Anant Khare
Farnborough
Summary
Experienced Payments and Disputes specialist with over 15 years in dispute chargeback management, ISO-8583 transaction processing, and card network operations. Transitioning to Product Management with a strong foundation in technical fluency and strategic execution. Skilled in translating regulatory requirements into actionable product features and leading cross-functional teams to achieve impactful results.
Overview
2
2
Languages
1
1
Certification
15
15
years of professional experience
Work History
Senior Project Manager (DCAP Xchange)
Discover/CapitalOne
Farnborough
01.2016 - Current
- As a disputes SME defined product vision for Chargeback life cycle; collaborated with card networks (Mastercard, Visa, Discover, Diners Club International, Genpass, Pulse) to translate scheme rule changes into executable requirements.
- Owned end-to-end product scope for a mission critical inter-participant Discover and Diners Disputes platform.
- Collaborated with product managers and technical lead to prioritise roadmap, coordinating PI and sprint planning to align delivery with strategic business outcomes.
- Served as subject matter expert in stakeholder meetings, highlighting implications of scheme rule changes and requirement ambiguities on merchant outcomes and chargeback exposure.
- Drove automation strategy for performance and breakpoint tests that reduced time-to-production for new dispute features, directly improving merchant visibility and operational throughput.
- Facilitated stakeholder communication across legal, operations, and business leadership, sustaining delivery momentum while ensuring team focus.
- Conducted bi-weekly 1:1s with product managers and product owners; led performance reviews, career development planning, and cross-team dependency management.
Delivery Lead — DCAP, Diners Core Application Portal
Discover
01.2016 - 01.2019
- Led Agile squad, overseeing ceremonies, backlog management, and dependency resolution while reporting delivery progress to senior leadership.
- Achieved 80% reduction in testing time and cost, directly improving release cadence and business confidence.
- Planned, estimated, and managed delivery of automation for 13 enterprise applications, streamlining 10,500+ test cases — largest automation programme in the account.
- Tech: Selenium Java, Cucumber, TDD/BDD, SQL, Gradle, Maven, JUnit, TestNG, GitHub, Jenkins, CI/CD
QA Engineer
Core Card
10.2011 - 12.2015
- Owned test delivery across high-stakes BFSI systems including card issuing, ACH, card processing (ISO-8583), dispute management, and settlement systems.
- Established testing processes, managed defect lifecycle, and liaised with clients on functional queries, facilitating clear requirements translation and delivery communication.
- Progressed from individual contributor to team coordinator, overseeing test planning, estimation, stakeholder reporting, and guiding junior team members.
- Identified process weaknesses and proposed improvements that were adopted across the team, enhancing overall testing effectiveness.
- Tech: DBBIDE, Test Magic, BDD, Quality Centre, QTP, Unix, Shell Script, Postman, SQL
Education
Bachelor of Engineering - Distinction
Rajiv Gandhi Proudyogiki Vishwavidyalaya (RGPV)
Bhopal, India01-2010
Skills
- Project management
- Agile methodologies
- Stakeholder management
- Project planning
- Roadmap prioritization
- Requirements analysis
- Risk assessment
- Performance testing
- Automation planning
- Process improvement
- Lifecycle management
- Team leadership
- Project deadline management
- Communication excellence
- Product vision
Certification
- Agile Coach (ICP-ACC)
- Professional Scrum Master (PSM)
- ISTQB Foundation Level Certified
- GenRocket Certified Engineer
- HP Quality Centre ALM 11.5 Certified
Accomplishments
- Owned full dispute product strategy for DCAP Xchange Diners Club International, defining acceptance criteria, chargeback reduction approaches, and processing workflows across card issuing and settlement systems.
- Reduced testing budget by 70% by leading strategic automation of regression and functional test suites — demonstrating data-driven prioritisation and ROI ownership.
- Championed shift-left testing and CI/CD adoption across squads, delivering 80% reduction in release cost and time — a direct indicator of product-led operational efficiency.
- Acted as cross-functional SME in client-facing meetings, translating technical complexity into business impact for stakeholders including Mastercard, Visa, and Discover network partners.
- Led cross-functional squads of 7–10 engineers from requirements through production, bridging product, engineering, and operations across concurrent projects.
Experience highlights
- Disputes & Chargebacks: End-to-end chargeback lifecycle, representment strategy, win rate optimisation, chargeback reduction, dispute APIs
- Card Network Knowledge: Mastercard, Visa, Discover, Genpass, Pulse — scheme rules, compliance, ISO-8583 processing
- Payment Systems: Transaction authorisation, card issuing, ACH, settlement, fraud & dispute management
- Product Delivery: Roadmap definition, acceptance criteria, sprint planning, stakeholder management, outcomes-driven prioritisation
- Technical Fluency: API design, CI/CD pipelines, system architecture, data flows between issuers, acquirers, and schemes
- Data & Analytics: KPI ownership, defect metrics, ROI modelling, test coverage analytics, performance reporting
- Methodologies: Agile, Scrum, SAFe, Kanban, Shift-Left, BDD/TDD
- Stakeholder Leadership: Cross-functional team leadership, executive communication, card network partner engagement
Languages
English
Proficient
C2
Hindi
Proficient
C2
Interests
- Passionate about rock music and live concerts
- Former guitarist in rock band
Timeline
Senior Project Manager (DCAP Xchange)
Discover/CapitalOne
01.2016 - Current
Delivery Lead — DCAP, Diners Core Application Portal
Discover
01.2016 - 01.2019
QA Engineer
Core Card
10.2011 - 12.2015
Bachelor of Engineering - Distinction
Rajiv Gandhi Proudyogiki Vishwavidyalaya (RGPV)