Payments and Operations Specialist in Glasgow

An opportunity to join a rapidly growing global fintech as it expands its UK operations and continues its international growth journey. This is a brand new role created to support the operations team.

Our client is a global, regulated payments business that has spent years building next-generation cloud-based payment solutions designed to give financial institutions, fintechs and consumer brands greater flexibility, speed and control. Following significant growth in its existing markets, the business is now expanding internationally, including into Canada following the successful securing of a new payments licence. As part of this continued growth, they are establishing and strengthening their UK operations function in Glasgow and are looking for an experienced Payments and Operations Specialist to take ownership of the daily payments operation. This is a hands-on specialist role with no direct people-management responsibility. It is ideal for someone who enjoys being close to the detail, solving problems, improving processes and having genuine ownership of the operation.

The Opportunity

You will take responsibility for the daily operational cycle, working closely with international colleagues and the senior Technology team in Glasgow. You will be responsible for ensuring settlement, reconciliation and payment activity is completed accurately and within daily cut-offs, while also acting as a key operational point of contact for clients and internal stakeholders. The role will involve improving and building the operation, rather than simply running existing processes. You'll have the opportunity to redesign processes, introduce efficiencies, support technology changes and help establish the operational foundations required for continued international growth. You'll also work closely with senior Technology leadership, giving you exposure and influence that you wouldn't typically find in a traditional payments operations role.

Key Responsibilities

• Settlement & Reconciliation
  • Own the daily reconciliation cycle, matching statements and scheme files and investigating and resolving breaks.
  • Verify card scheme settlement files are received correctly and follow up with processors where required.
  • Support multi-currency settlement, funding and transfers within appropriate controls.
  • Produce daily, weekly and monthly operational reporting.
  • Maintain accurate, audit-ready records and trackers.
• Payments & Client Support
  • Act as a second-line operational point of contact for clients and their support teams.
  • Investigate and resolve payment issues that cannot be addressed at first line.
  • Manage payment disputes and chargebacks through to resolution.
  • Handle recalls, returns and payment traces with clearing partners.
  • Clearly establish ownership between the business, clients and external payment partners.
• Process Improvement & Projects
  • Review, map and improve existing operational processes as the business grows.
  • Simplify and document processes and introduce stronger controls where required.
  • Support UAT, system changes and new technology releases.
  • Provide operational input and sign-off on platform and tooling changes.
  • Work alongside Technology on incidents, file re-runs and business continuity exercises.
  • Support new clients, new payment types and platform migrations.
  • Help build scalable operational processes to support the company's continued international expansion.

About You

We're looking for an experienced payments professional who is comfortable taking ownership and working independently. You'll ideally have:

• 5+ years' hands-on experience within payments operations, settlement or reconciliation.
• Experience working within a regulated payments, fintech or banking environment.
• Strong understanding of payment settlement and reconciliation processes.
• Experience investigating and resolving reconciliation breaks.
• Knowledge of card schemes, payment processing or clearing environments.
• Experience with payment disputes, chargebacks, recalls or returns.
• Strong Excel and data-analysis skills.
• Experience using reconciliation platforms, operational dashboards and ticketing systems.
• A natural ability to investigate problems, make decisions and know when to escalate.
• Excellent attention to detail and a strong understanding of operational controls.
• Experience improving, simplifying or automating operational processes.
• The confidence to work with Technology teams and explain operational requirements clearly.
• A customer-focused approach and the ability to communicate effectively with clients and stakeholders.
• Experience with Visa/Mastercard settlement, multi-currency payments, FX, nostro accounts, treasury funding or payment rails would be advantageous.
• Experience within fintech, Banking-as-a-Service, embedded finance or SaaS would also be highly desirable.

Why Join?

This is an opportunity to join a business at an exciting stage of its journey. You'll be joining a fintech that has already established a successful international payments platform and is now entering its next phase of growth and expansion. The Glasgow operation is strategically important to that journey, giving you the opportunity to:

• Take genuine ownership of the UK payments operation.
• Help build and improve processes rather than simply inherit an established operation.
• Support international expansion, including the launch of new markets.
• Work closely with senior Technology leadership and a global team.
• Influence how the operation develops as volumes and complexity increase.
• Become a key subject matter expert across UK operations.

Location & Working Pattern

Glasgow City Centre. Hybrid working, with a minimum of 2 days per week in the Glasgow office. The role works closely with an international team, with structured handovers between the UK and Global operations. Some flexibility required to attend group online meetings with other parts of the business. Hours of work can be flexible between 6am – 6pm (38 hours per week).

Salary

Up to £50k + benefits. The salary will be dependent on experience, with flexibility for an exceptional candidate.

If you're an experienced payments professional looking for a role where you can own, improve and help build a growing fintech operation, we'd love to hear from you. All enquiries will be treated in the strictest confidence.