Payments Analyst

About Odyssey:

K-12 education is one of the most consequential determinants of a child’s future — and many families have had limited ability to shape how and where their child learns. Education Savings Account (ESA) programs are changing that. One of the fastest-growing public education initiatives in the U.S., they give states the ability to put education funding directly in the hands of families, who can then choose the learning experiences that best fit their child — from schools and tutors to therapy, curriculum, and technology.

But once these policies are signed into law, states face an enormous operational challenge. They must stand up entirely new programs, manage the secure and compliant flow of public funds, approve and monitor thousands of vendors, support families at scale, and prevent fraud — all while delivering a high-quality user experience.

That’s where Odyssey comes in.

We partner with state agencies to design, launch, and operate ESA and grant programs on their behalf. We provide the technology, program operations, vendor ecosystem, and family experience that make these programs actually work in the real world. Today, we operate across 6 states, and our platform powers programs serving 200,000+ students and over $1B in education funding — and we’re just getting started.

Most recently, we launched the Texas Education Savings Account (EFA) program — the biggest day-one ESA launch in the country — which has already received nearly 200,000 applications. It’s the kind of moment that captures exactly what we’re building toward: programs that work at scale, from day one, when it matters most.

We’re backed by respected investors, including a16z and Tusk Venture Partners, and we’re building the team that will take us to the next stage.

Odyssey sits at the intersection of GovTech, EdTech, and FinTech. We are a public-sector operator, a technology company, and a program delivery partner all at once. The work we do is civic infrastructure — it determines whether families can access life-changing educational opportunities.

Why This Work Is Different

We’re in the weeds with state partners, internally with our product teams, and turning ambiguous policy into real systems that families depend on. This means building a platform that meets each state’s configuration needs while being flexible enough to support all customers. We are not building be-spoke software!

If you want a highly structured environment, this will feel uncomfortable. If you want ownership, speed, and problems that actually matter, you’ll feel right at home.

About the Role

We're looking for a Payments Analyst who wants to be the person who knows where every dollar is at any given moment. You'll own the payment operations function end-to-end: catching and resolving problems before they reach families, building the reporting that keeps leadership informed, and improving the processes that keep multiple state programs running cleanly at scale. You'll report directly to the CFO and work alongside a team where what you build matters and your development is a priority.

What You’ll Do

Payments

• Ensure every payment flow balances and clears successfully — across state disbursements, family wallets, and vendor payouts

• Investigate and resolve payment exceptions — returned ACH, misdirected payments, failed disbursements

• Build and continuously improve the financial and operational records and systems that keep programs running

Reporting & Analysis

• Analyze payment and operational data to identify trends, anomalies, and issues

• Monitor KPIs and surface issues before they escalate

• Support ad hoc analysis requests from leadership

Process & Playbooks

• Hunt for inefficiencies, eliminate unnecessary manual work, and build processes that scale

• Build the playbooks that make Odyssey's payment operations more scalable and resilient

What We’re Looking For

Required

• 1–2 years of experience in finance, accounting, operations, analytics, or a related role

• Exceptional attention to detail — you catch things others miss

• Genuinely curious — you ask why things work the way they do and want to understand the business, not just the task in front of you

• Low ego, high output — you're willing to do the unglamorous work, learn fast, and build from the ground up

• Strong Excel or Google Sheets skills

• Excellent communication and follow-through

• Highly dependable and proactive

Preferred

• Experience with payments or transaction data workflows

• Familiarity with BI or reporting tools (Looker, Metabase, Tableau, etc.)

What You’ll Gain

Ownership of work that actually matters.

• Our payment flows aren’t abstract — they’re state-appropriated funds moving from government accounts to families paying for their children’s education, and from there to thousands of approved schools and vendors.

• Payment operations is the function that ensures every dollar lands where it’s supposed to, when it’s supposed to. A family waiting on funds to pay tuition, or a school or small business waiting to get paid — that’s what’s on the other side of this work.

Operational complexity you won’t find at most companies.

• Odyssey runs multiple state ESA programs simultaneously, each with its own funding rules, disbursement schedules, and compliance requirements.

• Payments flow across trust accounts, family digital wallets, and vendor payouts — through multiple systems that all have to agree.

• You’ll develop a real understanding of how money moves through a regulated, multi-party environment, and how to build the controls that keep it clean.

Exposure across the entire organization.

• Payments touch everything — program operations, product, compliance, state relationships, finance.

• The person in this role works alongside every part of the leadership team, not just the finance function.

• It’s one of the broadest vantage points in the company.

A clear path forward.