Payments Strategy & Integration Lead

About the role

Our client is looking for a senior payments specialist to shape strategy, drive bank and scheme engagements, and ensure their payments architecture is scalable, compliant, and commercially sound. Payments here are not just a feature — they are the infrastructure that enables thousands of entrepreneurs to trade and grow every day.

You’ll thrive in this role if…

• You love understanding how payments truly work — rails, rules, and flows
• You translate complexity into clarity and help teams make the right decisions early
• You hold your own in high-stakes conversations with banks, regulators, and fintech partners
• You think naturally in trade-offs: speed vs risk, commercial ambition vs scheme rules
• You bring structure and discipline to messy, multi-stakeholder work and follow through
• You take ownership seriously when compliance or customer trust is on the line

What you’ll do

• Define and evolve the payments integration blueprint across issuing, rapid payments, and store-of-value functionality
• Lead end-to-end bank and scheme enablement from feasibility through to go-live
• Provide expert payments input into issuing design, transaction flows, and regulatory constraints
• Support partner negotiations with feasibility assessments, realistic timelines, and risk analysis
• Ensure solutions align with bank policies, scheme rules, and regulatory requirements
• Contribute to audit readiness and act as a trusted advisor on payments risk and controls

Skills & knowledge

• Must come from a fintech company background — direct fintech employment experience is required
• Strong working knowledge of issuing and rapid payments in the South African context; PayShap exposure highly advantageous
• Proven ability to scope and define complex external integrations (banks, payment networks, fintech partners)
• Able to translate scheme and bank requirements into functional specs, process flows, and delivery dependencies
• Confident engaging with PaiInc, PASA, banks, and fintechs at a senior level
• Strong influencing capability without formal authority
• Clear documentation skills: payment flow maps, integration briefs, certification checklists, risk and control requirements

Qualifications & experience

• Relevant tertiary qualification in Business, Commerce, Information Systems, Engineering, or a related field
• 5+ years in payments, banking integrations, fintech, switching, or processing environments — with at least a portion of this at a fintech company
• Experience supporting complex payment integrations requiring external certification and scheme compliance
• Payments-related certifications beneficial but not essential

Other requirements

• Occasional travel for workshops or team alignment
• Strong hybrid working setup with reliable connectivity

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