Banking Operations Manager at Lulalend

Overall Purpose:

• We are seeking an experienced Manager: Banking Operations with a strong background in fintech or digital banking environments. This role is pivotal to driving operational efficiency, ensuring compliance, and delivering an exceptional customer experience delivered through a well defined and seamless customer journey.
• The ideal candidate will have a deep understanding of banking processes, payments, compliance, and risk management, combined with the agility and innovation mindset of a fintech professional.

Key Responsibilities:

• Provide oversight and guidance on end-to-end banking operations, ensuring seamless coordination between internal teams and external service providers to deliver a frictionless customer experience at all times.
• Evaluate, design, and continuously refine banking operational processes in line with fintech best practice, focusing on automation, scalability, and efficiency.
• Manage day-to-day operations across various payment rails (EFT, card networks, instant payments, and merchant services), working closely with internal and external stakeholders to monitor and maintain uptime and integrity across all payment systems.
• Act as the business operations lead for integration and management of third-party vendors, banking partners, and the core banking system partner, ensuring service-level agreements (SLAs) are met, and that incidents are resolved promptly with minimal disruption.
• Use data dashboards and reports to track key operational metrics, including activation rates, transaction success rates, customer onboarding speed, compliance indicators, and turnaround times.
• Collaborate cross functionally with the customer support, sales, product and compliance teams to design and refine customer journeys from onboarding to transaction fulfillment, ensuring each touchpoint reflects operational excellence.
• Support strategic initiatives such as launching new financial products or enhancing operational risk frameworks.
• Act as a key stakeholder in operational readiness assessments and go-to-market execution plans.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Business Administration, Banking, or related field.
• 5+ years of experience in banking operations, with at least 2 years in a fintech or digital banking environment.
• Strong understanding of digital payment ecosystems (EFT, card networks, instant payments, and merchant services)
• Proven ability to manage risk and ensure compliance in a fast-paced regulatory landscape.
• Hands-on experience with KYC/AML processes, transaction monitoring, and dispute resolution.
• Excellent analytical, problem-solving, and leadership skills.
• Experience with operations automation, CRM platforms, and BI reporting is a plus.

Preferred Attributes:

• Experience launching or scaling operations in a startup or high-growth fintech.
• Familiarity with South African fintech ecosystems and regulators (e.g., SARB, FSCA).
• Strong analytical and problem solving capabilities.
• Strong Strategic and critical thinking ability
• Agile project management experience.
• Ability to manage ambiguity in a fast paced environment
• Collaborative approach to solving problems with various stakeholders