Billing Operations Manager (Payments & Partnerships)

About Progress Partners Progress Partners is a fast-growing technology company building and scaling next-generation SaaS and mobile platforms. We blend creativity with data-driven execution to ship high-impact products — including AI-powered tools, productivity platforms, and workflow software — used by millions of people in more than 160 countries. Our global team of experts in software development, product design, growth, and analytics collaborates across time zones to deliver category-defining innovations. We work end-to-end across the product lifecycle: design, build, launch, and scale. If you’re passionate about building transformative products, Progress Partners is a place to make a lasting impact. About the Role This is a hybrid role that combines payment operations ownership with active business development across our payment partner ecosystem. You will run the day-to-day operations of a payment stack and at the same time you will be actively building our pipeline of new PSPs, acquirers, APMs, and fraud tools. At our scale, payment operations and payment partnerships are inherently linked. Reconciliation data informs processor performance, while partnership discussions identify new tools and APMs for integration. The role requires a strategic owner who manages both the operational and strategic partnership aspects. As a senior individual contributor with high autonomy, you are expected to strategically set the agenda for operational priorities and partnership outreach based on business objectives. What You’ll Do Own daily payment operations across all PSPs for all platforms. This includes settlement monitoring, payout reconciliation, refund flow oversight, and exception handling. Build and maintain operational dashboards showing per-platform, per-processor performance: approval rates, decline reasons, processor latency, settlement timing, refund velocity. Manage refund operations across the portfolio, including bulk refund handling, refund-vs-chargeback conversion, and policy enforcement. Partner with the Risk team to feed dispute data, approval data, and processor performance back into fraud and acquirer strategy. Optimize payment vendor billing, ensuring cost-effectiveness regarding processing fees, gateway fees, and fraud tool subscriptions. Maintain a live pipeline of payment partners — PSPs, acquirers, alternative payment methods (BNPL, digital wallets, APMs), fraud and chargeback tools, and adjacent fintech vendors. Source and qualify new partners through outreach (LinkedIn, conferences, warm intros, direct email) and bring at least one qualified opportunity per month to the Director of Payments for evaluation. Lead initial commercial conversations with prospective processors and tools — pricing discovery, capability matching, technical fit assessment. Drive MID applications and underwriting processes across LLCs — prepare KYB packages, financials, risk narratives, and remediation context. Negotiate commercial terms (processing rates, reserves, rolling reserve releases, chargeback fees, monthly minimums) and coordinate legal review. Stay current on industry trends — card scheme rule changes, new APMs, emerging acquirers in high-risk verticals, regulatory shifts. Share weekly intelligence with leadership. Maintain our CRM with accurate pipeline status, deal stages, and partner notes — this is non-negotiable. Work daily with the Risk team — they need the data you produce; you need their inputs to win MID applications. Partner with Finance on reconciliation, processor invoice review, and revenue reporting accuracy. Coordinate with Legal on partner contracts, processing agreements, and entity-level documentation. Brief Product and Engineering on processor capabilities, integration timelines, and operational constraints when new platforms or features are being scoped. Represent the company professionally in all external partner conversations — you are the first impression our partners get of how we operate. What We’re Looking For 3+ years in payments — either in operations at a high-volume merchant, in a commercial role at a PSP/acquirer, or a combination. Consumer subscription experience is strongly preferred. Direct hands-on experience operating a Stripe account at a meaningful scale ($1M+/month processed). You should be able to discuss balance transactions, payouts, disputes, and Connect/Standard distinctions without needing to look anything up. Working knowledge of at least one PSP or orchestration platform. Understanding of cascading and routing logic is required. Demonstrated experience opening new merchant accounts in high-risk verticals (subscription, digital goods, consumer SaaS). You should be able to walk an underwriter through a KYB package. Strong commercial instincts — comfort negotiating with PSP sales teams, reading rate cards critically, and pushing back on terms when warranted. Excellent spreadsheet skills (Excel/Google Sheets) including pivots, lookups, and reconciliation logic. Outstanding written communication — partner emails, term sheet reviews, and internal updates need to be precise and professional. Requires strict CRM discipline and demonstrated experience maintaining an accurate pipeline in a formal system. Self-directed work style. You will manage your own calendar, your own pipeline, and your own ops priorities with weekly check-ins, not daily oversight. Comfort with ownership, transparency, and a results-driven mindset. Strongly Preferred Existing networks in the payments industry (PSPs, acquirers, fraud tools, APMs) that you can leverage from day one. Experience with payment operations in a multi-entity, multi-jurisdiction context (we operate two LLCs and process globally). Familiarity with chargeback and dispute workflows from the operations side — even if Risk owns the strategy, Ops needs to understand the flow. Prior experience integrating or evaluating BNPL providers, regional APMs (e.g., iDEAL, Bancontact, Pix), or digital wallets. Proven project management capabilities — these deals and integrations have many moving parts and benefit from someone who tracks them rigorously. How Success is Measured This role is evaluated across both operational and commercial outcomes: Operations 100% reconciliation accuracy across all platforms and processors, with any discrepancies surfaced and resolved within 48 hours. Operational dashboards live and trusted by leadership within 60 days — Director of Payments should be able to see portfolio health in one place without asking. Zero operational failures on new platform launches — processor setup, reporting, refund flows, and SOPs all live before launch traffic begins. Documented payment operations SOPs covering all routine flows within 90 days. Partnerships & Pipeline At least one new MID or processor relationship opened per quarter, with diversification spread appropriately across the two LLCs. Pipeline of qualified payment partners maintained at minimum 10 active conversations at any time, tracked in CRM. At least one meaningful commercial win per quarter — rate reduction, reserve release, new APM live, or comparable measurable outcome. Industry intelligence brief delivered weekly to the Director of Payments covering relevant developments. Cross-Functional Positive structured feedback from Risk, Finance, and Legal in quarterly reviews. No deals or integrations blocked or delayed due to missing operational input from this role. Initial Context & 90-Day Focus Context for what the first 90 days actually look like: A live, complex payment stack: Orchestrating for several platforms. Reconciliation is currently more manual than it should be — your first ops project. Manage platform launches happening in your first 90 days. These need payment setup, partner onboarding, and operational readiness — and that work is yours. A leadership team that understands payments matters and is willing to invest in the right tooling, the right partners, and the right rates. You will not be fighting for resources. How We Work We’re fully remote and distributed across time zones. We default to async, communicate in writing, and trust people to deliver outcomes — not log hours. Decisions are transparent, ownership is clear, and your work is visible from day one. What We Offer Remote-first — work from anywhere in the world, no relocation required. Flexible hours — we measure outcomes, not time at a desk. Unlimited PTO — take the time you need to rest, recharge, and do your best work. Learning & development budget — courses, books, conferences, certifications, whatever helps you grow. Performance-based compensation — your impact directly shapes your pay and career trajectory. A small, senior, collaborative team where your work is visible and your decisions matter. The chance to build products used by millions of people across 160+ countries. Equal Opportunity Progress Partners is an equal opportunity employer, and we’re serious about building a diverse, inclusive team. We welcome applications from people of all genders, gender identities and expressions, sexual orientations, ages, ethnicities, nationalities, religions, disabilities, neurotypes, family situations, socioeconomic backgrounds, and life experiences. We hire on skills, experience, potential, and values fit — never on protected characteristics. If you need accommodations during the application or interview process, just let us know.