Lead Analyst

We are looking for a Payments & Cards SME Lead with strong hands-on experience in banking, card payments, and dispute management to spearhead the design and development of a robust Disputes Management lifecycle. The ideal candidate will have deep expertise in Visa and Mastercard dispute processes, payment network APIs, card transaction flows, payment codes, and industry standards. This role requires close collaboration with product, engineering, and client teams to translate complex payment domain requirements into scalable technology solutions.

Key Responsibilities

- Own the payments and cards domain expertise for the Disputes Management platform.
- Define and validate the complete card dispute lifecycle, including dispute initiation, classification, reason-code mapping, documentation and evidence validation, representment, pre-arbitration/arbitration, network submission, handling network responses and rejects, and final resolution and closure.
- Provide functional expertise on Visa and Mastercard dispute processes and integrations.
- Guide engineering teams on Visa and Mastercard API integrations, covering request/response structures, validations, error handling, status management, and network-specific workflows.
- Translate network rules and payment-domain requirements into product requirements, business rules, workflows, and acceptance criteria.
- Offer expertise on the card transaction lifecycle, including authorization, clearing, settlement, chargebacks, and disputes.
- Ensure accurate interpretation and use of ISO payment/message codes, card transaction codes, dispute reason codes, and network-specific codes.
- Provide guidance on PCI DSS requirements and ensure payment-data handling considerations are incorporated into the solution.
- Collaborate with architects and developers to identify domain and integration dependencies across banks, processors, card networks, and payment systems.
- Review and validate dispute workflows, API specifications, business rules, and solution designs from a payments-domain perspective.
- Support analysis of network responses, rejects, exceptions, and edge cases, helping define appropriate system handling.
- Stay updated on changes in Visa/Mastercard rules, dispute regulations, APIs, and payment industry standards.
- Act as the primary Payments SME for client discussions, requirement workshops, solution walkthroughs, and domain-level clarifications.
- Mentor product managers, business analysts, and engineering teams on cards, payments, and disputes.

Required Qualifications

- Minimum of 3 years of hands-on experience in Cards & Payments, preferably within banking, payment processing, card networks, or fintech.
- Strong understanding of the end-to-end card payments lifecycle.
- Practical experience with Visa and Mastercard payment and dispute processes.
- Experience with Visa and Mastercard APIs or network integrations.
- In-depth knowledge of card disputes, chargebacks, and the dispute lifecycle.
- Familiarity with representment, pre-arbitration, arbitration, dispute reason codes, and evidence requirements.
- Good understanding of ISO payment/message codes and card/payment transaction codes.
- Working knowledge of PCI DSS and secure handling of card/payment data.
- Proven ability to translate business and payment-network requirements into functional requirements and technical specifications.
- Ability to collaborate effectively with engineering, architecture, product, QA, and client teams.
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills to understand complex payment scenarios and exceptions.

Preferred Qualifications and Benefits

- Experience working with banking processors, card issuers, acquirers, or payment service providers.
- Familiarity with Visa Claims Resolution (VCR) and/or Mastercard dispute frameworks.
- Exposure to ISO 8583 and card transaction messaging.
- Experience with payment gateways, processors, or core banking/card processing platforms.
- Background in AI or automation-driven dispute management or payment operations.
- Knowledge of regulatory and compliance considerations in card payments.
- Experience in Agile product development and working with distributed engineering teams.

The successful candidate will play a critical role in establishing accurate end-to-end payment and dispute workflows, minimizing ambiguity between network rules, business requirements, and technical implementation. They will ensure Visa and Mastercard integrations handle all scenarios correctly, enabling engineering teams to build a compliant, scalable, and production-ready Disputes Management platform. This position serves as the primary Cards & Payments authority for product and delivery teams.