Director, Payment Operations

Zip

Director of Payment Operations at Zip managing a team and overseeing payment systems. Leading incident responses and shaping operational strategy for the Zip Pay product.

Posted 5/20/2026full-timeSan Francisco • California • 🇺🇸 United StatesLead💰 $185,000 - $230,000 per yearWebsite

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

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.
Oversee the day-to-day operations of the payments platform, ensuring all payment flows, and processes run smoothly and on time.
Collaborate cross-functionally with Finance, Engineering, Product, Risk, and Legal to drive operational improvements and platform enhancements.
Roll up your sleeves and work directly on customer tickets and escalations, providing white-glove service to customers with complex payment issues.
Help shape the strategic roadmap for how the Payment Operations team supports the next phase of Zip Pay's growth.

Requirements

What you’ll need

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.
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.

Benefits

Comp & perks

Start-up equity
Full health, vision & dental coverage
Catered lunches & dinners for SF employees
Commuter benefit
Team building events & happy hours
Flexible PTO
Apple equipment plus home office budget
401k plan

ATS Keywords

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Applicant Tracking System Keywords

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Hard Skills & Tools

payment operationsfinancial services operationspayment systemsprocessing flowsreconciliationsettlement processesoperational metricsincident response

Soft Skills

leadershipcoachingcustomer servicecross-functional collaborationcommunicationdata-driven mindsetproblem-solvingempathy