Director of Payment Operations and Financial Services, Vagaro
$170-240k
Annual Bonus: Up to 10%
SQL
Senior and Expert level
San Francisco Bay Area
More information about location
5 days a week in office (Pleasanton, CA)
Business management software for salons, spas, and fitness studios
Be an early applicant
Business management software for salons, spas, and fitness studios
501-1000 employees
B2BEnterpriseInternal toolsMarketingPaymentsSaaSMobileWeb Design
Be an early applicant
$170-240k
Annual Bonus: Up to 10%
SQL
Senior and Expert level
San Francisco Bay Area
More information about location
5 days a week in office (Pleasanton, CA)
501-1000 employees
B2BEnterpriseInternal toolsMarketingPaymentsSaaSMobileWeb Design
Company mission
To help small businesses and independent service professionals reach their objectives by bringing technology solutions that foster growth.
Role
Who you are
- 6–10+ years of experience in payments, fintech, or financial services, with ownership of revenue-driving programs and operational outcomes
- Strong analytical and financial modeling skills; experience building forecasts, scenario models, and business cases
- Deep understanding of payment processing economics (merchant acquiring, pricing, processor fees, interchange/assessments, and yield drivers)
- Experience working with processors, card networks, and financial institution partners
- Familiarity with risk management, fraud/chargebacks, and compliance requirements in financial services
- Comfortable operating in a fast-paced environment with multiple concurrent priorities
- Strong cross-functional leadership skills with Product, Engineering, Sales, Marketing, Support, Compliance, FP&A, and Data
- Experience in SaaS, SMB-focused financial services, or verticalized payments is a plus
- SQL/BI experience is a plus (or strong ability to partner effectively with analytics teams)
- High ownership and follow-through; willing to roll up sleeves and drive outcomes personally
- Clear communicator who turns complex analysis into executive-ready recommendations
- Operates with discipline: cadence, metrics, documentation, and accountability
- Builds strong partnerships across teams and moves quickly when issues arise
What the job involves
- The Director of Payment Operations & Financial Services owns the day-to-day execution and performance of Vagaro’s payments and embedded finance ecosystem
- This is a hands-on operator role responsible for improving payment revenue and margin, optimizing transaction performance, strengthening risk outcomes, and ensuring operational readiness and compliance across card-present, card-not-present, ACH, and wallet-based payment solutions
- This role also owns payments economics: forecasting, financial modeling, opportunity sizing, and executive-ready materials that drive decision-making
- You will work closely with FP&A and Data teams, but you are expected to personally build and maintain key models, dashboards, and weekly leadership updates
- You will partner tightly with a Payments Analyst who owns ongoing monitoring and reporting
- Together, you will ensure Vagaro detects issues early, acts quickly, and continuously improves profitability and merchant experience
- Execute Vagaro’s payments roadmap with clear milestones, owners, and measurable outcomes
- Actively manage payments performance across POS, card-present, card-not-present, ACH, and digital wallet solutions
- Own the core metrics that define success, including authorization rate, net yield, cost of processing, interchange impact, refund/void trends, dispute/chargeback rates, fraud loss, and funding performance
- Identify revenue expansion, cost optimization, and margin improvement opportunities using rigorous analysis and clear prioritization
- Build scenario models for pricing changes, partner economics, and new product launches; quantify ROI, margin impact, and operational requirements
- Drive merchant adoption of Vagaro payment solutions through improved onboarding, performance, and support readiness
- Accountable for achieving payments revenue, margin, and performance goals
- Improve operational scalability through documented processes, controls, and monitoring routines
- Establish a consistent operating cadence (daily health checks, weekly KPI review, monthly close/performance review)
- Partner with Data/Engineering to improve reporting accuracy, data availability, and metric definitions (“single source of truth”)
- Ensure dashboards and alerts exist for key performance and risk indicators, with clear thresholds and escalation paths
- Identify process gaps, define fixes, and drive implementation through cross-functional execution (Support, Risk, Product, Engineering, Finance)
- Own operational readiness for launches and changes (runbooks, training, support workflows, issue triage, post-launch reviews)
