Payment Operations Analyst

What You’ll Do

• Monitor daily transaction activity across ACH, RTP/FedNow, and card rails (AFT/OCT) for anomalies, failures, and settlement issues
• Triage and resolve payment exceptions, including ACH returns, AFT/OCT decline codes, and failed settlements
• Draft and send day-to-day operational emails to sponsor banks — following up on open items, flagging discrepancies, and pushing issues to resolution
• Maintain a running log of open items across bank partners (settlement timing, rate limit requests, network enablement, reconciliation gaps) and drive them toward closure
• Investigate and respond to chargebacks and disputes, assembling evidence and tracking cases through to resolution within card network reason codes and timelines
• Reconcile network settlement files (Visa/Mastercard/ACH) against internal records to identify and resolve discrepancies
• Run SQL queries against production transaction data to support limit increase requests, exception analysis, and ad hoc operational questions
• Build projection models (e.g., month-over-month volume growth, peak-day analysis) to support rail-specific limit increase requests with sponsor banks
• Support client-facing escalations related to payment failures, delays, or fraud disputes, translating technical rail issues into clear client communication
• Document processes and help identify opportunities to automate manual reconciliation and dispute workflows

What We’re Looking For

Required Experience

• 0–2 years of experience in payments operations, banking operations, or a related fintech/financial services role
• Comfortable learning payment rails (ACH, RTP/FedNow, card networks) quickly on the job
• Willingness to write and own external-facing communication with banking partners
• Comfortable writing basic SQL queries, or eager to learn quickly
• Strong attention to detail for reconciling financial data
• Ability to manage multiple concurrent open items without letting things fall through the cracks
• Comfortable working in a fast-moving startup environment
• Ability and willingness to travel up to ~15% annually

Education

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

Technical Skills

• Comfortable with SQL for querying transaction data (BigQuery experience a plus)
• Proficiency with spreadsheets for reconciliation and reporting
• Exposure to payment processing systems, core banking platforms, or similar operational tooling

Preferred Experience

• Direct experience with sponsor bank or BaaS (Banking-as-a-Service) relationships
• Familiarity with ISO 8583 messaging, NACHA ACH rules, or card network chargeback/dispute processes
• Experience working with a bank partner on limit increases, network onboarding, or reconciliation projects
• Exposure to fraud or dispute management (e.g., Reg E, chargeback reason codes)

What We Offer

• Competitive compensation with equity in a growing fintech company
• Remote-first culture with flexible working arrangements
• Small team, big impact — your work directly supports Astra’s ability to scale responsibly
• Professional growth opportunities in compliance and risk management
• Mission-driven — build infrastructure that powers financial innovation while meeting the highest regulatory standards