RZ
◆ Recruiter brief

Product & Program Executive for Payments Infrastructure

A 5-minute view of Rizwan Zafar's fit for senior product, program and fintech infrastructure roles: regulated payment rails, complex markets, bank and wallet partnerships, risk/compliance and execution at scale.

Download resumeView resumeContact
Certified: PMP · PMI-ACP · CSPO · CSM · COBIT 5 · ITIL
$1B+
GTV scaled
270M+
Annual transactions
5
Markets
99.95%
Settlement SLA
40+
Engineers led
4
Production AI deployments
Region coverage

MARKETS

Regions connected to payments operations, market expansion, rails and corridor work.

UAEKSAQatarPakistanBangladeshSri LankaNepalMyanmarNigeriaIraqEgyptMENASouth Asia

Verification Posture

Big claims need diligence. This is the recruiter-safe way to read the proof.

Entity anchors

Public identity anchors are aligned in schema: LinkedIn, Wikidata, Crunchbase and GitHub.

Third-party checks

Current role, public company context and entity identity are externally discoverable.

Reference posture

Partner, bank and enterprise-platform references can be provided for senior hiring diligence.

NDA-safe metrics

Commercial metrics are framed as platform-scale outcomes; confidential details remain reference-verifiable.

Where The Fit Is Strongest

Product Leadership

VP Product, Head of Product, Director Product, Product Lead for payments or fintech infrastructure.

  • Scaled multi-rail pay-in, payout, wallet, DCB, IBFT, card acquiring and cross-border products.
  • Owned product strategy, roadmap, partner coverage, authorization, activation and platform economics.
  • Built infrastructure used by enterprise platforms including TikTok, Samsung, Shein, Uber and MoneyGram.

Program / PMO Leadership

Program Director, Head of PMO, Technical Program Manager or transformation leader.

  • Led 12 squads, 40+ engineers, $5M+ technology budget and 15+ vendor relationships.
  • Built governance across product, engineering, risk, compliance, operations and executive reporting.
  • Delivered PCI DSS and ISO/IEC 27001 certification programs from scratch.

Payments Infrastructure

Payment infrastructure, payment orchestration, cross-border corridors, settlement and reconciliation.

  • Built regulated rails across local methods, cards, wallets, payout flows, FX and partner routing.
  • Held 97% payment success at 90% straight-through processing and a 99.95% settlement SLA.
  • Worked where compliance, risk, bank partnerships and market operations are part of the product.

AI In Fintech Operations

AI-enabled product operations, support automation, fraud/AML decisioning and incident response.

  • Shipped 4 production AI/GenAI deployments inside payment operations.
  • Reduced merchant support time, incident response time and partner support load with practical AI systems.
  • Can separate production value from AI theater, especially in regulated environments.

Hiring Lenses

Same track record, three recruiter views. Use the lens closest to the search mandate.

Visa / MastercardStripe / Adyen / Wise / ThunesBanks / Regulated fintechs
Visa / Mastercard

For Visa & Mastercard

Network-rails work, acceptance, tokenization, scheme settlement, cross-border product and emerging-market expansion.

VisaMastercardVisa DirectMastercard Move
Target roles
  • Director / Senior Director, Acceptance Product
  • Head of Cross-Border Product
  • Tokenization, settlement or scheme-readiness product lead
  • Emerging-market payment infrastructure lead
Proof signals
Acceptance & acquiring
MPGS · MDES · 3DS
Scale
$1B+ GTV
Controls
<0.1% fraud loss
Markets
MENA · South Asia
Best case studies
Simpaisa Payment Infrastructure PlatformPayment Infrastructure→Settlement + Reconciliation Engine: 99.95% Accuracy at $1B+ GTVSettlement & Reconciliation→MPGS Acquirer Integration Programme: Hosted Session, 3DS2, Tokenisation and the Recurring StackPayment Infrastructure→
Stripe / Adyen / Wise / Thunes

For Stripe, Adyen, Wise & Thunes

Orchestration, local methods, cross-border corridors, payouts and the developer-facing platform.

StripeAdyenWiseThunesDLocalCheckout.comRapyd
Target roles
  • Product Lead, Payment Orchestration
  • Head of Local Payment Methods
  • Director, Payouts / Cross-Border
  • Product Manager, Developer Experience for payments
Proof signals
Rails
Cards · wallets · DCB · IBFT
Partner stack
DLocal · Thunes · Boku · Coda
Transactions
270M+ / year
Developer surface
APIs · webhooks · routing
Best case studies
Simpaisa Payment Infrastructure PlatformPayment Infrastructure→Settlement + Reconciliation Engine: 99.95% Accuracy at $1B+ GTVSettlement & Reconciliation→MPGS Acquirer Integration Programme: Hosted Session, 3DS2, Tokenisation and the Recurring StackPayment Infrastructure→
Banks / Regulated fintechs

For Banks & Regulated Fintechs

SWIFT, ISO 20022, AML/CFT, sanctions, PCI DSS, ISO 27001 and the operating model regulators expect.

Sponsor banksRegulated PSPsCentral-bank licensed fintechs
Target roles
  • Head of Payments Product
  • Director, Compliance / Risk Product
  • Program Director, SWIFT / ISO 20022 / payments modernization
  • Head of Regulated Merchant Onboarding
Proof signals
Compliance programs
PCI DSS · ISO 27001
Risk domain
AML/CFT · sanctions · fraud
Governance
PMO · SteerCo · audit trail
Data standards
SWIFT · ISO 20022
Best case studies
SWIFT MT/MX Implementation: ISO 20022 Migration + gpi at SimpaisaCross-Border Payments→Simpaisa Payment Infrastructure PlatformPayment Infrastructure→Settlement + Reconciliation Engine: 99.95% Accuracy at $1B+ GTVSettlement & Reconciliation→

Shortlist for serious payments, product and program mandates.

Best fit: fintech infrastructure, payment networks, PSPs, banks, OTT/ecommerce platforms and transformation programs where product strategy and delivery discipline must work together.

Book a 15-min intro callDownload resumeContact