FinTech Operations Manager

We are looking for an Operations Manager to uphold the operational excellence of the SnapScan platform. 

As a FinTech Operations Manager, you will drive operational excellence within our innovative financial technology company. Operating at the intersection of strategy and execution, you will lead the development and implementation of operational initiatives to support our growth and enhance the overall efficiency of our operations. 

As a member of Manco, this position offers a unique opportunity to shape the future of our operational processes, contributing to ensuring that we have the appropriate Operations structure, capabilities, capacity, best practices, processes, and governance in place to ensure the smooth running of the SnapScan platform, the operational robustness and security of the backend, and the sustainable scaling of the organisation.

The Operations Team comprises four skilled specialists who cover a range of functions, including, but not limited to, fraud and risk management, financial operations (merchant settlements), and payment operations, that ensure customer service levels are maintained in line with our strategic goals and Bank SLAs. 

This role reports to the Head of Operations.

Key responsibilities will include:

Fraud Prevention & Detection Management

• Overseeing the creation, administration and implementation of strategies for fraud prevention and detection, aimed at reducing fraud and the associated risks across all products
• Formulating and executing fraud prevention and detection policies, aimed at balancing risk mitigation strategies with business growth objectives
• Aiding in complex fraud investigations to unveil intricate fraud networks and construct fraud profiles for the development of future fraud prevention strategies
• Tracking and monitoring critical fraud system performance indicators to identify and address inefficiencies and gaps
• Collaborating with Information Security and Engineering teams to ensure systems, data, and user transactions are secure and align with cybersecurity best practices and POPIA regulations

Payment System Stability & Resilience

• Developing and implementing comprehensive payment and card performance strategies aligned with Operations and company objectives, aimed at enabling revenue and payment system stability
• Being the final escalation point for the resolution of payment and card-related issues
• Ensuring that operational disruptions are swiftly identified, escalated, managed, and resolved with minimal impact on business continuity
• Conducting post-incident reviews to identify root causes and develop corrective and preventive actions
• Delivering reporting and dashboards to highlight trends, root causes, and operational impact
• Identify recurring issues and lead process improvement initiatives to reduce incident frequency and severity

Operational Finance Management

• Ensuring accurate and reliable reconciliation of operational accounts, encompassing all fund flows within the SnapScan platform, to mitigate potential financial losses for the business and customers
• Being accountable for the accurate and timely release of merchant settlements

Team Leadership & People Management

• Creating clear direction for the Operations Team, cascading the Operations Strategy to the Operations Team, and translating the strategy into actionable goals for performance and growth
• Being the custodian of deliberate capability and capacity building for the Operations Team
• Capability and Capacity Building includes: 
• Talent management, hiring, onboarding, retention, performance assessments, upskilling, coaching and developing team members, and succession planning, i.e. investing time and energy in getting the right team in place; and ensuring that the right people are in the right roles
• Creating a sustainable, healthy, inclusive, customer-centric, skilled and high-performing Operations team, environment and culture
• Enabling and building the organisation’s culture within the Operations Team by:
• Personally living and role modelling the organisation’s values to ensure that Operations team members thrive and deliverables are met 
• Creating a positive environment within the Operations Team that promotes high performance and positive morale, as well as personal growth and development for team members
• Holding team members accountable for doing the same
• Ensuring the availability of 7-day-a-week support/ops services (available over weekends and public holidays, emergency after-hours support, etc.)

Execution & Results

• Effectively moving the function from “strategising” to “executing”
• Ensuring that key accountabilities and KPIs are defined for each role within the function; i.e. everyone knows where they fit in, what they need to do, and how it supports the organisation
• Operations delivery oversight: 
• Ensuring that all actions taken progress the function towards achieving the required goals/KRs
• Continuously assessing operations processes and identifying areas for improvement
• Keeping track of projects and deliverables, and addressing concerns which require intervention
• Monitoring the reliability and performance of all internal systems and implementing improvements
• Being responsible for critical operational incident handling, driving root cause analyses, handling incident remediation efforts, and setting up strategies for ensuring operational robustness measures to prevent future issues originating from SnapScan and/or suppliers as far as possible
• Driving the development and execution of business continuity and disaster recovery plans for critical operational processes and infrastructure
• Reporting, Analytics and Metric Management
• Defining and tracking Operations metrics (e.g. Query Resolution times, CSAT scores, Chargeback Rates, Payment Success Rates, Merchant Churn, Merchant and User Retention, Card Terminal Error Rates)
• Evaluating performance by analysing and interpreting data and metrics to ensure data-driven decision-making
• Reporting on operational performance to recommend and implement improvements, and sharing these insights with the broader SnapScan team
• Delivering comprehensive reports and insights on key operational metrics to the Head of Operations, emphasising the identification of operational inefficiencies and risks and suggesting intervention points
• Improving the operational flow of work between SnapScan, its payment service providers, and Standard Bank, as well as compiling and assessing the performance of our service providers in line with all SLAs

Stakeholder Management

• Overseeing critical operational third-party relationships and working to ensure compliance with expected operational requirements and optimised service delivery
• Working effectively across cross-functional business units/functions and leaders
• Assisting the Head of Operations and Head of Customer Engagement with ensuring that there is tight integration and cross-functional alignment between the Customer Experience, Customer Engagement, Compliance, and Operations Teams

Compliance & Governance

• Ensuring that all Operations practices adhere to regulatory, security and privacy requirements
• Ensuring that the Operations Team complies with all internal policies and procedures

This job may be for you if:

• You are relentless in your customer focus
• You are organised, accurate and process-driven in how you get things done
• You relate well to people and easily establish good working relationships across all functions and management levels, working collaboratively and independently
• You’re level-headed and cool under pressure. When things change, you know how to roll with the punches. You recognise that effective leadership means staying calm under pressure while keeping multiple strategic initiatives on track
• You need to be both hands-on and high-level—willing to get into the thick of things when needed, but also able to rise above the day-to-day to lead with clarity and foresight
• You are comfortable balancing competing demands in a fast-paced environment
• You have influence and can confidently make recommendations using data and analyses, especially to the senior leadership team
• You have a strong sense of accountability and ownership
• You have a 'can-do’ attitude and an agile approach. SnapScan moves fast – you will need to be willing to learn new things quickly and be a self-starter
• You are excited to roll up your sleeves and jump into the trenches to support the team when needed
• Basically, you will blow us away with your work ethic, passion, integrity and energy!

You are our ideal candidate if you have:

• A relevant bachelor's degree in Business Administration, an Analytical field (Economics, Statistics, Computer Science or Finance) or professional certifications in payment industry-related operations management
• Proven experience (3+ years) in payment operations and operational risk management within the fintech or payments industry, with a strong understanding of payment service providers, analytics, and project management
• Experience being part of Manco and contributing to the co-creation and execution of the company’s strategy, OKRs, culture, policies and practices
• A successful track record in leading and developing effective, engaged and high-performing teams in an agile environment
• A proven ability to:
• Ensure robust ongoing operations of complex systems
• Set up monitoring, alerting and alarming for critical systems
• Sound knowledge and experience in:
• Process improvement, design and implementation
• Processing and sanitising raw data in spreadsheets
• Visualising data analytics to provide reporting, insights and metrics to manage the payments function and the team's performance effectively
• Bonus points for previous experience in:
• Working in a start-up environment, helping to build an operations function from the ground up and scaling operations in line with company needs and changes 
• Experience in extracting and analysing data from BI Tools (such as PowerBi, Looker, and Tableau) and knowledge of SQL
• Experience with regulatory requirements and compliance frameworks relevant to the financial services industry