Business Analyst – Card Payments & Merchant Acquiring

About the job
Job Title: Business Analyst – Card Payments & Merchant Acquiring

Location: Calgary, Canada

Type: Contract

Job Summary

We are seeking an experienced Business Analyst (BA) with deep expertise in Card Payments, Merchant Acquiring, and FIS Switch (IST/Switch) platforms. The role will support a strategic initiative to replace an existing FIS switch with a custom-built payment application. The ideal candidate will bring strong domain knowledge, hands-on FIS upgrade/implementation experience, and the ability to bridge business requirements with complex payment systems.

Must Have Skills & Experience

Strong expertise in Card Payments lifecycle and Alternate Payments
Hands-on Merchant Acquiring experience, including:
Switch / Gateway / Processor / Acquirer
POS systems
Merchant Settlement Systems
In-depth understanding of ISO 8583 message formats with the ability to explain and parse transaction messages
Experience designing or working on complex, high-volume payment systems
Proven Business Analyst experience in payments domain
FIS Switch (IST/Switch) upgrade or implementation experience (mandatory)
Experience analyzing and documenting as-is and to-be processes in large payment ecosystems
Good to Have

Understanding of card issuing models (closed-loop cards, network cards)
Knowledge of card authorization flows at the card issuer
Exposure to multi-network payment routing and authorization logic
Bonus Skills

Hands-on experience with complex merchant settlements across multiple payment methods
Understanding of core banking systems
Integration experience with GL systems, SAP, and Salesforce
Familiarity with API-driven and cloud-based payment architectures
Key Responsibilities

Analyze business processes, workflows, and functional requirements across FIS payment domains
Work closely with stakeholders to document current-state pain points, user experience gaps, and process inefficiencies
Support FIS switch replacement by translating business needs into functional specifications for a custom application
Ensure alignment between business requirements and future-state payment solutions
Provide payments domain expertise to support roadmap planning and prioritization
Collaborate with product owners, architects, developers, and vendors throughout the delivery lifecycle
Support UAT, defect triage, and implementation activities as needed
About the Platform

The current environment uses FIS Global IST/Switch, a high-performance, multi-channel transaction processing platform supporting ATM, POS, mobile, and online payments. The engagement focuses on transitioning from this platform to a custom-built payment solution, requiring strong functional and domain leadership.