Chief Operating Officer - Digital Payments

About the role

A growing fintech business providing digital payment solutions to merchants, businesses, financial institutions and consumers is hiring a Chief Operating Officer in Kampala, Uganda. The COO reports to the CEO and oversees payments operations, operational risk, customer operations and business continuity, with direct reports including managers for payments, merchants, agents and customers, a reconciliation lead, fraud operations lead and business continuity lead. The role balances rapid commercial growth with operational resilience, financial controls and customer trust.

Key responsibilities

• Define the operations strategy, budgets, service standards and performance targets, and advise the CEO on capacity, continuity and risk.
• Oversee payment initiation, processing, monitoring, settlement and reconciliation, and set controls for exceptions, failed payments and reversals.
• Work with Finance on settlement and reconciliation, segregation of duties and accurate reporting.
• Oversee merchant onboarding, activation and support, and strengthen agent network support where applicable.
• Set customer-service standards for enquiries, complaints and disputes, and track complaint trends.
• Work with Risk, Compliance and Fraud teams on an operational-risk framework, incident management and audit remediation.
• Partner with Technology and Product to automate workflows and check operational readiness of system changes.
• Develop business continuity plans, run continuity exercises and coordinate responses to service interruptions.
• Manage the operations budget, monitor cost per transaction and report performance to the CEO.

Required profile

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Finance, Operations Management, Economics, Information Systems or a related field; MBA or similar postgraduate qualification is advantageous.
• At least 12 years of professional experience, including substantial operational leadership.
• At least five years in a senior leadership role in fintech, payments, banking, telecommunications or financial services.
• Experience managing reconciliation, settlement, merchant operations or related financial processes, and with banks, mobile money operators, payment processors or fintech partners.
• Demonstrated success scaling operations while maintaining service quality.

Required skills

• Digital payment operations and transaction workflows.
• Operational controls, incident management and business continuity.
• Leadership of multidisciplinary teams and strong stakeholder management.
• Relevant professional qualifications in risk management, payments, operations or project management are advantageous.