Senior Payment Systems Operations Specialist

About this Opportunity:

We're seeking an accomplished Senior Operations Engineer to join our team. This role will play a pivotal part in maintaining the integrity and reliability of our systems through robust monitoring, incident response readiness, and a commitment to operational excellence.

This position focuses on payment solutions and requires hands-on experience with platforms like Enterprise Payments Platform, ACI Universal Payments Framework, SWIFT, and Message Translation Service. A strong foundation in the Payments Domain is essential.

Key Responsibilities:

• Serve as a subject matter expert in system recovery processes, ensuring rapid resolution and minimal business impact using technologies such as Java, AWS Cloud Platform/Infra, API Engineering, Mainframe, and observability tools.
• Design, implement, and maintain monitoring, alerting, and logging solutions using observability tools like Datadog and Splunk, with automation/custom integration support via Python scripting.
• Proactively identify risks and implement preventive measures to ensure system stability across distributed and cloud-native environments.
• Leverage domain expertise in payment protocols (SWIFT, MTS, ACH), standards like ISO 20022, and regulatory frameworks including SEPA and PCI-DSS.
• Improve incident response workflows, lead critical incident triage, and drive blameless postmortems. Keep documentation current and actionable.
• Analyze recurring issues, perform deep-dive investigations, and collaborate across teams to implement long-term fixes and resiliency strategies.
• Develop automation scripts (Python, Bash, PowerShell) for routine tasks, system health checks, and self-healing mechanisms to reduce manual intervention.
• Work closely with Engineering, DevOps, and Business stakeholders to align operations with business goals and coordinate production readiness for deployments.
• Exposure to tools like Istio and Launch Darkly to support traffic management and controlled feature rollouts.
• Participate in release planning and coordination, pre/post-deployment validations, and production cutover support.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, IT, or a related field.
• 7+ years of experience in L2 operations, incident management, and system recovery.
• Deep knowledge of the Enterprise Payments Platform (EPP) and modern payment processing protocols.
• Experience with payment gateways, fintech APIs, and ISO 8583/ISO 20022.
• Proficiency in Java, AWS Cloud Platform/Infra, API Engineering, and Mainframe systems.
• Advanced experience with observability tooling (Datadog, Splunk) and Python scripting for integrations and automation.
• Strong Linux/Unix systems knowledge and understanding of cloud environments (AWS, Azure, or GCP).
• Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines, Docker, Kubernetes, and ITSM tools.
• Experience with SQL/NoSQL database monitoring and troubleshooting.
• Understanding of distributed systems and microservices architectures.
• Excellent problem-solving skills and ability to perform under pressure.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience developing or troubleshooting APIs using Spring Boot.
• Familiarity with service meshes (Istio) and feature flagging tools (LaunchDarkly).
• Exposure to secrets management tools like Vault or Consul.
• Prior experience in highly regulated environments with a focus on compliance (e.g., PCI-DSS).
• Strong documentation and communication skills.