Project Manager For Cards, Payments, Issuing, Acquiring

We're hiring a Project Manager with deep, hands-on experience in Cards & Payments, specifically Card Issuing and Merchant Acquiring. Please note that this role is not for general payments profiles such as RTGS, real-time payments or corporate banking payments. We're looking for pure cards expertise.

This is a delivery ownership role, not a coordination or PMO-reporting role. You'll be accountable for the project from inception to go-live.

Location: Chennai (Perungudi), Work from Office
Start: Immediate. Early joiners will be prioritised.

Key Responsibilities

• Manage end-to-end delivery of Card Issuing and Merchant Acquiring projects, from requirement consolidation and planning through execution, release and go-live.
• Own project scope, plans, budgets, timelines, risks, issues and change management (RAID).
• Work with clients, vendors, service providers and internal teams to align delivery with client expectations, and act as a trusted advisor to clients.
• Handle end-to-end vendor management, including timely cost approvals and delivery commitments.
• Ensure compliance with Visa and Mastercard scheme mandates and data security standards throughout delivery.
• Manage stakeholder communication and escalations, and handle several projects at once under tight deadlines.
• Maintain project documentation in line with the organisation's project management processes.
• Guide and mentor team members and support internal initiatives where needed.

Must-Have Skills & Experience

• 7 to 10 years of experience in Cards & Payments within banking or financial services.
• Proven hands-on delivery of Card Issuing and/or Merchant Acquiring projects.
• Experience with Base24 and/or Way4 (strongly preferred).
• Working knowledge of Visa and Mastercard scheme mandates.
• PMP or PRINCE2 certification.
• Strong grasp of Agile and Waterfall methodologies, with working knowledge of Jira and Microsoft Project.
• Excellent written and spoken English, plus strong client, vendor and stakeholder management skills.

Please do not apply if your experience is limited to Scrum ceremonies, PMO reporting or coordination without delivery ownership, or if your payments background is outside cards (for example RTGS, real-time payments or corporate banking payments).