Enterprise Payments Senior Director

Choice Hotels International • North Bethesda, MD

3d • $175,000 - $205,000

About The Position

The Sr. Director, Enterprise Payments leads Choice Hotels’ enterprise payments business and go-to-market strategies. The role is accountable for payment economics, operational processes, partner performance, data enablement, and the multi-year operating roadmap. It aligns Procurement, Technology, SkyTouch, Security, Finance, Operations, Digital, Choice Privileges, Legal, Product, and Analytics teams around enterprise payment priorities and investment decisions.

The role owns the consolidated payments profit-and-loss view, develops revenue opportunities, and improves payment experiences and value for franchisees and guests. It is the strategic owner of Choice’s payments ecosystem, including payment service providers, gateways, acquirers, card networks, banks, fraud and dispute partners, and international payment relationships. Initially, the Sr. Director will establish and stabilize the function and, over time, build and lead a dedicated payments team as volume, complexity, and geographic scope grow.

Requirements

• At least 7 years of progressive experience in payments, financial technology, payment operations, product strategy, commerce, or risk management, including experience leading complex enterprise initiatives.
• Demonstrated experience developing payment strategies, commercial models, business cases, operating processes, and partner-governance programs.
• Experience managing cross-functional teams and influencing senior stakeholders across Product, Technology, Finance, Operations, Security, Legal, Analytics, and Commercial functions.
• Experience managing payment service providers, gateways, acquirers, processors, card-network relationships, fraud or dispute providers, and strategic vendor evaluations.
• Strong knowledge of payment processing, gateway and acquiring models, payment economics, fraud prevention, tokenization, chargebacks, disputes, reconciliation, and payment data.
• Working knowledge of payment security, privacy, compliance, and card-network requirements, including PCI DSS and related control frameworks.
• Ability to develop and interpret financial models, forecasts, scorecards, service-level metrics, adoption models, and executive-level business cases.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, Word, and collaboration and project-management tools.
• Enterprise strategy and commercial acumen, with the ability to translate market and technology developments into measurable business outcomes.
• Executive presence and clear communication, including the ability to explain complex payment concepts and tradeoffs to varied audiences.
• Cross-functional leadership and influence, with the ability to establish decision rights and drive alignment without direct authority.
• Analytical problem-solving and sound judgment across revenue, risk, customer experience, partner performance, and investment decisions.
• Builder mindset with the ability to create structure, operating discipline, and organizational capability in an evolving environment.
• Bachelor’s degree in business, finance, economics, technology, hospitality, or a related field, or equivalent relevant experience.

Nice To Haves

• People-leadership experience, including building or scaling a team or functional capability.
• Advanced degree or relevant payments, financial technology, risk, or product-management certification.

Responsibilities

• Own Choice’s enterprise payments strategy, business outcomes, go-to-market approach, investment priorities, and three-to-five-year capability portfolio.
• Set enterprise payment governance, decision rights, and scorecards, establishing a consistent cadence for decisions such as build versus buy, partner models, and domestic versus international sequencing.
• Partner with Payments Product Owners and delivery teams to define and prioritize product roadmaps that deliver enterprise payment objectives.
• Provide strategic direction and business priorities to Product, Technology, Operations, and Analytics teams, serving as Choice’s enterprise subject-matter expert for payments.
• Own the consolidated payments profit-and-loss view and partner with Financial Planning and Analysis to develop budgets, forecasts, sensitivity models, performance reporting, and recommendations for revenue growth and cost optimization.
• Develop business cases and go-to-market plans for new and adjacent opportunities, including digital wallets, multi-currency services, fraud products, points buying, alternative payment methods, payment optimization, embedded finance, working-capital solutions, and new commerce experiences.
• Serve as strategic owner of the full partner ecosystem, including payment service providers, gateways, acquirers, card networks, issuing and acquiring banks, fraud providers, tokenization partners, and other processing partners.
• Set the partner portfolio and commercial agenda; lead partner governance, quarterly business reviews, product-roadmap reviews, service-level oversight, issue escalation, and performance improvement.
• Track contractual rebates, commissions, compliance-related revenue, hotel migration timing, partner reporting accuracy, revenue leakage, pricing changes, volume commitments, token and device economics, and franchisee adoption against negotiated terms.
• Define the payment data Choice must receive, including required detail and frequency, and partner with Advanced Analytics, Choice Privileges, Security, and Legal on identity, consent, security, retention, and permitted uses.
• Manage the business direction and performance of payment operations, including authorization, settlement, uptime, conversion, fraud, AutoOTA reconciliation, chargebacks, disputes, and recurring service metrics.
• Monitor card-network requirements, regulatory developments, emerging payment methods, network tokenization, credential strategy, artificial-intelligence-enabled fraud tools, and agentic commerce to keep Choice’s capabilities future-ready.
• Evaluate international requirements and local payment methods, and serve as the primary business contact for international affiliates as new markets are onboarded.
• Build the Enterprise Payments operating model, clarify roles and governance across functions, and recruit and develop team members as the organization expands.

Benefits

• Competitive compensation and benefits, including medical, dental, and vision coverage.
• Leave and paid time off for holidays, vacation, personal, family, volunteer, sick, jury duty, bereavement, military, and religious observance.
• Financial benefits for retirement and health savings.
• Employee recognition programs.
• Discounts at Choice hotels worldwide.
• Annual bonus based on the terms of Choice’s Management Incentive Plan (MIP).
• Annual awards of Choice Hotels International common stock through Choice’s Long-Term Incentive Plan (LTI Plan).

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior