Payments Acquiring & Processing Architect – Igaming

Location: Johannesburg preferred / Remote considered
Employment Type: Permanent
Package: Negotiable
Confidential Search

About the Role

We are looking for an experienced Payments Acquiring & Processing Architect to lead the development of an in-house payment processor and card acquiring business for the online gambling industry.

The ideal candidate will have hands-on experience building a payment processor and taking an acquiring operation from initial licensing and scheme membership through to certification, launch and live transaction processing.

Experience within regulated or unregulated markets will be considered. Candidates must have successfully delivered a processing and acquiring operation, rather than simply integrating third-party PSPs or managing payment orchestration.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the end-to-end establishment of an in-house payment processor and acquiring operation.

• Manage licensing applications, regulatory requirements and ongoing compliance.

• Secure Visa and Mastercard membership, BIN sponsorship, banking and settlement arrangements.

• Design and oversee processing infrastructure, including authorisation, clearing, settlement, 3DS, tokenisation and payouts.

• Establish direct connections with card schemes, banks and alternative payment providers.

• Lead scheme certification and PCI DSS Level 1 compliance.

• Develop acquiring risk frameworks covering merchant underwriting, AML, fraud and chargebacks.

• Manage payment performance, approval rates, transaction costs, reconciliation and settlement.

• Build and lead the payments operations team following launch.

Requirements

• Proven experience building a payment processor from scratch, with direct connections to card schemes, banks or payment rails.

• Hands-on experience establishing a card acquiring business, including licensing, Visa/Mastercard membership, BINs and settlement arrangements.

• At least 5 years of payments experience within online gambling, casino, sportsbook, lottery or betting.

• Evidence of successfully launching and operating a processor or acquirer handling real transactions at scale.

• Strong understanding of card scheme rules, ISO 8583/20022, 3DS2, clearing, settlement and PCI DSS.

• Experience with high-risk acquiring, gambling merchant registration, fraud, AML and chargeback management.

• Commercial experience negotiating with banks, card schemes and payment providers, alongside building acquiring pricing and P&L models.

• Strong stakeholder management skills, working closely with Legal, Compliance, Finance and Engineering teams.

Experience across both regulated and unregulated markets, principal card scheme membership, and African, LATAM or Asian payment methods would be advantageous.

Important

Candidates must have genuinely built or architected a processor and been involved in establishing an acquiring operation that successfully went live. Experience limited to integrating third-party PSPs or payment orchestration will not be sufficient.

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