Ariel Alonso
Eschdorf,Luxembourg
Summary
Senior technology and product leader with extensive experience driving innovation across payments, banking, and fintech ecosystems. Proven record in scaling regulated payment platforms, architecting wallet and settlement systems, and delivering compliant, high-availability solutions aligned with PSD2/PSD3, VAT, PCI, and GDPR frameworks. Expert in instant payments, tokenization, SEPA DD/CT, ACH, and risk management, with a consistent history of building secure, customer-centric, and globally scalable financial products. Recognized for bridging business, regulatory, and engineering functions to deliver complex programs, driving growth and lean go-to-market execution across Europe and Latin America.
- Regulatory Payout Disbursement De-risking: Delivered clearinghouse-based payout migration for Amazon Brazil in 6 months following Central Bank mandate changes. Redesigned settlement architecture and fund flows to integrate with national clearing houses, implementing updated ISO 20022 PAIN and CAMT messaging to ensure compliant, accurate, and timely disbursements. Safeguarded marketplace continuity and eliminated payout-related regulatory risk for all 3P seller operations.
- Banking Infrastructure & SEPA Modernization: Led strategy and execution of Amazon Vault, Amazon Pay’s core banking stack for SEPA Direct Debit, SEPA Instant, and cross-border credit transfers. Defined mandate and tokenization lifecycles, SCA flows, and reconciliation systems, ensuring full PSD2/PSD3, PCI DSS, and GDPR alignment across the EU.
- Regulatory Compliance & VAT Expansion: Directed expansion of Amazon Europe’s VAT Services from 45K to 110K sellers, automating filings and reducing operational cost by 60%. Introduced VAT as a Service AI to improve calculation outputs, ensuringg compliance with EU tax, environmental, and chemical regulations.
- Global Rewards Platform Vision: Spearheaded product and technical strategy for Shop&Earn, Amazon Pay’s in-app rewards framework. Built architecture for instant balance issuance and compliant closed-loop usage under EU stored-value regulations.
- White-Label Wallet Development: Drove design and implementation of the first white-label wallet in Brazil for Itaú Bank in partnership with PayPal. Delivered secure tokenization, account linking, and card lifecycle management, establishing a new standard for bank-integrated digital payments in LATAM.
- Global Payments Leadership: Managed cross-regional teams across Product, Engineering, and Compliance in Europe, Brazil, India, and the US. Delivered complex regulatory and banking integrations under aggressive timelines while maintaining audit readiness and operational continuity.
Overview
17
17
years of professional experience
7
7
years of post-secondary education
1
1
Certificate
Work history
Manager, Product Manager Technical, Payments
Amazon Pay Europe
Luxembourg, Luxembourg
01.2024 - Current
- Lead product and technical strategy for Amazon Vault, enabling PS2 compliance tokenization of SEPA DD, SEPA CT, via card fronting tied to SCA.
- Defined mandate and tokenization architecture and reconciliation flows supporting recurring and instant payments.
- Partnered with Treasury, Risk, and Compliance to strengthen validation and fraud-screening layers for bank transfers.
- Translated PSD2/PSD3 and PCI requirements into scalable platform design, ensuring audit and reporting readiness.
- Designed and launched the global "Shop&Earn" product to enable compliant closed-loop balance rewards issuance aligned with EU e-money regulations.
Manager, Product Mgmt Tech, VAT Services
Amazon Europe
Luxembourg, Luxembourg
01.2023 - 01.2024
- Owned EU-wide VAT compliance platform, enabling automated registration, reporting, and filing across seven marketplaces.
- Directed EU-wide VAT Services expansion; scaled seller coverage >140% while reducing unit cost 60%.
- Delivered VAT as a Service AI to simplify cross-border seller compliance.
- Ensured alignment with Swedish Chemical Tax and EU environmental regulations for digital balance and reward usage.
Senior Product Manager Tech, VAT Services
Amazon Europe
Luxembourg, Luxembourg
10.2020 - 01.2023
- Led system rearchitecture on AWS (Glue, DynamoDB, QuickSight) to enhance traceability, reliability, and audit readiness.
- Implemented centralized compliance orchestration for tax data ingestion and validation, cutting reporting latency from weeks to hours.
- Partnered with EU tax authorities and internal Legal, Finance, and Compliance teams to meet evolving regulatory mandates.
- Reduced seller onboarding friction by 40% through redesigned VAT registration and validation flows.
- Established TOGAF-based governance to align product, engineering, and tax operations under a unified compliance model.
Senior Product Manager Tech, Payment/Regulation
Amazon Brazil
São Paulo, Brasil
09.2019 - 10.2020
- Owned the Regulatory Payout Disbursement Program and redesigned payout settlements to comply with Central Bank rules.
- Integrated national clearing houses and modernized fund flows using ISO 20022 PAIN and CAMT messages.
- Delivered compliant disbursements within six months, maintaining marketplace continuity.
