Head of Operations / COO

PayPilot is an aggressively expanding international fintech group developing cutting-edge digital payment and cryptocurrency products. Our current ecosystem includes: B2C: Digital wallets, payment cards, and IBAN accounts for retail clients. B2B: Wallets, corporate cards, and business IBAN solutions. PSP: A proprietary payment gateway, supporting local European payment methods and dedicated corridors (including India).

With 3+ financial licenses already secured, our group is actively growing its product line, geographical reach, and infrastructure. We are looking for a highly capable, driven operational leader who thrives in a fast-paced environment and is ready to take complete ownership of results. This is a unique opportunity to enter our core executive team at a critical growth stage and grow alongside the global business.
We are seeking an experienced Head of Operations / COO who has directly managed operations within a payment provider or a high-growth fintech company.

Location: Based in Europe or the UK (within a close time zone). Cyprus is highly preferred.

Responsibilities

• Operational Framework & Design: Build and map end-to-end operational processes across the company. Define clear process owners, areas of responsibility, deadlines, inter-departmental workflows, and escalation paths.
• Process Compliance & Control: Develop and implement internal regulations, checklists, and critical control points. Ensure they are systematically adhered to in daily operations.
• Department Management: Translate high-level corporate goals into actionable tasks, KPIs, and OKRs for various departments. Monitor delivery and actively remove internal roadblocks.
• Management Rhythm: Establish a structured managerial cadence (daily/weekly syncs) with clear agendas, action items, assignees, and strict follow-ups.
• Reporting & Analytics: Design a robust system of operational metrics and dashboards. Proactively spot anomalies and drive corrective business actions.
• Financial & Payment Operations Oversight: Collaborate closely with the Finance team to monitor fund movements, reconciliations, settlements with merchants and providers, payout timelines, rolling reserves, operational expenses, and critical liabilities.
• Provider & Key Account Governance: Oversee relationships with major clients and vendors, ensuring service quality, SLA compliance, incident resolution, and smooth cross-departmental coordination.
• Business Continuity: Build and execute crisis management frameworks to handle technical downtime, payout delays, provider-imposed restrictions, and other operational emergencies.
• AI & Automation Integration: Drive operational efficiency by leveraging AI tools to minimize manual workflows, accelerate data analytics, draft procedures, and increase visibility, while strictly verifying all outputs and protecting sensitive data.

Skills

• Fintech/PSP Background: Proven operations management track record inside a large PSP, high-risk payment gateway holding, payment institution, or major fintech player (direct experience with digital wallet products is highly valued).
• Operational Leadership: Solid experience steering day-to-day operations, heading departments, or managing multiple cross-functional operational units simultaneously.
• Crypto Fluency: Direct, practical experience handling and optimizing cryptocurrency flows (crypto flows).
• High-Risk Expertise: Experience working directly with high-risk merchants and payment providers.
• Domain Knowledge: Deep understanding of digital wallets, cards, IBANs, processing architecture, and settlement mechanics between parties within the payment chain.
• Process Engineering: Demonstrated ability to build corporate workflows, standard operating procedures (SOPs), reporting structures, and internal audit controls from scratch.
• Performance Management: Strong hands-on experience using KPI and OKR frameworks to set goals, track performance, and achieve strategic targets.
• Analytical Mindset: Comfortable dissecting complex financial and operational indicators to uncover root causes of performance dips or data mismatches.
• AI Tool Proficiency: Competency in using AI tools for data analysis, drafting policies, structuring tasks, and automating repetitive tasks, combined with an unconditional responsibility for verifying results and preserving data privacy.
• Language: Fluent/Business professional English (written and spoken) for managing international clients, providers, and cross-border teams.

Location: Based in Europe or the UK (within a close time zone). Cyprus is highly preferred.

Salary: Competitive, discussed individually based on your experience and depth of operational ownership.

Growth: A concrete opportunity to step up into the CEO role as you hit milestones and expand your strategic scope.