Senior Principal Payment Tech Development Manager

Senior Principal Payment Tech Development Manager
The Senior Principal Payment Tech Development Manager will serve as a high-impact enterprise leader, strategic influencer, and head of a high-performing engineering organization. This role is responsible for directing the end-to-end design, development, testing, certification, and delivery of contact/contactless chip technologies, mobile payments, and emerging payment devices. A critical focus includes leading the development of card- and wallet-related functional and security requirements, test plans, and tools necessary for executing D-PAS card personalization and Mobile D-PAS Wallet validations-both of which are vital prerequisites for successful D-PAS product acceptance.
As a key technical authority and organizational people leader, the Senior Manager will build, scale, and inspire a world-class engineering team. They will champion cross-functional alignment, manage critical executive and multi-party stakeholder ecosystems, drive strategic vendor relationships, and proactively mitigate high-level risks or customer-impacting issues.
Core Responsibilities:
People Leadership & Talent Architecture

• Team Scaling & Up-Skilling: Directly recruit, hire, and build a high-performing engineering and validation organization; design the team structure to support evolving payment technology roadmaps.
• Performance & Career Management: Own performance management, goal setting, and career development pathways for direct reports; actively cultivate the next generation of technical leaders and people managers within the group.
• Engineering Culture: Foster an inclusive culture of technical excellence, continuous learning, and absolute accountability within the development and testing teams.
• Resource Optimization: Strategically manage resource allocation, capacity planning, and headcount budgeting to balance immediate delivery needs with long-term strategic initiatives.

Product Development & Technical Direction

• Drive Technology Roadmap: Lead and direct engineering teams to design and develop next-generation payment technologies across card acceptance and payment devices (including contact/contactless chips, mobile, and cloud-based payments).
• Define Architectural Specifications: Serve as the final technical authority contributing to product technology specifications, balancing functional innovation with rigorous security features.

Stakeholder Management & Collaboration

• Strategic Alignment: Act as the primary liaison and trusted advisor to executive leadership, business partners, and global cross-functional teams, translating complex technical payment roadmaps into clear business outcomes.
• Influence Ecosystems: Manage complex, matrixed relationships with internal and external stakeholders to drive alignment on new and updated payment standards, specifications, and deployment strategies.
• Conflict Resolution: Standardize communication channels to resolve competing priorities across business lines, ensuring seamless product integration and delivery.

Testing, Certification & Global Compliance

• Framework Architecture: Establish and oversee comprehensive testing requirements, test plans, and procedures for cutting-edge payment technology products.
• Validation Governance: Own the overarching strategy and development of requirements/tools needed for execution of Card Personalization Validation and Mobile Provisioning Validation processes.
• Compliance Program Design: Collaborate in defining global certification requirements and compliance programs to guarantee high-quality, standardized product rollouts.

Vendor, Partner & Industry Management

• Strategic Partnerships: Manage high-value relationships with external vendors, including card and chip manufacturers, test laboratories, test tool providers, and mobile developers.
• Industry Standards Leadership: Represent the organization and spearhead technical positions within relevant global standardization organizations to influence the future of payment specifications.
• Vendor Accountability: Establish SLAs and governance models to oversee external partners, ensuring delivered services and tools strictly align with corporate benchmarks.

Risk Management & Governance

• Proactive Mitigation: Anticipate systemic risks, technical bottlenecks, or customer-impacting vulnerabilities; design mitigation strategies and lead executive-level escalations when necessary.

Basic Qualifications:

• High School Diploma, GED or equivalent certification
• At least 6 years of payment technology research and development experience
• At least 4 years of experience supporting, partnering and interacting with internal or external business clients
• At least 4 years of people management and performance management experience

Preferred Qualifications:

• Bachelor's or Master's Degree in Engineering, Computer Science or Technology
• Experience managing and scaling engineering teams in a fast-paced corporate environment
• Experience leading large-scale deployment projects involving EMV payments systems, mobile payment technologies (including cloud-based payments) and secure elements
• Deep understanding of EMV Functional and EMV Security requirements

At this time, Capital One will not sponsor a new applicant for employment authorization for this position.
The minimum and maximum full-time annual salaries for this role are listed below, by location. Please note that this salary information is solely for candidates hired to perform work within one of these locations, and refers to the amount Capital One is willing to pay at the time of this posting. Salaries for part-time roles will be prorated based upon the agreed upon number of hours to be regularly worked.
Riverwoods, IL: $161,500 - $184,300 for Senior Principal Payment Tech Development
Candidates hired to work in other locations will be subject to the pay range associated with that location, and the actual annualized salary amount offered to any candidate at the time of hire will be reflected solely in the candidate's offer letter.
This role is also eligible to earn performance based incentive compensation, which may include cash bonus(es) and/or long term incentives (LTI). Incentives could be discretionary or non discretionary depending on the plan.
Capital One offers a comprehensive, competitive, and inclusive set of health, financial and other benefits that support your total well-being. Learn more at the Capital One Careers website . Eligibility varies based on full or part-time status, exempt or non-exempt status, and management level.
This role is expected to accept applications for a minimum of 5 business days.
No agencies please. Capital One is an equal opportunity employer (EOE, including disability/vet) committed to non-discrimination in compliance with applicable federal, state, and local laws. Capital One promotes a drug-free workplace. Capital One will consider for employment qualified applicants with a criminal history in a manner consistent with the requirements of applicable laws regarding criminal background inquiries, including, to the extent applicable, Article 23-A of the New York Correction Law; San Francisco, California Police Code Article 49, Sections 4901-4920; New York City's Fair Chance Act; Philadelphia's Fair Criminal Records Screening Act; and other applicable federal, state, and local laws and regulations regarding criminal background inquiries.
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