- Execute and scale embedded finance solutions such as instant payouts, lending/capital, BNPL, and other financial tools aligned to Vagaro customers
- Evaluate product viability, risk exposure, and revenue contribution; track portfolio performance and provide recurring reporting
- Manage relationships with banks, card brands, financial institutions, and fintech partners
- Support commercial negotiations with processors and financial partners by preparing economic analysis and contract scenario evaluation
- Identify new revenue opportunities and translate them into clear business cases with resourcing and timeline requirements
- Lead and develop the Payments function with a strong bias toward ownership, accountability, and execution
- Manage the Payments Analyst and ensure reporting, monitoring, and insights operate on schedule with high accuracy
- Partner with Product/Engineering to improve the merchant payment experience and accelerate delivery of high-impact initiatives
- Partner with Marketing/Sales to support payments adoption strategies and improve funnel performance
- Partner with Risk & Compliance to ensure products meet regulatory, security, and brand standards
- Prepare and present executive-ready KPI decks, business cases, and performance updates for senior leadership
- Support enterprise and franchise payment programs to align location-level performance with platform economics
- Daily: Review payments health and exceptions (volume/margin shifts, auth rate drops, funding issues, elevated disputes/fraud). Ensure triage and ownership are assigned
- Weekly: Publish a leadership KPI update with insights (what changed, why it changed, what we are doing next)
- Monthly: Complete performance review tied to close/variance, margin drivers, partner economics, and initiative impact tracking
- Quarterly: Support partner reviews and strategic planning materials, including roadmap prioritization and investment cases
- Success Metrics (How You’ll Be Measured)
- Improved net yield and margin through pricing discipline, cost optimization, and interchange/fee management
- Improved authorization rates and transaction success, with clear root-cause resolution for declines and performance degradation
- Controlled fraud and chargeback loss with measurable improvements in loss rates and operational handling
- Reduced time-to-detect and time-to-resolve for material issues through monitoring, alerts, and crisp escalation paths
- Strong execution of high-impact initiatives with predictable delivery and measurable outcomes
- Reliable, trusted reporting where leadership spends time making decisions, not debating numbers
Our take
For over a decade, Vagaro has been providing salons, spas, and fitness studios with a full suite of business management and payment processing tools, including payroll, payments, bookings, and marketing. Hitting Unicorn status back in late 2021, there has been surprisingly little fanfare around the company, which crept up on the market to secure an international footprint across the UK, US, Australia, and Canadian markets.
Benefitting from an upswing in business during the pandemic, when its salon and fitness clientele were obliged to double down on digital transformation, Vagaro has won the trust of a strong and extensive roster of independent professionals. In a time of crisis, the sector proved itself to be business-critical. This strong reputation will help ease Vagaro's planned expansion into other regional markets, as it grows its operations into the future.
Steph
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
Company
Funding (1 round)
Dec 2018
$63m
GROWTH EQUITY VC
Total funding: $63m
Company benefits
- Attractive Compensation & Performance Bonuses: Enjoy a competitive salary paired with performance-based bonuses
- Generous PTO: 15 accrued days, plus 10 company holidays annually
- Health & Wellness: Comprehensive healthcare, dental, and vision plans for you and your family. 🏥
- Exclusive Perks: Discounts on attractions, theme parks, shows, sports events, movies, hotels, and more through TicketsAtWork. 🎟️
- Beauty Perks: $30/month reimbursement for any Vagaro service, including health, beauty, or wellness treatments. 💅
- Food Perks: $50 monthly stipend for our onsite microkitchen and a complimentary DoorDash DashPass subscription. 🍽️
- Growth Opportunities: College Assistance Reimbursement, access to EAP & Work/Life Programs, and a LinkedIn Learning account. 📚
- Financial Security: 401k program with 4% matching and optional life/supplemental insurance. 💰
- Stay Active: Access to our on-site gym, flavored water dispenser, and basketball court to keep you fit and energized! 🏀
Company HQ
Pleasanton, CA
Leadership
Fred Helou
(Founder & CEO)Previously a Software Manager at Applied Materials, and then a Director at Novellus.
Salary benchmarks
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