Manager of Payment Operations

Karbon is looking for a Manager of Payment Operations to own and continuously improve how payments work inside our platform. This is a hands-on builder role: you'll design, document, and operate the processes that keep Karbon's payments infrastructure running smoothly — and you'll use modern AI tools to automate as much of that work as possible.

You won't be managing a team on day one, but you'll be building the playbook that a team will eventually run. That means writing the SOPs, identifying the automation opportunities, owning the vendor relationships, and making sure Finance always has clean numbers. The ideal candidate is someone who geeks out over process design, has strong payments fundamentals in the US market, and sees AI as a genuine force multiplier.

This role sits at the intersection of Karbon's core app, our Stripe integration, and the operational layer that makes payments reliable for thousands of accounting firms.

About the Role

Own Daily Operations

• Personally manage payment reconciliation, chargeback processing flows, vendor oversight, and escalation response across Karbon's US payment flows.
• Serve as the internal subject matter expert on Stripe — monitoring performance, troubleshooting transactions where needed, and flagging anomalies.

Build the Process Layer

• Design, document, and maintain SOPs for all payment operations functions — with a clear eye toward what can be systematized, templated, or automated.
• Implement controls and workflows that are audit-ready and scalable as volume grows.

Drive AI-Assisted Automation

• Actively identify repetitive or high-volume operational tasks and lead efforts to automate them using AI tools (including Claude) and workflow tooling.
• Partner with Engineering and Product to embed automation into Karbon's payments infrastructure where manual processes currently live.
• Be the team's resident experimenter: test, document, and share what works.

Vendor & Partner Management

• Own the day-to-day relationship with Stripe and any future payment partners — monitoring SLAs, escalating issues, and ensuring reliability.
• Contribute operational and financial perspective to future payment tech stack evaluations.

Finance Partnership

• Work closely with Finance to ensure payment revenue, processing fees, and margin are accurately captured and clearly communicated.
• Build and maintain the dashboards and reporting that give leadership real-time visibility into payment economics.

Compliance & Risk Awareness

• Maintain awareness of applicable compliance requirements (PCI-DSS, ACH rules, CCPA) and ensure operational processes stay aligned.
• Fraud prevention experience is a plus 

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Partner with Product and Engineering to surface operational insights that inform roadmap decisions.
• Support CS and Implementation teams by providing payments expertise that improves the client onboarding and billing experience.

About You!

Payment volumes at Karbon are growing extremely quickly. You'll be the person who, in partnership with the GM, defines how it works: the processes, the automations, the dashboards, the playbook. When this function is mature, it'll be because you built it. For someone who wants to own something meaningful at a company with real scale and a clear payments growth trajectory, this is that opportunity.

• 3–6 years in payments operations, financial operations, or fintech — with direct, hands-on experience (not just oversight through a team).
• Strong working knowledge of US payment flows: ACH, card processing, settlements, chargebacks, and reconciliation.
• Demonstrated experience building or significantly improving payment operations processes from scratch.
• Familiarity with Stripe or comparable modern payment infrastructure.
• Genuine enthusiasm for using AI tools to automate and improve operational workflows — this is a core expectation of the role, not a future aspiration.
• Strong analytical instincts; comfortable in spreadsheets, dashboards, and data.
• Clear communicator who can translate payments complexity for non-specialist audiences.

Nice to Have

• Experience with fraud prevention, underwriting, or risk monitoring in a payments context.
• Exposure to international payment flows (Canada, UK, AU, NZ).
• Experience in a SaaS or fintech company serving SMB or professional services clients.
• Familiarity with PCI-DSS compliance requirements.

Success Metrics (First 6-12 Months)

• Core payment operations SOPs documented, with clear automation coverage mapped — what's automated, what's in progress, what's manual and why.
• Reconciliation and chargeback processes running cleanly with minimal exception rate.
• At least two meaningful workflow automations shipped and in active use.
• Finance team has real-time visibility into payment revenue, costs, and margins through live dashboards.
• Karbon's Stripe relationship actively managed with SLA visibility and a clear escalation path.
• Recommendations delivered on pricing and fee structures across active payment methods.

Why Work at Karbon?

• Gain global experience across Australia, New Zealand, UK, and Canada
• Strong benefits package including:
• Flexible Time Off with an encouraged 4 weeks use per year
• Company paid medical for you and eligible spouse/partner and dependents
• Paid dental and vision and eligible spouse/partner and dependents
• 401(k) with company matching
• Flexible Spending Account
• Up to 8 weeks paid parental leave
• Work-from-home stipend
• Work with (and learn from) an experienced, high-performing team
• A collaborative, team-oriented culture that embraces diversity, invests in development and provides consistent feedback
• Be part of a fast-growing company that firmly believes in promoting high performers from within