Portfolio Jobs

About the Job

• ORDA is looking for a Head of Payment Operations to lead our Payment Operations and Reconciliation team as we scale our platform across Africa.
• You will be responsible for overseeing all payment flows — card processing, mobile money, bank transfers, and merchant settlements — while managing exceptions, disputes, investigations, and resolutions.
• This is a senior leadership role. You’ll set the strategy, define key operational metrics, and drive the execution of ORDA’s payment operations across our African markets.
• You’ll work closely with banks, fintech partners, and card schemes (Visa, Mastercard) to optimize success rates, uphold SLAs, and improve the merchant experience.
• At ORDA, you’ll be at the center of digitizing Africa’s restaurants and retail sector, enabling seamless, reliable, and scalable payment operations for merchants across the continent.
• If you're excited by the challenge of building infrastructure that powers the backbone of African commerce, we’d love to meet you.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead and develop the Payment Operations team, setting clear objectives, deliverables, and regular reviews to meet internal SLAs and quality standards.
• Own the end-to-end operational framework, including policies, internal controls, and KPIs to ensure world-class payment support.
• Oversee daily reconciliation of inbound and outbound payment flows across cards, mobile money, and bank transfers — including terminal settlements and merchant payouts.
• Manage relationships with partner banks, mobile money operators, card networks (Visa, Mastercard), and processors.
• Lead the operational execution of terminal card processing, chargebacks, settlements, disputes, and investigations.
• Develop strategies to improve payment success rates, reduce exceptions, and proactively manage risks and issues.
• Drive implementation of best-in-class back-office operations and continuous process improvement.
• Produce periodic liquidity and cash flow forecasts to ensure payment processing runs smoothly.
• Work closely with Compliance, Risk, and Audit teams to ensure alignment with all local regulations across our markets, including KYC, AML, and data protection.
• Evaluate and implement new tools, technologies, or partnerships to enhance payment operations.
• Support commercial teams with operational insight for new markets and product launches.
• Coach, mentor, and develop a resilient, high-performing payment operations team.

Requirements
Ideal Experience and Skills:

• Proven experience scaling payment operations within a fintech, bank, or payments company — ideally in emerging markets or African ecosystems.
• Strong understanding of card processing flows (Visa, Mastercard), terminal settlements, and dispute resolution.
• Deep knowledge of mobile money operations and bank transfers, including reconciliation and exception handling.
• Familiarity with payment schemes and clearing systems such as SWIFT, SEPA, ACH, RTGS, NIBSS, and mobile money rails.
• Expertise in reconciliation processes — balancing back-office systems against bank, processor, and wallet statements.
• Strong knowledge of payment compliance, regulatory frameworks, and risk management practices.
• Ability to build processes and teams from scratch, with a hands-on approach to solving problems.
• Data-driven decision-maker with strong analytical and reporting skills.
• Excellent communication, leadership, and stakeholder management skills.
• Resilient, adaptable, and comfortable working in high-growth, fast-changing environments.

Nice to Have:

• Previous experience with African payment ecosystems (Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, South Africa).
• Familiarity with merchant acquiring, POS terminals, and payment gateways.
• Understanding of liquidity management and treasury operations.
• Knowledge of SaaS platforms or enterprise software in payments.

Interested and qualified? Go to Orda Africa on www.linkedin.com to apply