Senior Network Operations Manager

About Highnote

Founded in 2020 by a team of leaders from Braintree, PayPal, and Lending Club, Highnote is an embedded finance company that sets the standard in modern card platform management. As an all-in-one card issuer processor and program management platform, we provide digital-first organizations with the flexibility to seamlessly issue and process payment cards, embed virtual and physical card payments, and integrate ledger and wallet functionalities—empowering businesses to drive growth and profitability.

We’ve raised $145M+ and have grown our team to 140+ employees. Headquartered in San Francisco, we’ve managed to build one of the most advanced payments teams in the industry, with team members in 25+ US states. 

Operating through our core values of customer obsession, executional excellence, intentional inclusion, we’re helping businesses grow for the future by creating the payment products demanded by tomorrow, with the ability to solve for use cases that don’t exist yet.

We are fast-moving, hands-on, and strongly believe everyone deserves a seat at the table. We believe we’re unlocking incredible opportunities that can change the future of payments, as long as we have the right people to make it happen. 

Job Description

Highnote processes issuing and acquiring volume directly with the card networks. We run direct network processing connections across Visa, Mastercard, Discover, American Express and debit & ATM networks, and we manage the full lifecycle of BIN and ICA provisioning, network certification, settlement and reconciliation across multiple sponsor banks.

We are hiring a senior, hands-on operator who already knows how payment networks and processing work from the inside, who has the personal relationships to pick up the phone and get answers from the networks, and who can run this function independently from day one. This is not a role you grow into. You have done this before at a processor, and you can own it now.

You will partner closely with our sponsor banks, our product and engineering teams, finance, and the networks themselves. You will often be the person translating between all of them, including doing network relationship management on behalf of bank partners who do not have that expertise in house. The work is detailed and unforgiving, and it rewards someone who is meticulous, driven and tenacious about chasing a problem all the way to resolution.

This function is central to how Highnote processes payments and how our subscribers and bank partners rely on us. As our issuing and acquiring volume grows, this role gives us the depth and senior ownership to keep scaling our network connections with speed and precision. 

Location: San Francisco Office preferred, with periodic travel to network and bank partner meetings

What you’ll be doing:

You will be a senior operational owner for everything network and processing related, including:

• Network connections and processing: Own the health of our direct and gateway network connections across issuing and acquiring, including single and dual message traffic. Lead and troubleshoot connection migrations, and drive setup timelines, message processing and reporting to completion.
• BIN and ICA lifecycle: Provision, configure and manage Issuing and Acquiring BINs and ICAs across the networks. Own sponsorship registration and the associated identifiers (PayFac IDs, acquirer and issuer, acquirer BINs, ICA, CID, BID, FTSRE, NSIF), and resolve BIN blocks and setup delays directly with the networks and banks. 
• Network certification: Run certification for new connections and program types, including POS and card present and card not present test cases across the networks and debit rails.
• Network Compliance: Work with product & development teams on ensuring that the network releases(major and minor) for both issuing and acquiring are completed and as a processor we are compliant with network operating rules in all respects. Also, on an ongoing basis monitor any non compliance reported by the network or the bank partner and work on getting the non compliance resolved via development and/or variance.  
• Settlement and reconciliation: Understand and manage settlement schedules and value dates, read and apply network settlement reporting and advisements, and work with finance and engineering so that settlement and reconciliation are correct across every sponsor bank.
• Transaction investigation: Investigate processing exceptions, reversals, auth holds and disputes using network research tools, determine root cause, and drive fixes with the networks and our internal teams.
• Network economics: Understand network fees and interchange, and support BIN and program pricing strategy so we price network products correctly for subscribers.
• Relationship management: Be a trusted, senior contact for the networks and for our sponsor bank partners, and act as the mediator between banks and networks when partners cannot manage those relationships themselves.

What we are looking for:

• 10+ years in payments or card processing, including at least 5 to 7 years directly owning network operations, connectivity, certification and settlement at a processor. You have come out of a payment processor and have lived inside the processing environment, so you understand network connectivity, certification, settlement and reconciliation from the operator's seat.
• Acquiring background: You have worked in acquiring. You understand merchant acquiring and PayFac operations, not just issuing, and you can speak to both sides of the transaction as a processor representative.
• Network knowledge and connections: You know how Visa, Mastercard, Discover, American Express and debit & ATM networks like PULSE, Accel, STAR, NYCE, PLUS, Moneypass, Allpoint  actually work at the message, BIN, settlement and certification level, and you already have working relationships with people inside the networks who you can reach directly.
• Detail oriented and meticulous: You work carefully and precisely with BIN and ICA setups, certification scripts, settlement files and reconciliation, where a small error creates real downstream problems. You catch those errors before they ship.
• Driven and tenacious: You take ownership of ambiguous, high stakes problems without being told how, and you stay on them across networks, banks and internal teams until they are fully resolved. You do not need a playbook handed to you and you do not let issues drift.
• Communication: You communicate clearly with both technical and business audiences, and you are comfortable being the translator between engineering, finance, sponsor banks and the networks.