Payments & Acquiring Operations Manager

Payments & Acquiring Operations Manager

At ACE Money Transfer, we're looking for an experienced and thoughtful Payments & Acquiring Operations Manager to oversee the full lifecycle of our payment processes. This role is critical to ensuring that our payment operations are secure, efficient, resilient, commercially optimised, and compliant with regulatory expectations, including the Central Bank of Ireland (CBI) Operational Resilience guidance and global card scheme requirements. You will act as a subject-matter expert across acquiring, card schemes, and alternative payment methods (APMs), working closely with internal teams and external partners to strengthen controls, improve authorisation rates, optimise routing strategies, and ensure our customers' money moves safely and reliably every time.

End-to-End Payment Operations Oversight

• Own and manage end-to-end payment processes across pay in channels (cards, acquirers, APMs), internal reviews, reconciliations, and pay out partner settlements.
• Ensure strong operational controls across all payment flows, identifying risks and implementing effective mitigations.
• Act as an escalation point for complex or high-risk payment and acquiring issues.

Acquiring & Acceptance Optimisation

• Analyse transactional decline trends, scheme codes, BIN performance, issuer behaviour, and corridor data to identify root causes of low acceptance and recommend corrective actions.
• Develop and manage dashboards tracking authorisation rates, decline reasons, chargebacks, and acquirer performance by corridor and issuer.
• Present insights and actionable recommendations to senior management to improve approval ratios and throughput.
• Collaborate with IT and Product teams to optimise acquirer routing, APM integrations, and fraud/risk decisioning logic for maximum acceptance and cost efficiency.
• Monitor interchange, scheme fees, and cross-border acceptance trends to support commercial optimisation.

Scheme Management

• Act as ACE's subject-matter expert with global card schemes and acquiring partners, ensuring compliance with mandates and influencing initiatives to improve acceptance ratios.
• Stay updated on emerging acquirer models, APM developments, and regional scheme changes to inform ACE's payment strategy.

Governance, Compliance & Resilience

• Ensure all acquiring and payment activities comply with scheme rules, PCI requirements, AML/CFT standards, safeguarding obligations, and regulatory expectations.
• Implement and maintain operational resilience activities including scenario testing, incident response planning, dependency mapping, and control strengthening in line with CBI guidance.
• Manage payment-related incidents, conduct root cause analysis, and oversee remediation and stakeholder communication.
• Support audits, regulatory reviews, and internal assurance activities.

Leadership & Continuous Improvement

• Lead continuous improvement initiatives to enhance efficiency, accuracy, straight-through processing, and commercial performance.
• Develop and maintain clear procedures, controls, and documentation for payment and acquiring operations.
• Produce and review management information (MI) and KPIs related to payment performance, risk, partner effectiveness, and acceptance optimisation.
• Lead and coach team members involved in payment processing, acquiring management, and review activities.

What We're Looking For

• Strong understanding of payment operations and acquiring within a money transfer, fintech, PSP, or financial services environment.
• Deep knowledge of card scheme economics, interchange, chargebacks, cross-border acceptance, and scheme reporting.
• Experience managing acquirer performance issues and payment routing optimisation.
• Proven ability to analyse high-volume transaction data and translate insights into measurable commercial improvements.
• Experience managing external payment partners and operational performance.
• Strong control and risk mindset with attention to regulatory and resilience expectations.
• Clear and professional communication skills, with the ability to influence stakeholders across functions.
• Proactive problem solver with analytical and strategic thinking capability.

What You Need

• Degree in Business, Finance, Operations Management, or a related field.
• 5–8 years' experience in payments, acquiring, scheme management, or operations within banking, fintech, PSP, or remittance.
• Experience managing high-volume transaction flows, authorisation performance, and operational controls.
• Good understanding of regulatory, PCI, and operational resilience expectations.
• Experience supporting audits, regulatory engagements, and scheme compliance reviews.
• People management or team leadership experience is desirable.

Core Competencies

• Payments and acquiring expertise
• Analytical and strategic thinking
• Cross-functional collaboration
• Communication and influence
• Risk and control orientation

Why You'll Love Working Here

• Key role in shaping payment operations and acquiring strategy for a growing international money transfer business.
• Collaborative and supportive working environment.
• Hands-on exposure to cross-border payments, scheme management, and EU regulatory frameworks.
• Opportunities for professional growth and meaningful commercial impact.