PRINCIPAL CONSULTANT - PAYMENTS

1. Executive SummaryIFINITY global is seeking for an experienced, visionary Principal Consultant – Payments & Cards to lead strategy, architectural delivery, and business transformation engagements for major financial institutions, neo-banks, and fintech clients globally. In this role, consultant will sit at the intersection of business strategy, technology modernization, and client relationship management. Consultant will serve as a Subject Matter Expert (SME) in modern payments architecture (ISO 20022, Real-Time Payments, Open Banking, AI assisted payments) and card issuing/acquiring platforms, driving complex enterprise transformation programs while identifying new market opportunities to grow IFINITY’s practice in enterprise payments domain. 2. Key Responsibilities• Client Engagement & Advisory Leadership: Lead end-to-end delivery of high-impact strategic advisory and digital transformation programs across the payments and card lifecycle. Advise C-suite executives and senior leaders on payment modernization strategies, legacy migration roadmaps (e.g., mainframe to microservices/cloud), Latest ISO version adoptions, and card platform ecosystem redesign. Frame business cases, ROI models, and target operating models for novel payment initiatives (A2A, Embedded Finance, BNPL, Cross-Border).• Practice Development & Thought Leadership: Mentor and grow senior consultants, lead managers, and solution architects. Define the structure of services teams, certification pathways and assist to seek opportunities to deploy certified team members for exposure. Advise on cross training areas in terms of maximizing resource utilization.• Business Development & Revenue Growth: Partner with Account Leaders and Business Development executives to originate and qualify new consulting opportunities. Drive RFP responses, pitch presentations, scope definition and technical proposals for complex payments engagements. Expand existing client accounts by identifying unaddressed pain points and proposing targeted solution portfolios.• Solution Architecture & Governance: Collaborate with enterprise engineering teams to validate solution designs, API strategies, and platform integrations for core payment systems (e.g., ACI, FIS, Fiserv, Finastra, TSYS, Marqeta). Direct business analysis, target operating model (TOM) design, compliance alignment, and risk management frameworks.3. Core Competencies & Subject Matter ExpertiseDomain / StreamTechnical & Functional ExpertisePayment ModernizationReal-Time Payments (RTP, FedNow, SEPA Instant, UPI), ISO 20022 messaging standards, Cross-Border Payments (SWIFT gpi, Ripple), SWIFT ISO migration, AI assisted payments.Card Issuing & AcquiringCredit, Debit, and Prepaid card lifecycle management; Issuer/Acquirer Processing; Scheme Rules (Visa, Mastercard, Amex); Tokenization (VTS, MDES); EMV standards.Digital Payments & Open FinanceWallets (Apple Pay, Google Pay), Account-to-Account (A2A) Payments, PSD2/PSD3, Open Banking APIs, BNPL integration, Metros payments, Embedded Finance models.Platform EcosystemsExpertise with enterprise payments switches, HSMs, Online payment platforms, Integration platforms, Fraud Management platforms, AI assisted payment platforms.Regulatory & SecurityPCI-DSS compliance, Strong Customer Authentication (SCA), AML/Sanctions Screening, Fraud/Risk platforms (Featurespace, Feedzai, FICO).4. Qualifications & Requirements• Education: Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related business discipline. Master’s degree / MBA strongly preferred.• Industry Experience: 12+ years of experience in payments, switches, cards, or transaction banking within management consulting, fintechs, or major financial institutions.• Consulting Track Record: Proven experience leading large-scale advisory teams and delivering complex digital payment transformation projects.• Stakeholder Management: Exceptional communication and presentation skills with demonstrated success managing C-level client relationships.• Technical Depth: Ability to bridge high-level business strategy with deep-dive technical architectures, API frameworks, and data models.