Director of Payments

The Mission:

Scalapay is a regulated Payment Institution providing Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) services across European markets. As a fast-growing fintech operating under strict compliance requirements (DORA, PCI-DSS, GDPR), we serve millions of customers and thousands of merchants across Italy, France, and other European countries.

The Director of Payments will lead Scalapay's payment strategy and commercial operations, driving optimization across our multi-processor payment infrastructure and banking relationships. Reporting to the CTO and have a matrix reporting relationship to the CEO of Scalapay IP (our regulated entity), this role will focus on payment economics, vendor negotiations, and strategic partnerships while collaborating closely with the Payment Domain engineering team. This is a strategic and commercial role focused on maximizing payment performance, minimizing costs, and building the financial infrastructure to support our consumer lending expansion.

Key Responsibilities:

Payment Strategy & Economics

• Define and execute payment strategy to maximize authorization rates while minimizing costs
• Own payment economics including processor fees, interchange optimization, and cost attribution
• Develop business cases and ROI analysis for payment initiatives and infrastructure investments
• Lead strategic decisions on payment routing, processor selection, and payment method expansion
• Drive payment performance analytics and KPI reporting to executive team
• Identify and evaluate emerging payment technologies and market opportunities

Commercial Management & Negotiations

• Lead commercial negotiations with payment processors on pricing, terms, and SLAs
• Manage payment vendor relationships and contract renewals
• Negotiate interchange fees, scheme fees, and processing rates
• Build business cases for processor additions, changes, or consolidations
• Drive cost optimization initiatives across payment stack (target: 5-10% reduction annually)
• Establish and manage payment vendor governance and performance reviews

Core Banking & Settlement Strategy

• Define merchant payout strategy leveraging SEPA rails and core banking platform
• Optimize settlement economics including timing, costs, and working capital impact
• Lead core banking platform vendor relationship and commercial optimization
• Support loan securitization from a payment and settlement infrastructure perspective
• Drive treasury efficiency through improved settlement processes and reconciliation
• Partner with Finance on payment operations P&L management

Banking Relationships & Infrastructure

• Build and maintain relationships with banking partners supporting SEPA operations
• Lead strategic decisions on banking infrastructure and correspondent banking relationships
• Support securitization facility requirements with robust payment reporting and operations
• Navigate EU banking ecosystem (TARGET2, EBA Clearing) for optimal payment execution
• Drive compliance with SEPA scheme rules and EU banking regulations
• Represent Scalapay in banking industry forums and with financial institution partners

Stakeholder Management & Leadership

• Partner with Product, Business, and Commercial teams on payment strategy alignment
• Provide regular updates to CTO and executive team on payment performance and commercial opportunities
• Represent payment function in board and investor discussions
• Lead cross-functional initiatives requiring payment expertise (e.g., securitization, market expansion)
• Communicate complex payment economics and trade-offs to non-technical stakeholders
• Build internal knowledge and capability around payment operations and economics

Required Qualifications

Experience

• 10+ years in payments, fintech, or financial services with progressive responsibility
• 5+ years in strategic/commercial payment roles (payment strategy, vendor management, business development)
• Proven track record leading commercial negotiations with payment processors and banking partners
• Experience managing multi-million dollar payment budgets and P&L responsibility
• Direct experience with regulated financial services environments (Payment Institution, Bank, EMI)
• History of driving payment optimization and cost reduction initiatives
• Experience supporting securitization or asset-backed lending operations (preferred)
• Background in strategy consulting, investment banking, or corporate development (bonus)

Commercial & Strategic Expertise

• Deep understanding of payment economics including interchange, scheme fees, and processing costs
• Expert knowledge of payment processor commercial models and pricing structures
• Strong financial acumen with ability to build business cases and ROI models
• Experience with commercial negotiations and contract management
• Understanding of banking relationships and correspondent banking arrangements
• Knowledge of treasury operations and working capital optimization
• Experience with vendor management and performance governance frameworks

Technical Understanding (Strategic Level)

• Strong grasp of payment processing architecture, card networks, and payment orchestration
• Understanding of payment security standards (PCI-DSS, 3DS, tokenization) and regulatory implications
• Familiarity with payment APIs, integration patterns, and processor capabilities
• Knowledge of core banking platforms and loan servicing systems architecture
• SEPA payment expertise including SEPA Credit Transfer (SCT), Instant SEPA (SCT Inst), and Direct Debit (SDD)
• Understanding of loan securitization processes and technical requirements for asset-backed facilities
• Knowledge of ISO 20022 messaging standards and EU banking infrastructure
• Ability to evaluate technical trade-offs and provide strategic direction (hands-on engineering not required)

Leadership & Influence Skills

• Strong executive presence with ability to influence senior stakeholders and board members
• Excellent negotiation skills with track record of securing favorable commercial terms
• Strategic thinking with ability to conne