My Path in Payments: Sarah Boehmer, Senior Director, Payments & Chargebacks Strategy at justt

Sarah Boehmer describes her path into payments as “winding and unusual, but exciting.” It’s a sentiment many in the industry share. Few people set out to work in payments, but once they find it, the pace, complexity, and constant evolution keep them hooked.

Although now Senior Director, Payments & Chargebacks Strategy at justt, an AI-based chargeback platform designed to help merchants manage and win disputes, Sarah wasn’t always headed that way. Let’s take a look at her career journey so far to see how she landed in the world of payments and chargebacks. 

Sarah’s early path to payments

Fresh out of a Bachelor’s in Economics and a Master’s in Accounting, Sarah began her career in internal audit. A few years later, she moved to the Bay Area to join an accounting firm – unknowingly setting the stage for her future in payments. Surrounded by companies preparing to go public, Sarah specialized in IPO readiness.

Eventually, she made the move in-house, joining Super.com to support a potential IPO journey. But when those plans were paused, Sarah’s role shifted to broader financial operations responsibilities, including chargebacks. That was the point at which everything changed.

“I joke about it now – I had no idea what a chargeback was at the time. I had to Google it. But when I did, I thought it sounded like something I could do.”

What started as curiosity quickly became passion for chargebacks. Sarah began building out a fraud and chargebacks function, not just to manage incoming disputes, but to reduce them altogether. She immersed herself in the payments ecosystem, attending events like MRC and PaymentsEd, where she discovered how other companies were optimizing performance – through multi-PSP strategies, entity structuring, and smarter routing. 

“I made a business case to add payments and fraud to my job title – and luckily, Super.com said yes.”

From there, Sarah led a series of payment optimization initiatives, from onboarding payment processors to expanding analytics, implementing pinless debit, and improving routing strategies.

But her journey didn’t stop there. Through her work, Sarah managed a range of vendors,  including justt, where she works today. She realized she was most energized by the external-facing aspect of her role – the business development side. Having built such a strong relationship with justt, she was able to take the leap and join them. 

“I’m essentially a client-facing subject matter expert at justt. I help prospective customers map out how they can use our product to solve their problems. It’s the perfect blend of payments and relationship-building, combining the parts of payments I love most, with the added bonus of being a product I’m super passionate about.”

The payments surprises along the way

Reflecting on her transition into the industry, Sarah recalls initially being struck by the complexity behind everyday transactions. 

“From the outside, payments look simple. You tap your card or click to pay online, and it works. But behind the scenes, there’s an incredible amount of infrastructure, cost, and optimization involved that the average person has no idea about.”

She was also surprised by just how expensive payments are for businesses, and how that drives constant innovation and performance focus.

Perhaps most unexpectedly, Sarah found a strong sense of community within the industry. As the first person dedicated to payments at her company, she relied heavily on peers, events, and networks to learn and grow. 

“That’s the most rewarding part of working in payments – the relationships. It’s such a collaborative space, and people are genuinely willing to help each other.”

Finding a leadership style

When Sarah first started in payments, her approach was simple: be hands-on and get things done. With smaller teams, that meant doing a bit of everything. 

As Sarah had the opportunity to build teams, her leadership style became much more about empowerment and coaching than direct execution. One of the most rewarding parts of building teams for Sarah – especially in a startup environment – is connecting the dots between business needs and individual growth. 

It starts with understanding what the company is trying to achieve, then looking at the people already on the team: their strengths, their interests, and where they want to grow. When those align, it creates real momentum. Hiring is always part of the equation, but enabling someone to step into a new challenge and expand their career is often the most impactful move.

Interestingly, although Sarah is currently a Senior Director at justt, she operates as an individual contributor. That’s led to a different kind of leadership: influencing without formal authority.

Sarah spends a lot of time coaching sales reps and account managers, from technical deep dives to sharing her perspective from the other side of the table, having once been the prospect. But they don’t report directly to Sarah, so she turns up the empathy and coaching more so than direct authority. When people choose to come to her for advice – not because they have to, but because they want to – it’s a strong signal of trust. And that kind of trust has become one of the most rewarding parts of Sarah’s leadership journey today. 

The evolution of payments

New technologies emerge everywhere, but few sectors move as quickly as payments. And when it comes to the future of payments, Sarah doesn’t hesitate: AI is the biggest shift on the horizon.

“Not to sound cliché, but it has to be AI. There are just so many potential applications.”

In Sarah’s chargebacks-centred world, teams are using AI to analyze vast amounts of payment data and uncover insights that would be impossible to surface manually. That same data-driven approach is also starting to influence other areas, like routing optimization – helping businesses make smarter, real-time decisions about how transactions are processed.

The conversation doesn’t stop there. The rise of agentic commerce – where AI agents act on behalf of consumers – is introducing an entirely new dynamic. 

“It’s been really interesting to watch that play out. The big question now is: where does it go next, and how do companies prepare?”

But beyond the agentic commerce hype, Sarah has observed some other monumental industry shifts.

One significant example being the growing emphasis on collaboration across the ecosystem. Merchants, PSPs, and card networks are working more closely than ever to solve shared challenges. Initiatives like Visa’s Compelling Evidence 3.0 and Mastercard’s First-Party Trust are designed to enable better data sharing, helping merchants tackle issues like friendly fraud more effectively.