- Launched Seller Receivables Regulation integration with CERC to enable receivable-backed financing for sellers.
Manager, System Engineering
PayPal
São Paulo, Brasil
02.2016 - 10.2019
- Localized Braintree card-processing for LATAM acquirers, increasing merchant adoption 20%.
- Designed regional risk platform leveraging Simility for authentication and fraud controls.
- Led PayPal’s first SMB Lending initiative in LATAM, integrating credit assessment and regulatory compliance.
- White-Label Wallet for Itaú Bank: Co-designed and launched Brazil’s first bank-branded digital wallet in partnership with PayPal.
Senior System Integration Engineer
PayPal
São Paulo, Brasil
10.2014 - 02.2016
- Designed and implemented SHELL Pay at Pump solution for Mobile payments in gas stations, later exported for Mexico and UK, becoming PayPa's largest partnership for LATAM.
- Led Development of White Label wallet integrations with major banks, increasing customer accounts by 45% YoY.
- Created first Marketplace Integration model for marketplaces in LATAM, enabling first large marketplace partnership for PayPal.
Technical Account Manager
PayPal (Robert Half Contractor)
São Paulo, Brasil
06.2013 - 09.2014
- Led crisis management during significant network processing outage, responsible for driving closure to outage, leading post-mortem, implementation of redundancies and smoke testing strategy.
- Created native Magento, Woocommerce, and Shopify Plugins Payment Processing with PayPal.
- Responsible for Third Party Plugins and Payment Service Provider integrations.
Integration Engineer Trainee
PayPal
São Paulo, Brasil
07.2012 - 06.2013
- Responsible for PayPal's Developer Portal LATAM Documentation.
- Delivered Web Based solution to automate documentation creation for clients based on product needs.
- Created automated testing framework for PayPal payment certification using Selenium, reducing certification times from 2 weeks to 3 days.
Java Developer
Cartel Info. ADVPL (Contractor)
Santo Andre, Brasil
03.2009 - 07.2012
- Designed and implemented Totvs Java applications on allocated clients.
- Responsible for moving SaaS clients from SOAP to Restful integrations.
Education
Master of Business Administration - Technology Solution Architecture
01.2018 - 12.2019
Post-Degree - Project Management - PMBOK 5
01.2015 - 12.2015
Bachelor of Science - Information Systems
01.2010 - 12.2013
Skills
- Product Strategy & Leadership: Product Vision & Roadmapping Platform Scaling Data-Driven Decision Making Product Governance Cross-Functional Delivery Global Expansion & Go-to-Market Strategy Operational Excellence
- Technical & Architectural Knowledge: AWS Cloud Architecture (Lambda, Glue, DynamoDB, QuickSight, CloudWatch) Event-Driven & Microservices Design API Governance & Ecosystem Integration Data Integrity & Observability Resilience & Fault-Tolerant Systems TOGAF & ArchiMate Enterprise Architecture CI/CD Governance
- Banking & Payments Systems: SEPA CT/DD/Instant ACH ISO 20022 (PAIN/CAMT) Clearinghouse & Settlement Orchestration Treasury & Funds Flow Wallet, Tokenization & Mandate Management
- Regulatory & Compliance Expertise: PSD2/PSD3 PCI DSS GDPR AML/KYC VAT & EU Tax Compliance Risk & Fraud Controls Regulatory Reporting Audit Readiness Central Bank & EU Regulatory Interface
Languages
English
Proficient (C2)
Portuguese
Native
Spanish
Upper intermediate (B2)
French
Elementary (A2)
Certification
- Data Analytics Specialist, AWS (2022)
- Solution Architect Associate, AWS (2021)
- Professional Scrum Master, Scrum Org (2020)
- Project Management, Project Lab (2014)
- Java Certified Programmer 6, Oracle (2012)
Timeline
Manager, Product Manager Technical, Payments - Amazon Pay Europe
01.2024 - Current
Manager, Product Mgmt Tech, VAT Services - Amazon Europe
01.2023 - 01.2024
Senior Product Manager Tech, VAT Services - Amazon Europe
10.2020 - 01.2023
Senior Product Manager Tech, Payment/Regulation - Amazon Brazil
09.2019 - 10.2020
FIAP - Master of Business Administration, Technology Solution Architecture
01.2018 - 12.2019
Manager, System Engineering - PayPal
02.2016 - 10.2019
Project Lab - Post-Degree, Project Management - PMBOK 5
01.2015 - 12.2015
Senior System Integration Engineer - PayPal
10.2014 - 02.2016
Technical Account Manager - PayPal (Robert Half Contractor)
06.2013 - 09.2014
Integration Engineer Trainee - PayPal
07.2012 - 06.2013
UAM - Bachelor of Science, Information Systems
01.2010 - 12.2013
Java Developer - Cartel Info. ADVPL (Contractor)
03.2009 - 07.2012