Fintech Project Manager - Payments & APIs

Akbar Madhani, mba, pmp

Duluth, GA ***** *****.*******@*****.*** 470-***-****)

PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY

Project Manager with extensive experience delivering complex fintech and payment initiatives, leading cross-functional teams, managing scope, schedules, budgets, vendors, risks, and stakeholder communications. Proven record of delivering API integrations, merchant onboarding, payment modernization, and system implementations that improve operational efficiency, reduce costs, and increase revenue.

SKILLS

Program Management • Project Management • Cross-Functional Leadership • Strategic Planning & Road mapping • Budget & Resource Management • Risk Management • Stakeholder Alignment • Change Management • Team Coordination • Vendor Management • Payments & Prepaid Systems • API Product Management • Merchant Onboarding • Process Automation • SQL & Data Analysis • System Integration • Developer Platforms • Risk & Compliance • Agile Delivery • Account Aggregation • Agentic AI

EXPERIENCE

Fiserv / First Data — Atlanta, GA Senior Project Manager Jan 2023 – May, 2026

Orchestrated the program delivery of a sales intelligence agent using Snowflake cortex agents, integrating structured CRM data (pipeline metrics, close rates, rep performance) with unstructured conversation analysis across discovery calls and demos to identify objection patterns, pinpoint at-risk deal signals, and deliver synthesized intelligence to leadership, enabling clear insights on deal loss drivers.

Led cross-functional program execution of a smart payment fallback mechanism for the gift card auto-reload initiative, coordinating implementation across multiple systems to detect failed payment conditions (expired or declined cards) and enable seamless retry workflows with alternate cards on file—driving a 15% reduction in failed sales transactions across enterprise merchant partners including Wawa and McDonald's.

Managed end-to-end program governance and solution design to address escalating gift card fraud vulnerabilities at Wawa, orchestrating integration of auto-reload transactions into Fiserv's orchestrated Fraud Scoring API via Ravelin and Kount partnerships—implementing threshold-based transaction blocking that eliminated 200K+ fraudulent transactions in 2025.

Spearheaded program management of LexisNexis Identity Verification integration into the merchant boarding workflow, coordinating validation controls to enforce TIN accuracy at point of entry—resolving a pattern of IRS backup withholding penalties caused by manual data entry errors, restoring merchant transaction processing continuity, and preventing associated gift card revenue loss.

Directed program planning and delivery of a secure tokenization framework with merchantdefined TTL parameters, ensuring tokens expire according to each organization’s compliance, risk, and security requirements while standardizing controls across all merchant implementations.

Led a major consolidation program spanning 100+ prepaid API endpoints, eliminating redundant interfaces, standardizing documentation, and reducing merchant onboarding cycle time by approximately 3 months through coordinated refactoring efforts.

Fiserv / First Data — Atlanta, GA Project Manager Jun 2021 – Dec 2022

Managed the multi-year crossfunctional initiative to merge multiple legacy boarding platforms into a unified onboarding system, standardizing APIs, data structures, and UI experiences. Delivered a 23% reduction in administrative costs, eliminated data silos, and achieved improved compliance alignment across the enterprise.

Led the endtoend delivery of the Boarding Web Service External API suite, enabling external merchants to seamlessly onboard into our prepaid gift program and integrate it into their medium and largebusiness product offerings.

Led the launch of Visa Account Updater (VAU), reducing expiredcard transaction failures by 18% through automated cardonfile updates.

Fiserv / First Data — Atlanta, GA Project Manager Jan 2020 – May 2021

Created a White Glove consulting playbook for Clover SMB giftcard onboarding and closedloop services, reducing onboarding time by 30 days.

Led the effort of a selfservice Prepaid Card Order Portal, streamlining giftcard ordering and improving customer satisfaction during peak seasonal demand.

Led onsite merchant enablement for the Clover POS giftcard solution, providing demos, integration guidance, and handson troubleshooting to ensure successful adoption.

Fiserv / First Data — Atlanta, GA Senior Project Manager May, 2018 – Dec 2020

Managed the end-to-end implementation of Fiserv’s BillMatrix solution for Puget Sound Energy, coordinating delivery of secure multichannel billpayment capabilities that reduced operating costs and improved overall payment operations efficiency.

Managed multiple core system migration projects from Fiserv’s Premier core to Retail Online for institutions including Ouachita Valley FCU, Tri Counties Bank, and Western State Bank—coordinating implementation timelines and stakeholder alignment to achieve 30% branch footprint reduction (savings of ~$196,500 annually) and enabling access to digital channels that drove 16% higher net profit per Fiserv benchmarks.

Relay Health, Project Manager Oct, 2014 – June 2016

Managed end-to-end project delivery of eVoucherRx across Walgreens and Rite Aid pharmacy platforms within a 6-month commitment timeline, coordinating integration of RelayHealth's automated electronic coupon solution to reduce cost barriers at the prescription counter—improving medication compliance and long-term patient adherence outcomes for two of the nation's largest retail pharmacy chains.

Managed implementation of electronic prior authorization (ePA) across 15 Walgreens pharmacy locations in the Southeast region, directing cross-functional teams through pharmacy and EHR system integrations to streamline the approval workflow—significantly reducing authorization turnaround times and removing critical barriers to timely patient access to prescribed medications.

Education

M.S. Analytics (Expected 2027)

Georgia Institute of Technology

MBA, Finance and Technology

Georgia Institute of Technology

BBA, Management Information Systems

University of Texas

Certification

PMP (PMI)

AWS Solutions Architect

AWS Cloud Practitioner

Pragmatic PMC-I

Contact this candidate