments
Familiarity with experimentation, A/B testing, or rule-based optimization frameworks

Responsibilities

Own and drive authorization optimization initiatives for Cash App Card and other Issuing Products transactions across domestic and international payment flows
Analyze end-to-end transaction flows to identify friction, declines, and optimization opportunities
Develop and implement strategies to improve authorization outcomes from issuer, merchant, and network perspectives
Partner closely with merchants to understand their payment setups and influence changes that improve approval rates
Collaborate with cross-functional teams including Risk, Product, Engineering, Data, and Operations to execute improvements
Work directly with processors and payment networks to align on network rules, optimization tools, and roadmap opportunities
Monitor performance metrics and translate insights into scalable, repeatable improvements
Advocate for customer-first payment experiences while balancing fraud, compliance, and network requirements