Product Lead, Payments

Responsibilities

• End-to-end product ownership of Astra's payments rails – Visa Direct, Mastercard Move, RTP, FedNow, ACH, and stablecoin – from API contract through settlement and reconciliation
• Manage the transaction lifecycle: authorization, clearing, settlement, dispute/chargeback handling, and exception management
• Design developer-facing payments primitives: API design, payload schemas, error surfaces, and webhook contracts
• Develop multi-rail routing logic: selection, fallbacks, and optimization across rails based on speed, cost, and risk
• Handle payments compliance surface: Reg E implications, network rule adherence (VCR framework, dispute windows), and AML/sanctions workflow integration
• Define rail-specific product strategy and roadmap: capability gaps, emerging features, and monetization opportunities
• Partner with payment operations and engineering on incident response, degraded-rail scenarios, and SLA commitments

Day-to-Day

• Write rigorous PRDs and technical specs for complex payment flows, handling edge cases, failure modes, and regulatory constraints
• Own the product roadmap, prioritizing rail expansions, developer experience improvements, and compliance requirements
• Conduct deep discovery with customers and prospects to surface unmet needs
• Partner with engineering to define API contracts, review implementation, and ensure developer ergonomics
• Collaborate with compliance and legal on network rule changes, NACHA updates, and card network bulletins
• Work with payment operations to define reconciliation requirements, exception-handling workflows, and ops tooling
• Represent the payments product in customer conversations, sales cycles, and external thought leadership

Requirements

Required Experience

• 6+ years of product management experience, with at least 3 years building payments products at infrastructure, fintech, or card network depth
• Hands-on experience with at least two of: ACH, RTP/FedNow, Visa Direct/Mastercard Move, card issuing or acquiring, or stablecoin rails
• Deep familiarity with the transaction lifecycle – authorization, clearing, settlement, disputes – and operational mechanics
• Experience navigating Reg E, NACHA operating rules, or Visa/Mastercard network rules
• Strong API product instincts – shipped developer-facing payment APIs
• Comfort operating with ambiguity at the IC level
• Exceptional written communication for complex payment flow specs
• Demonstrated ability to influence across engineering, compliance, and operations without authority

Preferred Experience

• Experience at a BaaS provider, card network, sponsor bank, or payments infrastructure company
• Familiarity with stablecoin settlement rails (USDC, USDT) and interaction with fiat rails
• Background in chargeback lifecycle mechanics, dispute reason codes, or VCR workflow design
• Prior work on multi-rail routing or smart payment orchestration logic