Lead Client Support Specialist, Card Operations

The Lead Client Support Specialist serves as the senior technical resource within the Cards Support team. This role provides advanced troubleshooting expertise across the full card lifecycle — including authorization, clearing and settlement, disputes and chargebacks, BIN and card profile configuration, tokenization, and network message flows (ISO 8583). The Lead oversees complex escalations, supports the Client Support Manager in ensuring consistent service delivery and operational effectiveness, and acts as the trusted technical bridge between clients, Engineering, Product, and Network Operations.

Supervisory Responsibilities:

• Provide technical leadership and day-to-day guidance to Tier 1 and Tier 2 Support Specialists.
• Serve as an escalation point for complex technical and system-related issues.
• Assist the Client Support Manager with onboarding and training of new team members.
• Provide input regarding team performance, skill development, and training needs.
• Support quality assurance initiatives within the support function.

Duties/ Responsibilities:

Service Delivery & Incident Coordination

• Support the Client Support Manager in maintaining service delivery standards and ensuring the team meets SLA targets (90% or greater).
• Coordinate and lead the support team during Sev1–Sev2 card incidents — authorization outages, settlement failures, widespread decline events — ensuring clear communication between Tier 1, Tier 2, development teams, and clients.
• Assist support engineers in troubleshooting complex card and network-related issues impacting clients.
• Act as Support Incident Commander on Sev-1/Sev-2 calls; communicate impact to clients and write client-facing Root Cause Analyses (RCAs).
• Facilitate post-incident reviews and root cause documentation to improve service reliability.

Technical & Product Leadership

• Serve as the subject matter expert for cards support engineers on the issuer processing platform, card lifecycle, and network operations.

• Maintain deep working knowledge of key cards platform components including:

  • Authorization processing and ISO 8583 message flows

  • Clearing, settlement, and reconciliation

  • Disputes, chargebacks, and network representment rules

  • BIN management, card profile configuration, and tokenization

  • STIP behavior, response codes, and network connectivity

  • Provide guidance to support engineers on complex issues involving card configuration, network rule interpretation, and data integrity.

  • Assist in training and onboarding of new support team members and new client implementations.

  • Stay current on Visa / Mastercard mandates and flag operational impact to the team early.

Tools & Systems Collaboration

• Assist support staff in analyzing authorization logs, settlement files, and network message data to identify discrepancies impacting client operations.
• Support troubleshooting of advanced technical issues using SQL and log-querying tools (Splunk, Kibana, Datadog, or similar).
• Coordinate with Engineering, Product, Risk, and Network Operations teams to validate fixes and communicate outcomes to support staff and clients.

Escalation & Cross-Team Coordination

• Act as the primary escalation point for Tier 1 and Tier 2 support engineers for complex card lifecycle and network-related issues.
• Facilitate communication between support staff, clients, product development, QA, and leadership during critical incidents.
• Provide structured updates to the Client Support Manager on escalations, risks, and operational concerns.
• Partner with Engineering, Product, and Network Operations to turn recurring client pain into permanent fixes — tooling, runbooks, product changes, or network rule clarifications.

Process Improvement & Knowledge Development

• Author and maintain the team’s runbooks, decision trees, and internal knowledge base for common card lifecycle and exception scenarios.
• Identify opportunities to improve support workflows, escalation processes, and operational efficiency.
• Promote best practices across the support team to improve issue resolution consistency and client satisfaction.
• Own team-level SLAs and operational KPIs (time-to-first-response, time-to-resolution, CSAT, escalation rate); report weekly to the Client Support Manager and monthly to Client Services leadership.
• Support the manager in implementing operational improvements and documentation standards.

Performs other related duties as assigned.

Required Skills/ Abilities:

• Deep working knowledge of the card lifecycle: issuance, activation, authorization, clearing, settlement, chargebacks, and reconciliation.
• Hands-on experience reading ISO 8583 messages and diagnosing issues from authorization logs, STIP behavior, response codes, and settlement files.
• Strong familiarity with at least one network rulebook (Visa, Mastercard, or equivalent) and the dispute / chargeback lifecycle.
• Proficiency in cards platform systems and configuration tools (BIN setup, card profiles, tokenization).
• Comfort with SQL and log-querying tools (Splunk, Kibana, Datadog, or similar) for self-service investigation.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with attention to detail.
• Ability to lead and coordinate high-severity card incident response while maintaining professionalism and composure.
• Excellent written communication skills; able to explain complex technical card failures to both engineers and risk officers at client institutions.
• Calm under pressure during incidents, and organized enough to run a multi-party call and still take good notes.
• Strong cross-team collaboration and client interaction skills.
• Service-oriented mindset with a strong commitment to client support and issue resolution.
• Proficiency with Google Workspace or similar productivity tools.

Education and Experience:

• Associate’s degree in Information Technology, Finance, Business, or a related field required; Bachelor’s degree strongly preferred.
• Minimum 5+ years of experience in technical support, client services, or operations at a card network, issuer processor, acquirer, or payments platform.
• 4 or more years of demonstrated experience resolving complex or escalated card-related client issues, including cross-system or network-related problems.
• 3 or more years’ experience mentoring or providing guidance to junior support staff or coordinating issue resolution across support tiers preferred.
• 3 or more years of financial institution experience strongly preferred, particularly within credit unions or card-issuing environments.
• Experience supporting fintech / program manager clients (BaaS, neobanks, embedded card programs) a plus.
• Industry certifications (CPP, ETA CPP, AAP) or completed network training (Visa Business School, Mastercard Academy) a plus.

Physical Requirements:

• Prolonged periods sitting at a desk and working on a computer.
• Must be able to lift up to 15 pounds at times.

What We Offer

• Company-paid medical, dental, and vision insurance for employees
• Company-paid life and AD&D insurance
• Company-paid short- and long-term disability
• 401(k) retirement plan
• Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA)/ Dependent Care Spending Account (DCSA)
• Unlimited PTO
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
• Voluntary supplemental insurance options