SnapScan is a leading, bank-aligned, merchant and consumer-facing fintech company. We are seeking a highly-skilled, commercially-minded Chief Operating Officer to join our senior management team.
We are continuing on our path of being a customer-centric and product-led platform and we need great leaders to help us get there!
This is a critical role for the organisation and will overall contribute to the growth and expansion plans we have in place.
We are looking for an exceptional Chief Operating Officer who has the varied technical skills, personal maturity and leadership competencies required to lead the company’s revenue operations, marketing, growth, general operations and customer support teams, as well as risk management, regulatory compliance and programme coordination in a product-led, fintech environment.
As our COO, you will be responsible for coordinating alignment, communication and implementation company-wide to drive business strategy, execution, and revenue growth. You will help shape and oversee the systems, processes and people necessary to underpin the business operations and deliver the forecast revenue, expense budgets and timing.
You will also be responsible for coaching and growing the competencies and capabilities of your direct reports, engaging in hiring, succession planning, team design and growth plans for teams in their spaces.
This exciting position, reporting directly to our CEO, is key to enabling the company to continue to deliver quantifiable value to our customers and help craft the future of SnapScan. It also provides our ideal candidate with a fantastic opportunity to:
- Work with highly competent professionals in a great culture
- Work with modern tools and tech
- Use your expertise to create and shape the principles that underpin the future of SnapScan’s products and platform
- Assist with our scaling strategy as we approach a new round of funding (as our product offering and customer base expand we will need to build out our teams and evolve the platform to accommodate the expected growth)
If you can dive in and lead well then there is a massive opportunity to deliver impactful work into the market and to create an environment of learning and innovation.
Key Responsibilities will include:
Executive Leadership
- Being part of SnapScan’s senior management team, liaising with the CEO, CFO, and CPTO and contributing to the execution of the company’s strategy and culture
- Working with the CEO to define SnapScan’s objectives and key results both annually and quarterly
- Cascading the company strategy & OKRs to the Commercial & Operations Teams and translating this into actionable goals for performance and growth. This includes implementing best practices and making sure there is a healthy collaboration with other internal stakeholders
Company-wide
- Developing, aligning and mobilising the ManCo Team on an ongoing basis
- Collaborating with Exco and the Manco Team to understand their requirements, and ensuring that the vision is translated into agile delivery
- Managing and driving monthly feedback and OKR planning meetings, as well as quarterly planning meetings, with the ManCo team
- Ensuring efficient coordination between all business units
- Working closely with the Head of People in organisational planning
- Acting as Programme Coordinator for critical, company-wide projects, as appropriate
- Scaling the Commercial & Operations functions in line with company needs and changes to infrastructure (in collaboration with the CEO)
Commercial (Marketing and Growth)
- Responsibility for commercial operations planning and scaling in line with company-wide strategy and goals
- Developing and executing the company’s marketing and distribution strategy to drive revenue growth
- Identifying and pursuing new business opportunities, including partnerships and strategic alliances
- Collaborating deeply with Product to ensure alignment, potency and consistency in the company's commercial efforts
- Monitoring market trends and competitor activities to stay ahead of the competition
- Developing and scaling this area as dictated by business needs and budget
Operations
- Supporting the Head of Operations in the delivery of lean, high-performing and customer-centric teams across technical and payment operations, support, fraud management, financial operations, logistics management, and customer compliance
- Ensuring that risk mitigation and growth objectives are balanced appropriately in all operational functions
Bank partnership & Stakeholder Management
- Building and maintaining relationships with key stakeholders at our partner institution that are central to the company’s execution and success
- Establishing and optimising modes of work between the organisations
Operational Excellence
- Monitoring the reliability and performance of all internal systems to suggest improvements
- Assessing delivery to identify areas of concern during projects that require intervention
Leadership & People Management
- Assisting your direct reports in scaling and adapting team structures in line with the company’s growth strategy
- Coaching and growing the competencies and capabilities of your direct reports, engaging in succession planning, team design, and growth plans to achieve productivity and engagement
- Hiring for key roles and working to ensure that the existing team members are growing and reaching their full potential.
