Payment Operations Associate

Role overview

Workplace

• The role requires office attendance five days per week during probation for onboarding and competency development.
• After successful probation and achievement of full competency, the role transitions to a hybrid pattern of three office days and two home-working days per week.

Payments processing

• Process inbound and outbound payments accurately within agreed service levels.
• Complete daily payment activities across multiple business areas.
• Ensure payment instructions meet internal procedures and regulatory requirements.
• Investigate and resolve payment exceptions, returned payments, and processing errors.

Reconciliations and controls

• Perform daily and monthly reconciliations across bank accounts and internal systems.
• Investigate and resolve reconciliation discrepancies.
• Operate key controls, maintain accurate audit trails, and escalate issues where required.
• Support risk management through adherence to operational procedures and controls.

Stakeholder support and improvement

• Respond to customer and internal operational queries within agreed service levels.
• Support change initiatives, testing activities, and system enhancements.
• Identify opportunities to improve processes, controls, and operational efficiency.
• Maintain accurate procedures and contribute to knowledge sharing across the team.

Essential requirements

• Experience in a high-volume payments, reconciliation, or financial operations environment.
• Advanced Excel skills, including formulas, lookups, and pivot tables, with the ability to analyze large datasets.
• Experience using General Ledger or finance systems and understanding of debits, credits, and transaction matching.
• Strong attention to detail, analytical thinking, problem-solving, organization, and communication skills.
• A customer-focused, proactive, and adaptable approach with high integrity and confidence escalating issues.

Desirable requirements

• Banking or financial services experience is desirable.
• Awareness of Consumer Duty principles and financial services regulation is desirable.
• Studying toward AAT or an equivalent professional qualification is desirable.