Head of Card Schemes Department LATAM

About Unlimit

Founded in 2009, Unlimit is a global fintech company with 16 offices all over the world and more than 500 employees, that offers a large portfolio of financial services - from acquiring (payment processing) to banking as a service. Our mission is to be “ready for tomorrow” and to provide our customers with a sense of stability in the everchanging financial landscape and an opportunity to be prepared for whatever the tomorrow of business brings their way, so that while others observe, they can already take an advantage.

About the Job:

Unlimit is the most cutting-edge payment company providing a unique and high-tech suite of solutions to e-commerce merchants and card issuing products.

As part of our dynamic growth, we seek a Head of Acquiring & Issuing to our Card Schemes Department with proven experience and expertise in Card Acquiring and Issuing.

In this role, you will be responsible for the development and launch of new Acquiring card methods for Acquiring portfolio and Card products and services for Issuing portfolio with focus on the LATAM market , APAC, Africa markets working closely with Card Schemes (Visa / MC and other Schemes), Partners, Vendor, Card Manufacture.

To help accomplish your responsibilities, you will work closely with the Card Processing team, Settlement team , Finance team, PSP, Legal, Acquiring team, Analytics teams, Banking team and other department will be involving in the acquiring and issuing setup or process for Acquiring and Issuing.

This position expects a lot of communication with Card schemes, external stakeholders, and partners. Mother language of the candidate must be Spanish. Fluent English – must.

The vacancy expects working from Mexico office.

We understand that a candidate can be a Star in one of the vertical (acquiring or issuing) and accordingly, we are ready to consider candidates with relevant work experience in at least one of these verticals (Acquiring or Issuing) with the desire and ability to grow and develop in other verticals.

• End-to-end product management of our Card payment methods: starting with getting a license for acquiring and issuing methods in Card Schemes ending the technical implementation of the card methods products and launch to the market.
• Definition, planning, specification, product development, go-live, and rollout.
• Develop relationship with card schemes (Prosa / MasterCard / Visa / Elo / and etc.) as part of the implementation of Cards payment methods.
• Analysis of technical documentation of Card Schemes, preparing and description business requirement for new Acquiring card methods and Issuing products, control, and execution of mandatory changes of Card Schemes.
• Development of business and technical requirements for each developed Acquiring and Issuing card product and service.
• Interaction with TPP, Card Schemes, vendors for the manufacture and personalization of cards.
• Collaborate closely with cross-functional teams to innovate and launch new card payment products and services for Acquiring and Issuing and to drive excellence in our network.
• Provide day-to-day product delivery and quality management.
• Ensure awareness of product status and roadmap risks across the group.
• Drive post-launch look-backs and internal process improvements.
• Commit to continuous improvement through metrics and user-driven insights.
• Analyze and understand how card-acquiring methods and services fit into the market and merchant needs.
• Continuously enhance and improve Card’s acquiring capabilities.
• Develop Manuals and Instructions for the internal Departments for each product and method, SLAs, etc. for the effective rollout of Acquiring and Issuing business and ensuring smooth operation of the business.
• Analyze Card Scheme invoices in detail on a monthly basis to ensure that the assigned fee is billed correctly, analyzing the costs in detail every month to ensure that the assigned budget is met. Closely work with Finance and Reconciliation team.
• Handle run products and resolve them in an effective and quick manner.
• Maintain an excellent knowledge of the Acquiring market including competitive analysis and ad hoc market research.
• Ensuring compliance with Mandatory Changes of Card Schemes.
• Building new Acquiring and Issuing products and enhancing our existing solutions.
• Effectively document and describe the business and technical requirements, understand business processes, prioritize the team’s backlog.
• Define and document the problem, scope, functional specifications and requirements, use cases and success criteria for new functionality.
• Create test plans and run testing for new products, documentation, and work closely with go to market teams to deliver working features.
• Optimize existing business processes, focusing on reducing processing errors, declines, and improving transaction processing time.

• Strong knowledge and technical background in Card Acquiring payments, Card Issuing and in card payment processing . Experience with Prosa (local MX domestic switch) is a plus!
• Proven experience in Card Acquiring payments and Issuing of the technical implementing of card methods with Card Schemes.
• Proven experience in the certification of the Card products with Card Schemes (MC /Visa and etc.).
• Excellent knowledge of Card Schemes Rules (Visa / MasterCard and etc). Prosa (local MX domestic switch) is a plus!
• Understanding of business needs and having the ability to connect the technical part with business ones.
• Strong knowledge of Card Schemes Invoice structure and settlement process and reconciliation.
• Proven experience working with Mandatory Changes of Card Schemes.
• Proven experience working with Local Switch in Mexico (Prosa / E-Global) or other local Switches in other markets.
• Strong Expertise in payment systems, card methods and technologies.
• Proven experience and deep understanding of bank card issuing organization (Perso Bureau, processing, back office).
• Proven experience in card profile development, CPV, CNS certifications.
• Proven experience with Perso Bureau in the implementation and launch of card products.
• Good knowledge and understanding in EMV technology and specifications.
• Clear knowledge of the end to end card flow including bank acquiring, recurring tokenization payments, Apple and Google Pay and similarities/differences across Card schemes and data messaging standards.
• Must be a succinct communicator and be highly analytical.
• Must be able to talk knowledgeably with Card Schemes, vendors, Partners, banks who live and breathe payments every day.
• Experience integrating third-party providers.
• Strong leadership and decision-making skills, with a track record of driving results in a dynamic environment.
• A good technical and project management understanding of how complex products are developed.
• Passionate about the acquiring and issuing industry.

• Knowledge of Portuguese.
• Knowledge of Brazil, Peru market, experience in Card Acquiring in other markets (APAC, Africa , EU , Japan, India).
• Proven experience and deep understanding of the implementation of a new card product (key management / certificates / chip profile creation / certification).
• Experience / knowledge of SAC tool (Prosa) and experience with Elo.

• Attractive monthly salary paid in line with experience.
• Vacation, sick, and paid holidays.
• Modern workplace based in Mexico.
• A team of top international professionals to learn from and work with.
• Multicultural working environment.

Join Unlimit Team now!

Unlimit is an equal opportunity employer. We believe passionately that employing a diverse workforce is central to our success. We make recruiting decisions based on your experience and skills. We welcome applications from all members of society irrespective of age, sex, disability, sexual orientation, race, religion or belief.