Program Lead, Payments

We are seeking a Program Coordination Lead to provide program-level oversight, risk transparency, and executive-ready reporting for a time-sensitive payments implementation.

This role operates across multiple internal teams and external ecosystem partners, ensuring clarity, alignment, and proactive risk management while preserving existing project management ownership and client decision rights.

The ideal candidate brings deep contextual knowledge of card payments delivery models and can quickly establish operating rhythm, visibility, and accountability in a fast-moving, matrixed environment.

Program Coordination & Alignment

• Act as the central coordination point across internal stakeholders and external partners, ensuring streamlined communication and consolidated status visibility.

• Integrate updates from parallel workstreams into clear, consistent, and outcome-oriented program reporting.

• Maintain a holistic view of program health, identifying interdependencies, sequencing impacts, and critical path risks.

Risk Management & Escalation

• Proactively identify risks, blockers, and external dependency impacts before they escalate.

• Drive mitigation strategies in partnership with workstream owners.

• Ensure issues are clearly articulated, appropriately escalated, and resolved with a focus on delivery outcomes.

Client Advocacy & Executive Engagement

• Represent client priorities, constraints, and timeline commitments across all internal and partner discussions.

• Translate complex, multi-party delivery updates into concise, executive-ready status reports.

• Provide clear visibility into status, risks, dependencies, and next steps.

Operating Model & Delivery Support

• Establish program operating cadence within days of engagement.

• Coordinate around North America-specific requirements and regulatory timelines.

• Minimize cross-region friction and time-zone related delays.

• Work closely with the existing Project Manager while maintaining clear role boundaries and preserving PM execution ownership.

• Reinforce accountability without assuming task-level direction or execution control.