Payments Analyst

Why This Work Is Different

We're in the weeds with state partners, internally with our product teams, and turning ambiguous policy into real systems that families depend on. This means building a platform that meets each state's configuration needs while being flexible enough to support all customers. We are not building be-spoke software!

If you want a highly structured environment, this will feel uncomfortable. If you want ownership, speed, and problems that actually matter, you'll feel right at home.

About the Role

We're looking for a Payments Analyst who wants to be the person who knows where every dollar is at any given moment. You'll own the payment operations function end-to-end: catching and resolving problems before they reach families, building the reporting that keeps leadership informed, and improving the processes that keep multiple state programs running cleanly at scale. You'll report directly to the CFO and work alongside a team where what you build matters and your development is a priority.

What You'll Do

Payments

• Ensure every payment flow balances and clears successfully — across state disbursements, family wallets, and vendor payouts
• Investigate and resolve payment exceptions — returned ACH, misdirected payments, failed disbursements
• Build and continuously improve the financial and operational records and systems that keep programs running

Reporting & Analysis

• Analyze payment and operational data to identify trends, anomalies, and issues
• Monitor KPIs and surface issues before they escalate
• Support ad hoc analysis requests from leadership

Process & Playbooks

• Hunt for inefficiencies, eliminate unnecessary manual work, and build processes that scale
• Build the playbooks that make Odyssey's payment operations more scalable and resilient

What We're Looking For

Required

• 1–2 years of experience in finance, accounting, operations, analytics, or a related role
• Exceptional attention to detail — you catch things others miss
• Genuinely curious — you ask why things work the way they do and want to understand the business, not just the task in front of you
• Low ego, high output — you're willing to do the unglamorous work, learn fast, and build from the ground up
• Strong Excel or Google Sheets skills
• Excellent communication and follow-through
• Highly dependable and proactive

Preferred

• Experience with payments or transaction data workflows
• Familiarity with BI or reporting tools (Looker, Metabase, Tableau, etc.)

What You'll Gain

Ownership of work that actually matters.

• Our payment flows aren't abstract — they're state-appropriated funds moving from government accounts to families paying for their children's education, and from there to thousands of approved schools and vendors.
• Payment operations is the function that ensures every dollar lands where it's supposed to, when it's supposed to. A family waiting on funds to pay tuition, or a school or small business waiting to get paid — that's what's on the other side of this work.

Operational complexity you won't find at most companies.

• Odyssey runs multiple state ESA programs simultaneously, each with its own funding rules, disbursement schedules, and compliance requirements.
• Payments flow across trust accounts, family digital wallets, and vendor payouts — through multiple systems that all have to agree.
• You'll develop a real understanding of how money moves through a regulated, multi-party environment, and how to build the controls that keep it clean.

Exposure across the entire organization.

• Payments touch everything — program operations, product, compliance, state relationships, finance.
• The person in this role works alongside every part of the leadership team, not just the finance function.
• It's one of the broadest vantage points in the company.

A clear path forward.

• This role is designed to grow. The person who built it out has since moved into broader finance and strategy work — that trajectory starts here.

Our Commitment to Equal Opportunity Employment:

Odyssey is an equal opportunity employer. Reasonable accommodations are available upon request.