Director, Payment Operations

Zip•San Francisco, CA

About The Position

Zip is looking for a strategic and hands-on Director, Payment Operations to lead and elevate our Payment Operations function. This is a high-impact leadership role at the heart of Zip's flagship Zip Pay product — a role where you will shape the future of how customers are supported, how incidents are managed, and how our payments platform operates at scale. You will lead a talented team, directly oversee payment incident management, and serve as an escalation point and white-glove service provider for complex customer issues. You bring equal parts operational rigor, customer empathy, and team-building excellence.

Requirements

10+ years of experience in payment operations, or financial services operations, with at least 2 years in a people leadership role.
Demonstrated experience managing payment incident response, with the ability to stay calm and lead effectively under pressure.
Strong understanding of payment systems, processing flows, reconciliation, and settlement processes.
Proven ability to lead and develop teams — you are known for bringing out the best in the people around you.
Experience working directly on customer escalations and delivering exceptional, empathetic customer service.
Data-driven mindset with experience tracking operational metrics, and using insights to drive decisions and recommendations, leveraging tools such as Claude.
Excellent cross-functional collaboration skills and experience working alongside Engineering, Product, Finance, and Risk teams.
Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to communicate complex issues clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
A bias for action combined with a process-oriented mindset — you improve what exists while keeping operations running.

Nice To Haves

Familiarity with payment platforms with payment methods such as local bank transfers, and wires
Background in compliance, fraud operations, or risk management in a payments context.
Experience using ticketing systems (e.g., Zendesk) and operational tooling at scale.
Experience working with AI

Responsibilities

Lead, coach, and develop a high-performing Payment Operations team, fostering a culture of accountability, ownership, and continuous improvement.
Set clear performance goals, conduct regular 1:1s, and deliver meaningful feedback to support individual career growth.
Drive hiring, onboarding, and retention strategies to build a world-class operations team.
Create an environment where team members are empowered to make decisions and take ownership of outcomes.
Champion people-first leadership, modeling the behaviors and values that define an exceptional team culture.
Oversee the day-to-day operations of the payments platform, ensuring all payment flows, and processes run smoothly and on time.
Define, document, and continuously refine operational procedures, runbooks, and workflows for the payment operations team.
Monitor key operational metrics and SLAs, identifying trends and proactively addressing gaps before they impact customers or the business.
Collaborate cross-functionally with Finance, Engineering, Product, Risk, and Legal to drive operational improvements and platform enhancements.
Maintain a deep understanding of payment rails, processing systems, and the Zip Pay product ecosystem.
Oversee our Payment Incident Manager, owning end-to-end incident response for all payment-related incidents on the Zip Pay platform.
Lead real-time triage, escalation, communication, and resolution of payment incidents, minimizing customer and business impact.
Facilitate post-incident reviews, root cause analyses, and ensure corrective actions are tracked and completed.
Build and maintain a robust incident management framework, including playbooks, escalation paths, and on-call protocols.
Proactively identify systemic risks and work with Engineering and Product teams to prevent recurring issues.
Roll up your sleeves and work directly on customer tickets and escalations, providing white-glove service to customers with complex payment issues.
Set the standard for what exceptional customer support looks like within the payments operations function.
Identify patterns in customer issues and advocate for product and process improvements that reduce friction in the customer journey.
Partner with the broader Customer Experience team to ensure seamless handoffs and a consistent, empathetic customer experience.
Help shape the strategic roadmap for how the Payment Operations team supports the next phase of Zip Pay's growth.
Drive automation and tooling improvements that scale operations without sacrificing quality or customer experience.
Stay current on industry trends, regulatory changes, and best practices in payments and operations management.