Head - Operations - Banking Partnerships/Strategic Alliances & Merchant Onboarding - FinTech - IIM/ISB/MDI/FMS

One of my client is a new-age digital payments and banking platform that empowers businesses with advanced technology-led financial services.

My client is among the early adopters of Open Finance policy frameworks and offers a suite of products including API Banking, mPOS, Payment Gateway, Payouts, and Regulatory Compliance tools.

ROLE OVERVIEW :

My Client is looking for a dynamic operations leader to spearhead partnerships with banks, NBFCs, and financial institutions, while managing strategic alliances and merchant onboarding across regions. This is a key role that intersects operations, compliance, and strategic execution.

This is a high-impact role where technology meets finance operations, suitable for someone who thrives in fintech or B2B SaaS environments and is passionate about driving efficient, compliant, and scalable operations.

From the role perspective, Management need someone who has strong experience in Merchant operations ,Banking operations & who can build process excellence

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES :

A) Operational Excellence

- Lead and optimize day-to-day operations across payment processing, merchant settlements, and transaction monitoring.

- Drive end-to-end execution of reconciliations, dispute management, and risk control.

B) Regulatory & Compliance Oversight

- Own operational compliance with CBUAE, RBI, PCI-DSS, and other applicable regulations.

- Lead internal audits, policy documentation, and reporting to regulators and partner banks.

- Implement and monitor KYC/AML operations, especially for merchant and API banking flows.

C) Technology-Led Process Optimization

- Partner with product and tech teams to automate workflows across collections, payouts, onboarding, etc.

- Work closely with engineering for API integrations, fraud detection tools, and platform resilience.

D) People & Stakeholder Management

- Manage a cross-functional team across customer support, onboarding, settlements, and compliance ops.

- Work with banking/NBFC partners, payment networks, card issuers, and regulators.

- Act as the voice of operations in leadership meetings and cross-functional reviews.

- Work closely with internal stakeholders for Process automation, Driving excellence within the RBI guidelines and Payments products.

E) Strategic Growth Enabler

- Support go-to-market initiatives for new products like Open Finance APIs, white-label platforms, or embedded finance.

- Develop SOPs and scalable playbooks for entering new geographies or regulatory sandboxes.

- Drive operational KPIs and continuous improvement across business units.

IDEAL CANDIDATE PROFILE

- 8-15 years of experience in fintech, digital banking, or B2B SaaS companies

- Strong background in payments operations, partner management, and onboarding

- Working knowledge of Open Banking / Open Finance / API frameworks

- Ability to manage stakeholders across banks, regulators, and high-growth startups

- MBA from Tier-1 institute preferred (IIM, ISB, XLRI, etc.)

- As the head of Operations, The candidate has to work closely with sales and Enterprise business teams to drive strong NPS and drive quality management across the PPI and Payments products.

DAY TO DAY RESPONSIBILITIES

- Transaction Monitoring

- Merchant Onboarding

- Settlements & Reconciliation

- Regulatory & Compliance Operations

- Customer & Merchant Support Ops

- Process Automation & Improvements