Payment Specialist

Payments Specialist

Location: Central London

Rate: £525 per day (Inside IR35)

Duration: 12 months, with likely extension

Working Model: Hybrid – 3 days per week on site

About the Role

Our client, a leading global payments technology company, is seeking an experienced Payments Specialist to lead the implementation of key issuer-side payment controls and decisioning enhancements for one of their major UK banking partners. This role is critical to strengthening the bank’s card payment authorisation strategy, improving approval rates, enhancing authentication flows, and ensuring optimal servicing rules across contactless, PIN, and digital channels. You will act as a subject-matter expert on issuer processing logic, scheme rules, and authentication strategy, ensuring the bank implements the client’s recommended improvements effectively. This position is not a generic fraud role. It is tailored for individuals with deep expertise in issuer authorisation, authentication frameworks (incl. SCA & 3DS), and servicing rule optimisation.

Role Overview

You will drive end-to-end delivery of authorisation, authentication, and issuer servicing rule enhancements, ensuring that changes to approval logic, risk decisioning, and customer authentication processes are implemented smoothly and effectively. Working with cross-functional teams across the bank and the client, you will ensure the successful rollout of updated contactless limits, PIN retry logic, authentication step-up rules, risk controls, and scheme-mandated processing changes.

Key Responsibilities

• Issuer Authorisation & Decisioning Strategy
• Lead the implementation of enhancements to issuer authorisation rules, including contactless servicing limits, PIN retry/incorrect PIN logic, SCA step-up rules, and risk-based authorisation decisioning.
• Optimise approval/decline strategies to improve customer experience while maintaining robust risk controls.
• Ensure alignment with global payment network scheme rules, issuer mandates, and upcoming regulatory changes.
• Authentication (SCA/3DS) Strategy
• Oversee improvements to authentication flows, including 3DS performance, challenge logic, exemptions, and step-up strategies.
• Partner with digital and fraud teams to refine SCA application and reduce friction while maintaining security.
• Issuer Processing & System Implementation
• Work with the bank’s card systems, authorisation platforms, and fraud tools to operationalise recommended changes.
• Identify and resolve blockers in issuer processing logic, ensuring accurate translation of rules into production systems.
• Stakeholder Delivery & Governance
• Collaborate with internal bank teams and client SMEs to implement prioritised actions from the advisory engagement.
• Support development and rollout of new policies, procedures, and issuer servicing frameworks.
• Track progress against implementation plans and report on milestones, risks, and outcomes.

Required Skills & Experience

• Core Issuer-Side Experience (must-have)
• 6+ years in card issuing, specifically in authorisation strategy, authentication (SCA/3DS), or issuer processing/decisioning.
• Hands-on experience configuring or governing:
• Contactless servicing rules
• Incorrect PIN/PIN retry logic
• Issuer decline reason logic
• Transaction risk scoring
• Real-time authorisation decisioning
• Authentication step-up & exemption strategy
• Payments & Scheme Expertise
• Deep understanding of global payment networks scheme rules, authentication requirements, issuer mandates, and processing message flows.
• Experience with authorisation systems, fraud/risk controls, and card management systems.
• Delivery & Analytical Skills
• Strong ability to translate strategy into system configuration and operational processes.
• Proven experience managing complex delivery programmes with cross-functional teams.
• Analytical mindset with experience working with KPIs, approval rate metrics, and MI dashboards.
• Collaboration & Communication
• Ability to facilitate workshops, influence senior stakeholders, and drive consensus across technical and operational teams.
• Experience liaising between banks, scheme providers, and technical delivery teams.

Why Apply?

This is a rare opportunity to shape the core authorisation and authentication strategy of a major UK banking institution, with visibility across payments, digital, risk, and fraud teams. You will play a pivotal role in modernising issuer payment controls, improving customer experience, and ensuring the bank meets emerging scheme and regulatory requirements. If you have deep issuer-side expertise in authorisation logic, authentication flows, and payment decisioning, we would love to hear from you.