This increase in data sharing isn’t limited to disputes – it’s also transforming transaction processing. By sharing richer data signals, companies can reduce false declines and improve overall payment performance.

At the same time, businesses are becoming increasingly global. Even traditionally domestic companies are expanding into new markets, driving demand for local payment methods and the infrastructure to support them. For Sarah, this is one of the most exciting outcomes of how payments has evolved.

But greater access brings greater complexity.

With more payment methods, providers, and markets to manage, companies are increasingly turning to orchestration layers and dynamic routing to stay in control. Having the right tools is only part of the equation – you also need a way to make them work together effectively.

As Sarah puts it: “I needed a tool to manage my tools!”

Quick fire questions: 

Last thing you bought online: A Tory Burch purse

Favorite hobby: Getting lost in a great book

Favorite sport: Basketball

Office or hybrid: Hybrid

Digital wallet or physical wallet: Digital

Early bird or night owl: Early bird

In-store or online: Online

You’re the biggest fan of: Traveling to new places

How chargebacks fit into the agentic commerce era

While much of the industry is focused on the agentic commerce opportunity, Sarah brings a different perspective grounded in the realities of chargebacks.

“Everyone’s having these exciting conversations about agentic commerce, and I’m over here thinking – we’re going to see a lot of chargebacks if things go wrong.”

As purchasing decisions become one step removed from the consumer, disputes could become more complex and frequent. For Sarah, that means chargebacks need a bigger voice in the conversation.

“It’s not the most glamorous part of payments, but it’s critical. If we already see high volumes of disputes today, we need to be ready for what happens when agents start making decisions.” 

Despite the challenges, Sarah remains optimistic. The sheer range of perspectives shaping the industry’s future gives her hope. Agentic commerce is a space full of possibilities and experimentation. 

Sarah was reminded of this recently while speaking at MPE Berlin. In preparing for the panel, she had developed a clear point of view: that the industry is so focused on the promise of agentic commerce it risks overlooking persistent challenges like chargebacks. But once on stage, the conversation quickly shifted. The audience wasn’t asking about the distant future. They were asking very present, practical questions: How do we reduce friendly fraud? How do we improve approval rates?

That moment highlighted a fundamental tension in payments today. On one hand, there’s real excitement about what’s ahead – new models, new technologies, and the transformative potential of agentic commerce. On the other, businesses are still operating in the here and now, facing immediate pressures. 

What’s inspiring is that everyone in payments is effectively operating on these two tracks at once. We’re building toward the future while actively solving for the present. It’s a balancing act that requires both vision and pragmatism.

Chargebacks at justt

In Sarah’s own words “Chargebacks are often one of the most frustrating parts of payments. But they also offer a unique window into how your business is really performing. A dispute isn’t just a dispute. It can highlight issues with your product, customer experience, or payment setup. When you own chargebacks, you end up working across all those areas and gaining a much deeper understanding of the business.” 

For Sarah, that cross-functional visibility is what makes the space so compelling. It’s also why she sees chargebacks as a natural fit for AI – helping teams analyze patterns, streamline workflows, and improve outcomes. 

Of course, it’s not without its challenges. But that’s part of the appeal. 

“It’s constant problem-solving. You’re always optimizing, always adjusting. It’s like chasing a target you can never quite reach, because it keeps moving. That is what drives me forward.” 

Sarah’s proudest moments at justt

Sarah is proud of how justt has adapted alongside initiatives like Visa’s VAMP (Visa Acquirer Monitoring Program). As more merchants have needed to engage with alert systems such as RDR and Ethoca, justt has integrated these capabilities directly into its product, layering in automation to streamline what was once an intensely manual process.

Historically, managing these alerts required logging into separate portals and handling cases one by one, a time-consuming task. Alerts needed to be cleared to notify the network, and refunds then had to be processed through entirely different systems. Sarah recalls having to do this during her vacation because “chargebacks don’t take holiday.” 

By enabling merchants to set logic once and automate the entire workflow, justt has significantly reduced manual effort while also helping merchants maintain healthier fraud and dispute ratios. The result is both efficiency and meaningful relief from a long-standing operational pain point.

Sarah’s best advice: Make the most of learning opportunities

Ask Sarah what’s shaped her most in payments, and she won’t point to a single moment. It’s the accumulation of hundreds of small ones.

But her top tip for learning? Put yourself out there. 

From conferences to informal networking dinners, she sees every interaction as an opportunity to learn – even if it doesn’t feel that way at first. Early in her career, pushing herself into these environments wasn’t always easy, but Sarah made a conscious effort to treat everyone she met as someone she could learn from, whether it was a vendor, peer, payments leader, or event organizer. 

She’s a big believer in what she calls “microlearning.” A quick chat at an event, a comment on a webinar, a passing insight from a peer. Those small inputs add up.

“There’s always a nugget you can take away from someone, even if it’s an intern. You just have to be open-minded. Absorb as much as you can.”

Then one day, when a challenge arises at work, something clicks, and that “nugget” suddenly becomes useful in a real-world situation.

That mindset also shapes how she approaches people. Sarah makes a conscious effort to meet as many people as she can across the industry – and just as importantly, to really listen. Staying curious and engaged has helped her build a wide network of meaningful relationships with people who are generous with their time and knowledge. 

Now, as someone more established in her career, she’s intentional about paying that forward.