Senior Director - EU Payment Operations & Strategy, Product Management

The Company

PayPal has been revolutionizing commerce globally for more than 25 years. Creating innovative experiences that make moving money, selling, and shopping simple, personalized, and secure, PayPal empowers consumers and businesses in approximately 200 markets to join and thrive in the global economy. 

We operate a global, two-sided network at scale that connects hundreds of millions of merchants and consumers. We help merchants and consumers connect, transact, and complete payments, whether they are online or in person. PayPal is more than a connection to third-party payment networks. We provide proprietary payment solutions accepted by merchants that enable the completion of payments on our platform on behalf of our customers.

We offer our customers the flexibility to use their accounts to purchase and receive payments for goods and services, as well as the ability to transfer and withdraw funds. We enable consumers to exchange funds more safely with merchants using a variety of funding sources, which may include a bank account, a PayPal or Venmo account balance, PayPal and Venmo branded credit products, a credit card, a debit card, certain cryptocurrencies, or other stored value products such as gift cards, and eligible credit card rewards.  Our PayPal, Venmo, and Xoom products also make it safer and simpler for friends and family to transfer funds to each other. We offer merchants an end-to-end payments solution that provides authorization and settlement capabilities, as well as instant access to funds and payouts. We also help merchants connect with their customers, process exchanges and returns, and manage risk. We enable consumers to engage in cross-border shopping and merchants to extend their global reach while reducing the complexity and friction involved in enabling cross-border trade. 

Our beliefs are the foundation for how we conduct business every day.  We live each day guided by our core values of Inclusion, Innovation, Collaboration, and Wellness. Together, our values ensure that we work together as one global team with our customers at the center of everything we do – and they push us to ensure we take care of ourselves, each other, and our communities.

Job Summary:

This job focuses on establishing a unified vision for a product portfolio or platform product and leading its strategic development with cross-functional teams. It shapes the architectural roadmap to balance innovation, regulatory needs, and profitability while prioritizing customer experience. The position uses metrics from usability studies and market analysis to inform decisions and standardizes workstreams for data-driven insights. It also oversees product profitability and manages a team of product managers to enhance collaboration in a dynamic environment. This job is an individual contributor.

Job Description:

Essential Responsibilities:

• Establish a shared vision across the company for a portfolio of products, or platform products enabling development & scalability, with a deliberate and cohesive strategy.
• Leads product strategy development, and develops a clear, executable view of the product portfolio strategy with cross-functional stakeholders.
• Shapes the architectural roadmap and balances innovative design and technical implementation, while balancing regulatory requirements, time-to-market, meeting customer needs and product profitability.
• Champions the customer experience and prioritizes customer needs in product requirements and decision making.
• Defines and uses metrics that inform the success of products including usability studies, research and market analysis.
• Standardizes workstreams to include analytics, customer discovery, market research and competitive analysis to drive data-driven decision-making.
• Responsible for product portfolio profitability, including budgetary decisions.
• Leads operational mechanisms that drive execution and accountability including Product Reviews, Operating Reviews, and Business Reviews. Interfaces with senior leadership as needed.
• Maximizes efficiency in a constantly evolving environment where the process is fluid and creative solutions are the standard.

Minimum Qualifications:

• 12+ years relevant experience and a Bachelor’s degree OR Any equivalent combination of education and experience.
• 5 years of experience leading others

Department: Payments Operations & Strategy, PayPal EU

Reports to: VP, Payments, PayPal Inc. — with dual accountability to the Luxembourg entity's Management Board on CSSF-supervised matters

About the Role

PayPal is seeking a Senior Director of Payments Operations and Strategy to lead payments operations and strategic direction for PayPal Europe, with a particular focus on the SEPA (Single Euro Payments Area) ecosystem. Based in Luxembourg, home of PayPal's EU-regulated entity, this leader will be accountable for the performance, resilience, and strategic evolution of SEPA-based payment flows — including SEPA Credit Transfer (SCT), SEPA Instant Credit Transfer (SCT Inst), and SEPA Direct Debit (SDD Core and B2B) — across PayPal's European customer and merchant base.

