Lead, Payment Operations Strategy & Automation

About the role

Wise is hiring a Lead to own the operational side of how payments that do not complete cleanly are handled, and to help redesign that operation for a world where AI agents do most of the work. The role leads Central Payment Operations, a team of Product Specialists and Technical Leads working alongside the Payment Defects & Incidents product-engineering squad, under the Head of Central Payment Operations.

Key responsibilities

• Own the outcome: drive core operational metrics such as cost, first-resolution rate, defect rate and operational loss at scale.
• Co-shape the roadmap with the Product Manager and Engineering Lead, acting as the operations voice in strategy conversations and bringing technical and product feedback back to operations.
• Design the AI transition: ship AI-assisted workflows in production, define and build evaluation and observability foundations, and prove scalable design patterns.
• Build the leadership bench by growing senior individual contributors and Technical Leads into future leaders.
• Represent the function in Risk, Compliance, Analytics, Workforce Management, Quality, Training, Internal Audit and PayOps leadership forums.

Required profile

• 6+ years in operations, product-ops or product roles at fintech, payments or high-growth tech, with end-to-end ownership of a domain.
• Direct experience partnering with a Product Manager and Engineering Lead to co-shape a roadmap.
• Has grown senior individual contributors into future leaders.
• Nice to have: payments, banking or regulated financial services background; experience running an operating-model transition; experience defining eval frameworks, observability or human-in-the-loop design for AI/agent systems.

Required skills

• Hands-on experience with at least one shipped AI, agent or LLM-driven workflow.
• SQL literacy and code literacy, including using AI tools to move fast on data and code.
• A working understanding of software development principles.
• Executive presence and storytelling ability.

The role is full-time and reports to the Head of Central Payment Operations. Career pathways include PayOps leadership, business operations across servicing, product/analytics, or leading agentic-ops functions.