Payment Operations Analyst

ABOUT ASTRA Astra is building mission-critical infrastructure for moving money at scale. Our platform processes billions in annual transaction volume with 99.9%+ uptime, powering real-time transfers, bank debits, card disbursements, and complex financial compliance systems. We provide APIs and automation tools that enable businesses to move money programmatically while maintaining strict regulatory requirements. THE ROLE 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. WHAT YOU’LL DO - 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 WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR Required Experience - 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 Education - 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 Technical Skills - 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 Preferred Experience - Direct experience with sponsor bank or BaaS (Banking-as-a-Service) relationships - Familiarity with ISO 8583 messaging, NACHA ACH rules, or card network chargeback/dispute processes - Experience working with a bank partner on limit incr…