Head of Payment Services

Independence Pet Group•New York, NY

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

Independence Pet Holdings, established in 2021, is a corporate holding company managing a diverse portfolio of pet health brands and services, including insurance, pet education, and lost recovery services across North America. We aim to simplify the pet parenting journey and improve pet well-being through innovative solutions. Our multi-brand, omni-channel approach includes our own insurance carrier, brands, and partner brands. Doubtless Pet Insurance is hiring a Head of Payment Services for our New York City office. This is a hybrid role requiring 2-3 days per week in the office. The Head of Payment Services will lead the global strategy, controls, and daily operations of the merchant acquiring and payment acceptance program. The focus will be on risk management, portfolio health, operational excellence, and merchant experience. This role encompasses the entire merchant services lifecycle, from onboarding and operational delivery to ongoing monitoring, dispute and chargeback management, and oversight of partners and vendors. Collaboration with Risk, Compliance, Finance, Product, Sales, Relationship Management, and Engineering teams globally is crucial to ensure a compliant, scalable, and high-performing payments program. The goal is to reduce fraud and losses, maintain card brand and regulatory compliance, enhance operational efficiency, and support retention and profitability.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Business, Finance, Operations, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
8+ years of experience in large corporate merchant services, acquiring, fintech, payments, or related financial services roles.
Demonstrated experience managing payment partners and vendors, including processors, gateways, orchestrators, and acquiring banks, with experience negotiating commercial terms.
Strong working knowledge of card brand rules, chargebacks and disputes, fraud and loss concepts, settlement and funding, and reconciliation processes.
Experience designing and operating controls, policies, procedures, and monitoring programs within a regulated environment.
Experience supporting audits, regulatory or partner examinations, and compliance reviews.
Strong analytical and financial acumen, with the ability to understand and manage key P&L drivers including processing volume, yield, pricing, and cost-to-serve.
Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills, with demonstrated ability to influence and partner effectively across Sales, Product, Risk, Compliance, Finance, and other functions.

Responsibilities

Own the end-to-end merchant services program, including merchant acquisition enablement, onboarding, implementation, administration, and ongoing support.
Develop and execute the merchant services strategy and operating plan aligned with company revenue, retention, customer experience, and risk objectives.
Manage strategic relationships with acquiring banks, processors, gateways, and key technology vendors, including contract negotiation, pricing, service-level agreements, and risk/compliance requirements.
Oversee merchant onboarding and KYC/KYB processes in partnership with Risk and Compliance, ensuring policy adherence and documentation standards.
Establish and operate a comprehensive portfolio risk governance program, including risk appetite, monitoring rules, merchant reviews, and control implementation.
Own the fraud and chargeback operations strategy, including monitoring, alerts, reserves, dispute workflows, representment strategy, and continuous improvement initiatives.
Maintain a strong control environment through documented policies and procedures, segregation of duties, control testing, quality assurance, vendor oversight, business continuity readiness, and audit support.
Drive operational excellence across settlement, funding, reconciliation, chargebacks, representment, disputes, and merchant account maintenance.
Lead the response to payment and merchant risk events, including fraud spikes, compliance breaches, and funding/settlement issues.
Monitor and improve key portfolio metrics, including approval rates, activation, processing volume, attrition, fraud and chargeback performance, reserve exposure, and net revenue yield.
Establish and maintain operational and risk dashboards, early-warning indicators, trend reporting, and exception monitoring.
Partner with Product and Engineering to strengthen operational resilience and payment risk capabilities.
Partner with Sales and Relationship Management teams to operationalize merchant offers and ensure deals are supportable and compliant.
Manage approved PCI auditor relationships and associated compliance reporting requirements.