Payment orchestration layer is a technical way of describing payment orchestration, the subject covered in full under that entry. The word "layer" emphasises where the software sits in a merchant's technology stack.
A payment orchestration layer sits between the merchant's checkout and the many providers it might use: gateways, acquirers, local payment methods, wallets and fraud tools. The merchant integrates once with the layer, and the layer connects to each provider. It can then send each transaction to the most suitable provider, retry failed payments elsewhere, hold card details in a neutral vault, and give a single view of results across providers. Orchestration layers may be bought from a specialist vendor, offered as a feature by a payment service provider, or built in-house by large merchants.
The phrase helps distinguish the layer from the services it controls. It does not itself move money or hold an acquiring licence; the acquirer still contracts with the merchant and settles funds. Typical functions of the layer include smart payment routing, payment retries and failover, each of which has its own entry.