This is a senior leadership role at the intersection of payments strategy, regulatory operations, and cross-border execution, requiring close partnership with PayPal's EU regulatory, compliance, and banking stakeholders, as well as global Payments, Product, and Engineering teams. The role carries direct accountability for ensuring PayPal Europe's SEPA operations meet European Payments Council (EPC) scheme rules, and the operational expectations of the CSSF (Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier) as PayPal's EU competent authority.

Key Responsibilities

Strategy & Leadership

• Own the strategic roadmap for PayPal Europe's SEPA payment operations, including SCT, SCT Inst, and SDD, aligned to broader EU payments strategy and PayPal's global payments architecture.

• Represent PayPal Europe's payments strategy in engagements with the European Payments Council, EBA CLEARING, national SEPA associations, and correspondent/agent banks.

• Anticipate and plan for regulatory and scheme evolution, including PSD3/PSR, the SEPA Instant mandate, Instant Payments Regulation compliance deadlines, and IBAN/name-check (Verification of Payee) requirements — including the EU-mandated rollout timeline extending VoP coverage from SCT to SCT Inst transactions.

• Build business cases for expanding instant payments coverage, reducing settlement risk, and optimizing SEPA-related processing costs across EU markets.

• Act as the senior payments voice within PayPal Europe's leadership team, based out of the Luxembourg entity.

Operations Management

• Own end-to-end SEPA operations: credit transfer and direct debit processing, settlement, reconciliation, R-transaction (returns, refusals, rejects, reversals, refunds) handling, and exception management.

• Define and monitor KPIs specific to SEPA performance: SCT Inst success/settlement times, SDD mandate and dispute rates, R-transaction volumes, ISO 20022 message-quality/straight-through processing rates, and incident mean-time-to-resolution.

• Ensure operational resilience and business continuity for SEPA payment rails, including incident management, root-cause resolution for payment disruptions, and a defined on-call/escalation rotation for the Luxembourg-based operations team.

• Oversee relationships with PayPal's SEPA settlement and correspondent banks, clearing and settlement mechanisms (e.g., EBA CLEARING's STEP2, RT1), and payment infrastructure providers.

• Maintain fluency in ISO 20022 XML messaging standards underlying SEPA schemes, and oversee the operational impact of any scheme-mandated messaging changes.

Regulatory, Risk & Compliance

• Ensure PayPal Europe's SEPA operations comply with EPC rulebooks (SCT, SCT Inst, SDD Core, SDD B2B), PSD2 (and forthcoming PSD3/PSR), the Instant Payments Regulation, and CSSF supervisory expectations.

• Partner with PayPal's EU Compliance, Legal, and Regulatory Affairs teams on regulatory reporting, audits, and supervisory reviews conducted by or on behalf of the CSSF.

• Own SEPA-related AML/CFT operational controls in partnership with Financial Crimes Compliance, including sanctions and verification-of-payee (VoP) requirements.

• Manage mandate management, dispute, and chargeback frameworks for SDD in line with scheme rules and consumer protection obligations across EU member states.

Vendor & Stakeholder Management

• Manage and negotiate relationships with SEPA-participating banks, payment infrastructure vendors, and clearing and settlement providers.

• Monitor vendor and bank partner SLAs, driving accountability for settlement timeliness, cost, and service quality.

• Serve as the primary escalation point for SEPA operational issues involving external banking and infrastructure partners.

Team Leadership

• Potential to lead a team in the future

• Foster close collaboration with PayPal's global Payments Operations organization to ensure European SEPA strategy is integrated with worldwide payments initiatives.

• Establish career development pathways and succession planning as the Luxembourg-based team scales.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Partner with Product and Engineering to influence platform roadmaps supporting SEPA Instant adoption, Verification of Payee, and future scheme changes.

• Work with Finance on SEPA-related cost forecasting, settlement account management, and liquidity planning.

• Collaborate with Customer Experience and Merchant Services teams to reduce friction in SEPA-based transactions for EU consumers and merchants.

