Senior Payment and Cards Solution Architect - Contract

Role Overview

We are looking for a highly experienced

Senior Payment \& Cards Solution Architect

with deep expertise across the

Cards and Payments ecosystem

, including

Issuing, Acquiring, ATM/POS Switching, ISO 8583 and ISO 20022

.

The successful candidate will be responsible for defining end-to-end solution architecture for complex Cards and Payments initiatives, working closely with business, technology, product, infrastructure, security and delivery teams.

Key Responsibilities

Define and own

end-to-end solution architecture

for Cards and Payments platforms and transformation initiatives.

Design scalable, secure and resilient solutions across

Card Issuing, Acquiring, ATM and POS environments

.

Architect solutions involving

payment switches, card management systems, payment gateways and banking platforms

.

Design and review transaction flows covering

authorisation, routing, clearing and settlement

.

Provide architecture leadership for

ISO 8583 and ISO 20022

messaging, mapping, transformation and system integration.

Define integration architecture between payment platforms, core banking systems, digital channels and external payment networks.

Develop

solution architecture documents, integration designs, interface specifications, system interaction diagrams and technical roadmaps

.

Evaluate existing payment architecture and recommend modernisation, migration and optimisation approaches.

Ensure architecture meets requirements for

high availability, scalability, performance, security and resiliency

.

Work closely with engineering and delivery teams throughout design, development, testing, certification, migration and production implementation.

Conduct architecture and technical design reviews and provide guidance to development and integration teams.

Collaborate with business stakeholders, product teams, vendors, payment networks and technology teams to translate requirements into appropriate technical solutions.

Identify architecture risks, dependencies and technical constraints and recommend appropriate solutions.

Provide technical leadership for complex Cards and Payments transformation programs.

Mandatory Experience \& Skills

Overall Delivery Experience:

10+ years in complex banking/payment technology environments.

Cards Domain:

10+ years of strong Cards and Payments experience.

ATM/POS Switching:

10+ years of deep experience in ATM/POS switching and transaction processing.

Issuing \& Acquiring:

10+ years of extensive experience across card Issuing and Acquiring platforms.

Strong knowledge of the

end-to-end card transaction lifecycle

, including authorisation, clearing, settlement, reconciliation and exception handling.

Proven experience designing

enterprise-scale payment solutions and integration architectures

.

Strong understanding of real-time transaction processing and payment routing.

Experience working with high-volume, highly available and mission-critical payment platforms.

Strong knowledge of API, middleware and system integration concepts.

Strong stakeholder management and communication skills, with the ability to engage both technical teams and senior business stakeholders.

Preferred Experience

Experience with leading

Card Management Systems and Payment Switching platforms

.

Experience integrating with major card schemes and payment networks.

Knowledge of

EMV, tokenisation, payment security and PCI DSS

.

Experience with payment platform modernisation and legacy-to-modern architecture transformation.

Exposure to

API/microservices, event-driven architecture and cloud/hybrid architectures

within banking environments.

Experience managing complex payment platform migrations and cutovers.

Strong experience with payment messaging standards and transaction flows -ISO 8583 / ISO 20022:.

Qualifications

Bachelor's degree in

Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering

or a related discipline.

Architecture, cloud, payments or relevant professional certifications would be advantageous.

Employment Type

Contract