Payment Operations Analyst, Astra

• 0–2 years of experience in payments operations, banking operations, or a related fintech/financial services role
• Comfortable learning payment rails (ACH, RTP/FedNow, card networks) quickly on the job; no prior deep expertise required
• Willingness to write and own external-facing communication with banking partners — this role involves regular, direct written correspondence with bank contacts
• Comfortable writing basic SQL queries, or eager to learn quickly (this role runs recurring data pulls against production data)
• Strong attention to detail — this role involves reconciling financial data across systems where small discrepancies matter
• Ability to manage multiple concurrent open items/threads without letting things fall through the cracks
• Comfortable working in a fast-moving startup environment with evolving processes
• Ability and willingness to travel up to ~15% annually
• Bachelor's degree in Finance, Business, Economics, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience
• No specific certifications required, though familiarity with NACHA rules or card network operating regulations is a plus
• Comfortable with SQL for querying transaction data (BigQuery experience a plus)
• Proficiency with spreadsheets for reconciliation and reporting
• Exposure to payment processing systems, core banking platforms, or similar operational tooling
• Direct experience with sponsor bank or BaaS (Banking-as-a-Service) relationships

Desirable

• We're looking for a Payments Operations Analyst to keep our money movement rails — ACH, RTP, FedNow, and card networks (Visa and Mastercard) — running smoothly and to be the operational glue between Astra, our sponsor banks, and our clients
• You'll work at the intersection of banking operations, product, and client support, monitoring transaction flows, resolving exceptions, and helping scale our sponsor bank relationship as volume grows
• Monitor daily transaction activity across ACH, RTP/FedNow, and card rails (AFT/OCT) for anomalies, failures, and settlement issues
• Triage and resolve payment exceptions, including ACH returns, AFT/OCT decline codes, and failed settlements
• Draft and send day-to-day operational emails to sponsor banks — following up on open items, flagging discrepancies, and pushing issues to resolution
• Maintain a running log of open items across bank partners (settlement timing, rate limit requests, network enablement, reconciliation gaps) and drive them toward closure
• Investigate and respond to chargebacks and disputes, assembling evidence and tracking cases through to resolution within card network reason codes and timelines
• Reconcile network settlement files (Visa/Mastercard/ACH) against internal records to identify and resolve discrepancies
• Run SQL queries against production transaction data to support limit increase requests, exception analysis, and ad hoc operational questions
• Build projection models (e.g., month-over-month volume growth, peak-day analysis) to support rail-specific limit increase requests with sponsor banks
• Support client-facing escalations related to payment failures, delays, or fraud disputes, translating technical rail issues into clear client communication
• Document processes and help identify opportunities to automate manual reconciliation and dispute workflows
• Every dollar that moves through Astra's platform touches this role at some point — whether it's a client's payout succeeding on time, a dispute getting resolved fairly, or a settlement discrepancy getting caught before it becomes a bigger problem
• As we expand partners and payment rails, this role is critical to keeping operations reliable, our banking relationships healthy, and our clients confident in the platform