Senior Manager, Payment Operations (Remote)

Guild is hiring a Senior Manager, Payment Operations to lead our Payment Operations team, which is responsible for the delivery of accurate and timely tuition and employer benefit dollars across Guild’s payment marketplace.

This individual will ensure the success of this function by managing strategic planning, system and process optimization, and internal and external stakeholder management—all while ensuring successful execution against compliance requirements.

A critical component of this role will be leading a high-performing, engaged, well-structured, and successful team by managing workforce management, team staffing, and employee lifecycle activities.

Key Responsibilities

Team & Operational Leadership

• Manage a team of operations professionals to facilitate accurate and timely tuition and employer benefit dollars across Guild’s payment marketplace.
• Deliver KPIs and key business outcomes by ensuring teams have the right staffing models, tactical resources, tools, and expectations.
• Lead planning for the team in support of division, function, and company strategy and goals.
• Lead a high-performing, engaged, successful team by managing workforce management, team staffing, and end-to-end employee lifecycle activities.
• Instill a culture of belonging, diversity, accountability, and performance within the team and cross-functionally.
• Serve as a talent steward that enables team member growth, development, and excellence.

Payment Operations & Strategy

• Serve as a Payments expert—deeply understanding payment outcomes, processes, systems, and workflows.
• Build systems, processes, tools, and feedback loops that identify, escalate, and help resolve critical payment issues.
• Ensure payment processing systems, platforms, and operations support delivery of key KPIs now and in the future.
• Develop and execute against strategies and plans that enable operational excellence at scale.
• Develop and report on KPIs that ensure delivery of key business outcomes.
• Develop OKRs that drive team and individual performance.

Function Transformation

• Partner with key cross-functional leaders in Product, Engineering, Business Systems, InfoSec, and other teams to institute systems, forums, and feedback loops that deliver on strategic initiatives.
• Drive internal payment system development, including input into product and business systems roadmap prioritization.
• Partner with internal and external leaders to understand payment needs, solution against novel requirements, and inform prioritization and go/no-go decisioning.

Compliance & Risk Management

• Develop and ensure SOC 1 and other compliance programs are successfully executed on and meet partner and business needs.

Required Background & Competencies:

• Payments Expertise: Proven experience in payment operations, financial operations, or related domains with deep understanding of payment processes, systems, and compliance requirements.
• Operational Leadership: Demonstrated ability to lead operational functions, manage KPIs/OKRs, and deliver outcomes at scale.
• People Leadership: Experience building, leading, and developing high-performing teams, including workforce planning, staffing, and employee lifecycle management.
• Process & Systems Optimization: Strong track record of building and improving processes, tools, and workflows to enhance operational excellence and scalability.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Success partnering with Product, Engineering, Compliance, and other business teams to drive system development and execute complex initiatives.
• Compliance Management: Experience managing and executing compliance programs (e.g., SOC 1 or similar financial/operational controls).
• Strategic Planning & Execution: Ability to translate company and functional goals into operational strategies and deliver results.
• Data-Driven Problem Solving: Skilled in using metrics, KPIs, and data analysis to inform decisions, identify issues, and drive continuous improvement.
• Stakeholder Management: Strong ability to manage and influence internal and external stakeholders in fast-paced, high-stakes environments.

We are committed to equal pay for equal work and believe in compensation transparency. All salary ranges are standardized nationwide and will not vary by region. This role offers a competitive total compensation package, including a base salary of $115,000 - $135,000 and stock options. Compensation offered will be based on a combination of factors such as experience, competencies, and internal equity.