Sr Product Owner

We are seeking a highly analytical and technically adept Senior Product Owner to join the Core Payments team. This role serves as the bridge between regulatory complexity and technical execution, owning the lifecycle for identifying, sourcing, and implementing critical card brand mandates from Visa, Mastercard, Discover, and American Express, as well as NACHA regulations and gateway/processor compliance updates. 

The role ensures core payment processing platforms remain compliant, secure, and optimized by defining the data elements and payment payload requirements needed to support optimal interchange rates, authorization success, and reliable settlement. 

Essential Functions and Responsibilities 

Compliance, Regulation & Mandate Tracking 

• Proactively monitor, analyze, and track semi-annual brand mandates and regulatory changes from Visa, Mastercard, Discover, American Express, and NACHA. 
• Translate complex regulatory and card brand requirements into clear operational impacts and technical requirements across cross-functional teams. 
• Track processor certifications and recertifications and maintain the source of truth for processor-supported payment features, technical functionality, and U.S. dollar processing capabilities. 

Technical Product Ownership & Execution 

• Facilitate technical discovery meetings with stakeholders, internal product teams, processors, and card schemes to gather detailed technical requirements. 
• Convert requirements into clear user stories, visual flows, and acceptance criteria for engineering teams. 
• Own, prioritize, and manage the technical backlog in Azure DevOps (ADO), tracking compliance and gateway enhancement work through the full SDLC. 
• Define and implement payment payload data element requirements so transactions can qualify for optimal interchange rates, support higher authorization rates, and settle cleanly. 
• Remove technical roadblocks by sourcing missing data specifications, resolving documentation ambiguities, and clarifying compliance logic. 

Cross-Functional Collaboration & Enablement 

• Partner with security and architecture teams to build scalable, secure payment processing capabilities that maintain strict PCI compliance and reduce downstream development time. 
• Assess compliance change impacts on client onboarding and train onboarding and operational teams so new clients can be configured and supported effectively from day one. 
• Author and publish internal and external technical bulletins covering mandate changes, compliance deadlines, and new gateway capabilities for sales, client services, and solutions consultants. 

Qualifications (Education, Experience, Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities) 

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience. 
• 5+ years of experience as a Product Owner, Technical Business Analyst, or Product Manager in the payments industry, with emphasis on payment gateways, merchant acquiring, or processor integrations. 
• Deep understanding of credit card processing lifecycles, including authorization, clearing, and settlement; ISO 8583/JSON payment messaging; PCI-DSS compliance; and NACHA operating rules. 
• Proven understanding of how data fields such as Level II/III data, network tokens, and merchant category codes impact interchange optimization and authorization outcomes. 
• Proficiency in Azure DevOps (ADO) or Jira for backlog grooming, epic/story tracking, and workflow management. 
• Exceptional ability to synthesize complex card brand, legal, or regulatory documentation into crisp, actionable technical specifications for developers. 

Competencies 

• Analytical, detail-oriented product owner with strong technical fluency across payment gateways, processors, and compliance-driven delivery. 
• Strong execution discipline with the ability to manage ambiguity, remove blockers, and drive roadmap items through delivery. 
• Data-driven mindset focused on compliance, authorization performance, interchange optimization, and settlement reliability. 
• Clear communicator able to translate dense regulatory content into practical guidance for engineering, operations, onboarding, sales, and client-facing teams. 
• Collaborative partner who can influence without direct authority across product, engineering, security, architecture, comp