Role Overview
We are seeking a Senior Solutions Architect – Global Payments & Financial Platforms to design and lead the evolution of a multi-country, multi-rail payments and credit platform supporting card acceptance (CP + CNP), fuel card integrations, direct bill, ACH/RTP, and custom aviation billing workflows.
This role will define the target-state architecture across:
•            Multi-acquirer strategy (US, EU, LATAM)
•            Custom orchestration layer (routing, retry, failover, token abstraction)
•            PSD2/SCA/3DS compliance
•            Stored credential and MIT frameworks
•            Fuel card integrations
•            Direct bill and credit lifecycle automation
•            Treasury and settlement integration
The architect will partner with product, treasury, operations, and engineering to build a resilient, scalable payments platform that supports high-value aviation transactions and enterprise-grade credit models.
 
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Key Responsibilities
1?? Payments Architecture & Strategy
•            Define target-state payments architecture across card-present and card-not-present environments.
•            Design multi-acquirer and multi-region connectivity strategy.
•            Evaluate PSP vs traditional acquiring vs hybrid models.
•            Establish tokenization strategy (network tokens, processor tokens, vault ownership).
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2?? Orchestration & Routing Design
•            Architect a custom or vendor-based orchestration layer including:
o            Intelligent routing (cost + performance optimization)
o            Soft-decline retry logic
o            SCA exemption management
o            Failover strategies
o            High-value transaction handling
•            Design abstraction layer for adding new countries or acquirers.
•            Support non-standard rails (fuel cards, fleet cards, aviation-specific instruments).
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3?? Regulatory & Scheme Compliance
•            Lead PSD2 / SCA / 3DS 2.x architecture.
•            Implement stored credential framework and MIT handling.
•            Ensure PCI DSS compliance scope optimization.
•            Maintain network compliance alignment with:
o            Visa
o            Mastercard
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4?? Aviation-Specific Payment Models
•            Architect integration for fuel card providers.
•            Design direct bill lifecycle (credit approval ? billing ? collections ? settlement).
•            Support blended payment models (card + invoice + ACH).
•            Enable post-service adjustments and merchant-initiated transactions.
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5?? Cross-Functional Alignment
•            Partner with Treasury on settlement flows, reconciliation, and FX strategy.
•            Collaborate with FBO operations for CP payment experience.
•            Align with digital teams on wallet and customer portal architecture.
•            Lead vendor evaluations (Elavon, Adyen, Stripe, orchestration providers).
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6?? Performance & Optimization
•            Drive authorization rate optimization.
•            Design reporting and analytics framework across acquirers.
•            Establish monitoring and observability strategy.
•            Define KPIs: auth rates, decline recovery, SCA success, cost per transaction.
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Required Experience:
•            10+ years in payments architecture, fintech, or financial infrastructure.
•            Experience with at least one:
o            Traditional acquirer (Elavon, Fiserv, Worldpay) - preferred
o            Global PSP (Stripe, Adyen)
o            In-house payment gateway build
•            Deep knowledge of:
o            CP + CNP flows
o            SCA / 3DS 2.x
o            Stored credentials & MIT
o            Multi-MID and cross-border setups
•            Experience with ACH, RTP, SEPA, or direct debit rails.
•            Exposure to commercial / fleet / fuel card ecosystems strongly preferred.
•            Experience designing high-availability systems for 24/7 operations.
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Strongly Preferred
•            Experience in aviation, travel, hospitality, or fleet payments.
•            Multi-country regulatory experience (EU + US).
•            Direct bill / B2B credit lifecycle experience.
•            Familiarity with PCI scope reduction strategies.
•            Experience leading payments transformation programs.
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Technical Depth Expected
•            API-driven architectures
•            Event-driven systems
•            Idempotency and retry design
•            Token vault abstraction
•            Microservices-based routing engines
•            Cloud-native deployment models (AWS/Azure)
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Soft Skills
•            Executive communication capability
•            Ability to translate regulatory complexity into product strategy
•            Vendor negotiation literacy
•            Systems thinking
•            Comfort operating in high-transaction, high-value environments


Horizontal facilitates valuable and productive conversations between you and potential employers. We can assist you in growing your career by partnering you with employers that offer challenging assignments. For those that join the team, we offer competitive compensation and benefits including medical, dental, vision, and retirement. Check out all we have to offer and how you can become part of the Horizontal Talent Team. The pay range for this role is $49 - $85 per hour. This is not a guarantee of compensation, as final offer amount may vary based on factors including but not limited to experience and geographic location.