- Creating a sustainable, healthy and high-performing team environment and culture.
Reporting & Metrics Management
- Evaluating performance by analysing and interpreting data and metrics
- Reporting on performance and putting forward improvements
Innovation & Continuous Improvement
- Identifying areas for Continuous Improvement and staying on top of new trends and developments in the fintech commercial and operational space
Compliance & Governance
- Ensuring that all commercial and operations practices adhere to regulatory, security & privacy requirements
- Ensuring compliance with POPI, security and PCI regulations
This job may be perfect for you if:
- You are entrepreneurial and have a natural intellectual curiosity
- You are customer obsessed
- You have high standards and strive to optimise and continuously improve people and processes
- You understand the importance of deep, company-wide collaboration to deliver excellent products and customer experiences in a fintech environment
- You actively promote an environment of two-way critical feedback
- You are a good problem solver and take others on the journey with you
- You have a solid grasp of data analysis and performance metrics
- You enjoy being hands-on and are not afraid to get your hands dirty
- You manage others well in conditions of uncertainty
- You relate well to people and easily establish good working relationships across all functions and management levels, working collaboratively and independently. You appreciate that social skills are important for conducting interviews, building business relationships, and keeping up the team’s morale.
- You have a strong strategic mindset and are able to deal effectively with senior stakeholders
- You are adaptable and flexible to effectively deal with rapid changes occurring in the industry.
- You are an expert communication router - you know how to find the best method and style to communicate the thoughts, ideas, and feedback you get from all these information exchanges in every context).
- You lead by influence and example, through motivating, guiding and keeping teams focused on the vision.
- You have a knack for explaining complicated things simply.
- You’re level-headed and cool under pressure. When things change, you know how to roll with the punches.
- You are pragmatic and know how to balance occasionally conflicting interests on behalf of customers, the business or the product (e.g managing risk without limiting growth; balancing strategic vs tactical decisions)
- You are organised, accurate and process-driven in how you get things done.
- You are comfortable with a hybrid work model and with meeting at the office when necessary
You should be great at:
- Leadership - leading teams to accomplish their goals; having a vision of what the end results and success of projects look like; having a strong sense of purpose that evokes confidence and motivates your team/s, providing direction while inspiring, empowering, and trusting people to do their jobs
- Coaching
- Communication (both verbal & written)
- Negotiation skills
- Planning, organising and time management
- Analytical and critical thinking to help find creative solutions to problems
- Collaborating effectively with others, working in teams, building relationships, sharing ideas, resolving conflict
- Decision-Making
You are our ideal candidate if you:
- MBA, Post-Graduate, or Bachelor's degree in a relevant field.
- A successful record as a Chief Operating Officer, Commercial Director, Head of Operations or in a similar role/s at an executive level, ideally within Fintech startups.
- Considerable experience in leading and developing effective, engaged and high-performing cross-functional teams.
- Ability to think strategically and make data-driven decisions.
- Sound knowledge and experience in:
- ~Leadership and coaching
Bonus points for having:
- A proven track record of success in commercialising fintech offerings in a product-led environment
- Knowledge and experience working in the Fintech, Financial Services, Banking and/or Payments (eCommerce/wallets/card present/card not present F2F) industries and/or within startups
- Previous experience in scaling teams
- A sound understanding of Policy, Strategy, Data and Information Governance
The benefits of joining our team:
- A competitive salary
- 30 days of annual leave
- A medical aid subsidy of up to R2 000 per month
- An Apple MacBook and the necessary gear
- A trendy office space with huddle rooms, a cafe, bean bags and all the equipment you’ll need
- Discretionary STI, LTI & performance bonus
- Flexible office/remote working - you get to choose whether you want to work remotely or from the office, depending on the importance of critical in-person meetings.
- Paid undercover parking (when working from the office) or city parking reimbursement when the office parking is full
- The opportunity to be part of a great team and culture
- Lots of opportunities to learn
- Mental health days
Do you feel like you would be a good fit? If you’re interested in applying for this role and you meet the necessary requirements, please submit your CV, together with your completed application on the link below.