Qualifications

Required

• 15+ years of experience in payments, fintech, or banking operations, with at least 5 years in senior leadership roles (Director-level or above, leading multi-market or multi-team operations).

• Deep, hands-on knowledge of SEPA schemes — SCT, SCT Inst, SDD Core and B2B — including EPC rulebooks and EBA CLEARING/national clearing infrastructure.

• Strong understanding of EU payments regulation: PSD2 (and awareness of PSD3/PSR developments), the Instant Payments Regulation, and CSSF/EU regulatory supervisory expectations.

• Proven experience managing bank and clearing/settlement partner relationships within the SEPA zone.

• Demonstrated success building and leading payments operations teams at scale, ideally within a regulated EU financial institution or EMI/PI.

• Strong analytical and executive communication skills, with experience presenting to EU-regulated entity leadership and/or the Luxembourg management board.

• Fluent English required; French, German, or Luxembourgish language skills are a plus given the Luxembourg base and pan-European remit.

• Willingness to travel within the EU (estimated 15–25%) for engagements with EPC, EBA CLEARING, national SEPA associations, and correspondent/agent banks.

• Eligible to work in Luxembourg; role is subject to standard financial-services background screening (identity, employment history, and financial/regulatory checks) consistent with CSSF-supervised entity requirements.

Preferred

• Direct experience operating within a PayPal (Europe) S.à r.l. et Cie, S.C.A.–type regulated entity or similar EU e-money/payment institution supervised by the CSSF or an equivalent EU regulator.

• Advanced degree in Finance, Business, or a related field (MBA a plus).

Why Luxembourg

Luxembourg is home to PayPal's EU-regulated entity and serves as PayPal's European headquarters for regulatory and payments operations. This role offers the opportunity to shape how PayPal serves millions of European consumers and merchants through SEPA rails, working at the center of PayPal's EU regulatory and payments infrastructure.

Subsidiary:

PayPal

Travel Percent:

0

PayPal does not charge candidates any fees for courses, applications, resume reviews, interviews, background checks, or onboarding. When making an application directly, we will never ask you to share passwords, one-time passcodes (OTP), or verification codes.  Any such request is a red flag and likely part of a scam. All communication regarding your application will come from official PayPal email domains. If you suspect fraudulent activity, please report it immediately.  To learn more about how to identify and avoid recruitment fraud please visit https://careers.pypl.com/contact-us. 

For the majority of employees, PayPal's balanced hybrid work model offers 3 days in the office for effective in-person collaboration and 2 days at your choice of either the PayPal office or your home workspace, ensuring that you equally have the benefits and conveniences of both locations.

Our Benefits:

At PayPal, we’re committed to building an equitable and inclusive global economy. And we can’t do this without our most important asset-you. That’s why we offer comprehensive, choice-based programs, to support all aspects of personal wellbeing—physical, emotional, and financial—delivering meaningful value where it matters most. We strive to create a flexible, balanced work culture with a holistic approach to benefits, including generous paid time off, healthcare coverage for you and your family, and resources to create financial security and support your mental health.

Who We Are:

Click Here to learn more about our culture and community.

Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion 

PayPal provides equal employment opportunity (EEO) to all persons regardless of age, color, national origin, citizenship status, physical or mental disability, race, religion, creed, gender, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, genetic information, marital status, status with regard to public assistance, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law.  In addition, PayPal will provide reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities.  If you are unable to submit an application because of incompatible assistive technology or a disability, please contact us at [email protected].  

Belonging at PayPal: 

Our employees are central to advancing our mission, and we strive to create an environment where everyone can do their best work with a sense of purpose and belonging. Belonging at PayPal means creating a workplace with a sense of acceptance and security where all employees feel included and valued. We are proud to have a diverse workforce reflective of the merchants, consumers, and communities that we serve, and we continue to take tangible actions to cultivate inclusivity and belonging at PayPal.

Any general requests for consideration of your skills, please Join our Talent Community.

We know the confidence gap and imposter syndrome can get in the way of meeting spectacular candidates. Please don’t hesitate to apply.