Head of Payment and Customer Operations

About the role

As Head of Payments and Customer Operations, you will play a pivotal role in the continued success of Hokodo’s Operations. Reporting to the VP of Operations, you will lead key operational areas in Europe and the UK, with a focus on operational excellence, scalability and customer experience.

We’re looking for a hands-on, data driven leader who sets a high bar and leads by example. You will set the strategic direction and roadmap for maximising effectiveness, efficiency and customer centricity across our growing B2B PayNow and PayLater businesses, including our E-Money Institution operations. You will collaborate closely with our product teams and other functions, like Risk, Finance and Legal and Compliance, to continuously improve our products, systems and processes.

Location
We would like you to work from our office in Vilnius two days per week, joining our team of dedicated professionals and making your mark on the world of B2B e-commerce.

About Hokodo
We’re an international and diverse team, based in London, Vilnius and Paris, working to modernise B2B payments.

• Our B2B Buy Now, Pay Later solution enables merchants to offer credit terms to their business customers instantly, resulting in a 40% average increase in revenue for integrated merchants.
• We are scaling rapidly across Western Europe, with a list of stellar clients and have raised a total of over $50 million to support our mission of enabling 1 million businesses to access a better way to pay by 2025.
• Join us in our efforts, as we have already made good progress with 50,000+ businesses regularly using Hokodo, but need your support to take us to the next level!

What you’ll be doing - If you get excited by the following, this is the role for you.

This role covers a broad remit and a growing team of 9 employees in Payment Operations, Customer Operations and Compliance Operations, spread across our offices in London, Paris and Vilnius.

General responsibilities

• Develop and deliver the strategy and roadmap for each area
• Scale, manage and develop each team in line with business needs
• Drive improvements to processes, increased operational efficiencies and effectiveness of teams
• Ensure operational processes comply with regulatory requirements
• Use data and insights to make informed decisions and problem-solve effectively
• Develop a culture of innovation and continuous improvement across your teams

Payment Operations

• Lead the payment operations function for the Hokodo group of companies, including in an E-money Institution
• Manage relationships and SLAs with our various payment providers (e.g. PSPs, banks) to optimise our EMI setup, payment success and associated costs
• Identify tech work to improve effectiveness/efficiency of our Payment Ops work, and work with Product and Tech to scope, build and test solutions
• Identify how Payment Ops processes (and payment flows) can be adapted to meet the changing needs of our business and the evolving needs of our customers
• Responsible for regulatory reporting relating to payments
• Develop, enhance, and monitor operational systems and processes to ensure payment success, process efficiency and positive customer experience

Customer Operations

• Develop strategy and roadmap for Customer Operations across multiple areas
• Manage and develop the Customer Operations Team Lead
• Support the team lead in driving improvements to merchant and buyer satisfaction
• Ensure that all customer operations activities comply with relevant regulations and industry standards

Fraud and Compliance Operations

• Support the Team Lead in setting up and evolving processes, policies and systems that enable the team to conduct fraud reviews, KYC checks and sanction screens effectively
• Contribute to a strong control environment by minimising breaches and risk events, and resolving operational incidents when they occur
• Work closely with the VP Credit and Fraud Risk and Head of Compliance, MLRO, as well as relevant product squads to continuously improve Fraud and Compliance Operations

Who we’re looking for - At Hokodo, we prioritise hiring individuals who share our mission and values, and possess the right attitudes and behaviours for success. While some of the listed requirements may be important, don't worry if you don't meet all of them, we’d still like to hear from you.

• Experience in an operational leadership role in a regulated Financial Services industry (such as a payment FinTech or banking)
• Proven track record of effective project management, scaling teams and delivering outstanding results in a dynamic ‘hands on’ environment
• Knowledge of payment and card schemes as well as settlement processes
• Experience spearheading major change initiatives, adept at managing transitions and aligning new processes with organisational goals and team capabilities
• Proven experience in process optimisation and implementing customer-centric strategies
• Analytical mindset with the ability to leverage data to drive decision-making and process improvements
• Experience in managing budgets and headcount within an operations department, ensuring effective and efficient use of resources
• Experience owning and and solving complex payment issues
• Understanding of Compliance, AML/KYC policies and procedures
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to engage with stakeholders at all levels
• Demonstrated ability to thrive in a fast-paced, dynamic environment

Nice to have

• Experience with a cross-border business with other group entities providing and receiving services from an EU E-money Institution
• Experience with leading E-money Institution reporting to relevant regulatory institutions (e.g. FCA)
• Experience in customer operations within the financial services industry
• Knowledge of French or German is a plus

What’s in it for you?
We’re offering the chance to really make a difference to Hokodo and the wider B2B payments and e-commerce industry. The opportunity for personal growth in a fast-moving startup is massive. Your opinion and feedback will be heard and valued. You'll feel a part of a very special team.
We offer a competitive salary (€8,500 - €12,500 gross/month depending on your profile and skills) and benefits package.

📈 Share Options

🎓 Annual Learning and Development budget

✈️ Globetrotter travel policy: Spend up to 60 days abroad each calendar year

🫂 Taking well being seriously: Access to qualified therapist, confidentially via video or chat through Spill

🌴 Yearly offsites and other company socials previously, we have been to Malta, Majorca and Vilnius**,** as well as regular meetups in London and Paris**.**

Our values

Hokodo is more than a place to work. We're passionate about making our industry better and aren't afraid of the competition. We pride ourselves on our culture of down to earth employees who are always willing to go the extra mile to help each other out!

• Own the Outcome - We’re committed to our tasks, and take pride in the outcome. It’s never “not my job”. We are bold, we are brave, and we embrace change in all its forms.

• Trust and Build Trust - We are committed to earning and fostering trust through honest communication and deliberate actions. We support our team and value each other’s time, input, and take local decisions where possible.

• Never Be Satisfied - We challenge the norms and act boldly, even if it means failing. We are reflective, always learn from our mistakes, and continuously seek feedback and ways to improve. When something’s not quite right, we crave to fix it. We’re open to being challenged, and challenge others openly.

• No Passion, No Point - We bring passion and energy to everything we do. We get a lot done, and we have a good time doing it. We take every opportunity to celebrate our hard work, our wins - and some of our failures too!

• Be Genuine (No BS) - We are truthful and honest in our actions. We embrace and respect our individuality and encourage people to speak their mind. We are transparent and committed to doing what’s best for each other, our customers and our company. Put simply, we care.

Don’t tick all of the boxes? Neither do we.
We are driven by hiring not only by experience and relevance for the role but also our mission and values, and possess the right attitudes and behaviours for success. We celebrate anything ‘outside of the box’, so if you don’t meet all of the listed tickbox criteria, please do still apply as we’d love to hear from you.

The diversity of our team reflects the diversity of our community and customers. We not only welcome but celebrate diverse communities. We feel we have an empowering environment where everyone is supported and respected, and we want you to feel this too. We welcome new ideas, thinking and approaches and listen intently, and we are strongly committed to learning and improving on this as we grow.