Job Description: Head of Operations - PPI

Department : Prepaid payment instruments

Location : Delhi

Reports To : Chief Executive Officer

- The Head of Operations in a Prepaid Payment Instrument (PPI) company plays a critical role in ensuring smooth issuance, management, compliance, and transaction processing related to prepaid instruments like wallets, prepaid cards, vouchers, and gift cards.

- This role is highly regulated and operationally intensive, especially in countries with strict financial regulations (e.g., India under RBI guidelines).

Key Roles and Responsibilities

1. Prepaid Product Operations

- Oversee end-to-end lifecycle of prepaid instruments (issuance, usage, expiry, recharge).

- Manage operational workflows for open-loop, semi-closed, and closed-loop instruments.

- Coordinate with product teams to implement new features (e.g., card control, dynamic CVV, tokenization).

2. Transaction Processing & Reconciliation

- Ensure seamless authorization, clearing, and settlement of prepaid transactions.

- Monitor and resolve transaction failures, chargebacks, refunds, and disputes.

- Daily reconciliation between internal ledger, banks, networks, and issuer systems.

3. Regulatory Compliance (Especially RBI, PCI-DSS, etc.)

- Ensure all operational activities are in line with regulatory guidelines.

- Monitor limits (e.g., balance limits, transaction limits per RBI norms).

- Ensure full compliance with AML/CFT, KYC, and PMLA guidelines.

- Coordinate timely regulatory filings (e.g., quarterly reports to regulators, audits).

4. KYC and Customer Onboarding Oversight

- Ensure smooth and compliant onboarding of customers with appropriate KYC tiers (min KYC vs full KYC).

- Implement and monitor automated eKYC/CKYC processes.

- Interface with customer support and risk teams for onboarding escalations or fraud cases.

5. Partner & Vendor Management

- Manage bank integrations, BIN sponsors, card issuers, and technology providers.

- Ensure vendors (e.g., KYC providers, card printers, fraud tools) meet SLAs and compliance standards.

6. Fraud and Risk Management

- Implement systems to monitor suspicious transactions or account behaviour.

- Collaborate with fraud analytics and risk teams to proactively mitigate operational risks.

- Drive investigations and response mechanisms for fraud or AML flags.

7. Customer Experience Support

- Ensure smooth customer journey from onboarding to usage and support.

- Build SOPs for transaction issues, wallet funding failures, and expired card redemptions.

- Reduce friction in the customer lifecycle through process improvements.

8. Operational Reporting & Analytics

- Define and monitor KPIs: uptime, transaction success rate, reconciliation accuracy, TAT for disputes, etc.

- Report metrics to senior leadership and regulators as required.

- Use data to drive continuous improvement and scalability.

9. Business Continuity and Scalability

- Develop disaster recovery and business continuity plans for key systems.

- Plan and implement operational scalability for growth in transaction volume or user base.

- Ensure 24x7 operations coverage if needed (especially in consumer-facing PPIs).

10. Team Leadership

- Build and manage teams in charge of operations, customer support, KYC, dispute resolution, etc.

- Drive performance management, training, and cross-team collaboration.

Core Skills and Competencies :

- 15+ years of total experience, with at least 8-10 in payments or fintech industry, 5+ years in a leadership or senior operational role.

- MBA or equivalent with specialization in Operations, Finance or Technology Management is highly valued.

- Deep understanding of PPI regulations and guidelines.

- Strong background in payment processing, banking systems, and fintech operations.

- Hands-on experience with APIs, backend systems, reconciliation tools.

- Leadership and stakeholder management.

- Regulatory reporting and audit handling.