Payment Operations Analyst

This is a fully remote position, open to applicants in United States.

📋 Description

• Oversee daily transaction activities across ACH, RTP/FedNow, and card rails (AFT/OCT) to identify anomalies, failures, and settlement challenges.

• Triage and resolve payment exceptions, which include ACH returns, AFT/OCT decline codes, and failed settlements.

• Compose and dispatch daily operational emails to sponsor banks, following up on outstanding items, highlighting discrepancies, and facilitating issue resolution.

• Keep a continuous log of open items with bank partners (settlement timing, rate limit requests, network enablement, reconciliation gaps) and work towards their closure.

• Investigate and address chargebacks and disputes, gathering evidence and tracking cases to resolution while adhering to card network reason codes and timelines.

• Reconcile network settlement files (Visa/Mastercard/ACH) with internal records to pinpoint and resolve discrepancies.

• Execute SQL queries on production transaction data to assist with limit increase requests, exception analysis, and ad hoc operational inquiries.

• Develop projection models (e.g., month-over-month volume growth, peak-day analysis) to support rail-specific limit increase requests with sponsor banks.

• Assist with client-facing escalations concerning payment failures, delays, or fraud disputes, translating technical rail issues into clear communication for clients.

• Document processes and identify opportunities to automate manual reconciliation and dispute workflows.

⛳️ Requirements

• 0–2 years of experience in payments operations, banking operations, or a related role in fintech/financial services.

• Ability to quickly learn about payment rails (ACH, RTP/FedNow, card networks) on the job; prior deep expertise is not necessary.

• Willingness to draft and manage external communication with banking partners — this role involves regular written correspondence with bank contacts.

• Comfortable writing basic SQL queries, or eager to learn quickly (this position entails recurring data pulls from production data).

• Strong attention to detail — this position requires reconciling financial data across systems where even small discrepancies are significant.

• Capability to manage multiple concurrent open items/threads without overlooking any details.

• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced startup environment with changing processes.

• Willingness to travel up to approximately 15% annually.

• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Business, Economics, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.

• No specific certifications are required, although familiarity with NACHA rules or card network operating regulations is advantageous.

• Proficient in SQL for querying transaction data (experience with BigQuery is a plus).

• Skilled in using spreadsheets for reconciliation and reporting purposes.

• Experience with payment processing systems, core banking platforms, or similar operational tools.

🏝️ Benefits

• Competitive compensation with equity in a growing fintech company.

• Remote-first culture with flexible working arrangements.

• Small team, big impact — your contributions directly support Astra’s ability to scale responsibly.

• Professional growth opportunities in compliance and risk management.

• Mission-driven — build infrastructure that powers financial innovation while adhering to the highest regulatory standards.