Product Lead, Payments

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 Staff-level Product Lead to own the payments product surface at Astra – the rails, transaction flows, money movement mechanics, and the developer experience that sits on top of them. This is a deeply technical, highly cross-functional IC role. You won't manage a team, but you will operate like a principal: setting direction, driving alignment across engineering, compliance, and operations, and taking full ownership of outcomes on Astra's most revenue-critical product surface.

You'll work directly with the Leadership Team and alongside a small but growing product team. The right person has lived inside the complexity of card networks, ACH, and real-time rails and knows what it feels like to ship payment products that have to work every time.

What You’ll Own

• End-to-end product ownership of Astra's payments rails – Visa Direct, Mastercard Move, RTP, FedNow, ACH, and stablecoin – from API contract through settlement and reconciliation

• The transaction lifecycle: authorization, clearing, settlement, dispute/chargeback handling, and exception management

• Developer-facing payments primitives: API design, payload schemas, error surfaces, and webhook contracts that serve sophisticated fintech builders

• Multi-rail routing logic: how Astra selects, fallbacks, and optimizes across rails based on speed, cost, and risk parameters

• Payments compliance surface: Reg E implications, network rule adherence (VCR framework, dispute windows), and AML/sanctions workflow integration

• Rail-specific product strategy and roadmap: identifying capability gaps, emerging network features (e.g., RTP request for payment), and net-new monetization opportunities

• Close partnership with payment operations and engineering on incident response, degraded-rail scenarios, and SLA commitments

What You’ll Do Day-to-Day

• Write rigorous PRDs and technical specs for complex payment flows, with explicit handling of edge cases, failure modes, and regulatory constraints

• Own the product roadmap for your surface area – prioritizing ruthlessly across rail expansions, developer experience improvements, and compliance requirements

• Conduct deep discovery with customers and prospects to surface unmet needs in how they move money

• Partner with engineering to define API contracts, review implementation, and maintain a high bar on developer ergonomics

• Collaborate with compliance and legal on network rule changes, NACHA updates, and card network bulletins – translating regulatory inputs into product requirements

• Work with payment operations to define reconciliation requirements, exception-handling workflows, and ops tooling needs

• Represent the payments product in customer conversations, sales cycles, and external thought leadership

What We’re Looking For

Required Experience

• 6+ years of product management experience, with at least 3 years building payments products at infrastructure, fintech, or card network depth

• Hands-on experience with at least two of: ACH, RTP/FedNow, Visa Direct/Mastercard Move, card issuing or acquiring, or stablecoin rails

• Deep familiarity with the transaction lifecycle – authorization, clearing, settlement, disputes – and the operational mechanics underneath each step

• Experience navigating Reg E, NACHA operating rules, or Visa/Mastercard network rules as inputs into product requirements

• Strong API product instincts – you've shipped developer-facing payment APIs and have opinions about what makes them great

• Comfort operating with ambiguity at the IC level – you don't need a manager to set your agenda

• Exceptional written communication; you can reduce a complex payment flow to a clear, precise spec

• Demonstrated ability to influence across engineering, compliance, and operations without direct authority

Preferred Experience

• Experience at a BaaS provider, card network, sponsor bank, or payments infrastructure company (vs. a fintech end-user)

• Familiarity with stablecoin settlement rails (USDC, USDT) and how they interact with traditional fiat rails

• Background in chargeback lifecycle mechanics, dispute reason codes, or VCR workflow design

• Prior work on multi-rail routing or smart payment orchestration logic

Why This Role Matters

• You'll have end-to-end ownership of the most technically complex and commercially critical surface in the company

• You'll work directly with leadership in a company that has product culture baked in from the start – this Director of Product hire is the first, and you'll help shape what great product management looks like at Astra

• Astra is profitable at Series A – this is a growth story, not a survival story

• Real-time, multi-rail payment infrastructure is one of the most interesting and underdeveloped product spaces in fintech

What We Offer

• Competitive compensation with equity in a growing fintech company.

• Remote-first culture with flexible working arrangements

• Small team, big impact — your work directly supports Astra’s ability to scale responsibly

• Professional growth opportunities in compliance and risk management

• Mission-driven — build infrastructure that powers financial innovation while meeting the highest regulatory standards

Remote Work and Culture

Astra is a remote-first company hiring only within the U.S. We value thoughtful collaboration, clarity, and initiative. We’re proud to be an equal opportunity employer and are committed to building a diverse and inclusive team.