Global Head of Specialist Solutions Architecture, Payments & Link

Who We Are

Stripe is a financial infrastructure platform for businesses. Millions of companies—from the world’s largest enterprises to the most ambitious startups—use Stripe to accept payments, grow their revenue, and accelerate new business opportunities. Our mission is to increase the GDP of the internet, and we have a staggering amount of work ahead. That means you have an unprecedented opportunity to put the global economy within everyone’s reach while doing the most important work of your career.

About The Team

Specialist Solutions Architects (SSA) are domain experts aligned to specific Stripe solutions and customer buying centers. We have in-depth knowledge of the solution offerings and understanding of customer challenges. We partner with the core account team on opportunities, support revenue attainment, provide critical insights to our product and engineering teams to shape the roadmap, and enable and empower the broader GTM team.

We work with C-level executives, finance leaders, product design, and engineering teams at global brands and platforms who are building financial services solutions with Stripe. Our users view us as domain experts and trust our recommendations as they redesign their existing offerings and infrastructure to build with Stripe. These SSAs typically bring years of industry experience in the domain of the product they specialize in.

The Role

At Stripe, managers grow teams and inspire them to do outstanding work. As the Global Head of Specialist SA for Payments & Commerce, you will lead, build, and mentor a world-class pre-sales engineering team that specializes in our core payment optimization products, including Terminal, Radar, Online Checkout Suite, Alternative Payment Methods, Managed Payments, Orchestration, Local Payment Methods, and Link.

This is a leadership role for a driver who loves building teams, growing businesses, and has a product-focused mindset. You will be a trusted advisor to our internal teams—including product sales, partners, professional services, product development, and marketing—to drive our strategy for optimizing the end-to-end payment experience. You will lead from the front, leveraging your deep industry expertise in payment processing, fraud, and commerce to drive outcomes for our users and shape Stripe’s future roadmap.

What You’ll Do

• Foster a culture of excellence by nurturing a positive, growth-oriented environment that empowers individuals to reach their full potential through mentorship and coaching.
• Articulate and champion a compelling vision for the Payments & Commerce specialist SA team, aligning it with the broader Solutions Architect and company strategy.
• Attract, recruit, and retain top talent, building a high-performing and diverse team with deep payments industry expertise.
• Develop and implement metrics-driven processes to assess team performance and proactively identify opportunities for improvement.
• Guide and support the team in navigating intricate evaluations, from checkout optimization and fraud prevention to in-person payments and orchestration logic.
• Strategize and execute initiatives to drive and close high-value, complex opportunities.
• Take ownership of being an advisor to the Global Head of Solutions Architecture, consistently sharing technical and market insights related to the payments and commerce landscape.
• Foster strong relationships with key stakeholders, promoting cross-functional collaboration to shape and execute the business strategy and go-to-market plans for the Payments & Commerce product suite.
• Champion the voice of the customer, influencing the Payments & Commerce product roadmap to prioritize features that address critical needs.
• Act as an executive champion at EBCs and industry events, serving as a company ambassador for Stripe's core payment technologies.
• Travel approximately 25% of the time to build meaningful relationships with customers and foster internal collaboration.

Minimum Requirements

• Leadership Experience: 6+ years of demonstrated success leading and scaling high-performing Solutions Architecture or Technical Sales teams within a SaaS or financial technology environment.
• Technical Expertise: 16+ years of experience in technical pre-sales roles (e.g., Solutions Engineer, Architect, Consultant) with a focus on architecting enterprise-grade solutions. Strong technical acumen encompassing APIs, distributed systems, and developer tools.
• Deep Domain Expertise: 5+ years of experience and deep industry knowledge in the core payments ecosystem. This includes payment processing, gateways, acquiring, card-present (POS/Terminal) solutions, fraud and risk management, payment orchestration, and local payment methods (LPMs). Experience with both online and in-person commerce is critical.
• Strategic Acumen: A solid understanding of industry trends, competitive landscape, and emerging technologies in digital commerce and payments.
• Executive Presence: Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to articulate complex payment and technical concepts to diverse audiences, including C-level executives.
• Bachelor's degree or equivalent.
• Willingness to travel approximately 25% of the time.