Chief Operating Officer

Global Fintech — Payments | Reports to CEO | Singapore or Hong Kong

About the company

We're partnering with a high growth global fintech that helps businesses move money across borders, with card issuing, cross-border payouts and treasury all built into one platform. The business is profitable, scaling fast, and now entering its next phase of international growth.

About the role

This is a newly created executive role built around the operating cadence of the business. The company has strong functional leaders across product, revenue and customer experience, each running their area well, but it does not yet have a senior operator pulling those threads together into one coherent rhythm. That is the gap this role fills.

You will own how the business sets goals, plans and tracks performance across functions, and hold those functions to it consistently, bringing structure to how the business operates as it scales. You will hold the finance function to a high standard of rigour and commercial insight, partnering closely with the finance lead rather than running the function personally, so decisions are grounded in the numbers. This is fundamentally an operating role rather than a finance leadership one. It's a hands-on role too: you need to be as comfortable in the detail, a resourcing call, a KPI dashboard, a process fix, as you are in the boardroom.

You will report directly to the CEO and sit on the leadership team as one of its most senior voices.

What you'll do

Operations & execution

Own the company's operating cadence, goal setting, business planning and performance tracking against targets, and make sure functions are held to it consistently.
Bring structure and consistency to how operations run day to day across the business, working across product, revenue, customer experience and finance rather than owning any one function directly.
Own the systems, processes and resourcing decisions that let other functions move fast, with the ability to make calls with incomplete information and build the operational backbone the business needs as it scales into new markets.
Support the business through its next phase of international growth, including decisions on where and how to invest and how the operating model needs to evolve as the company scales.
Hold the finance function to a high standard of rigour and commercial insight, partnering closely with the finance lead, and make sure the numbers inform every major call.
Own the annual operating plan, budget and cost base across all operational functions, connecting operational decisions directly to P&L outcomes.
Partner with the Chief People Officer on people operations, from onboarding through performance management to HR systems, so people processes plug into the same operating rhythm as the rest of the business.

Leadership & influence

Build enough trust and authority that people bring decisions to you before they need to, because they know you will have a view worth hearing.
Sit at the leadership table as a genuine partner to the Founders, able to distil ambiguity into sharp thinking and a clear so what.
Challenge people, including the Founders, and earn compliance through judgement and trust rather than authority.

What we're looking for

A senior, seasoned operator who has run end to end operations before, ideally at a business of meaningful scale or complexity, and ideally through a period of rapid growth.
Comfortable coming from either a strategy or operations background with strong financial acumen, or a commercial finance background with genuine operating experience. Both paths are open, what matters is genuine exposure to running or improving business operations, not a finance background alone with an operations label attached.
Experience building company-wide operating rhythms, goal setting, business planning and performance tracking across functions.
Experience supporting international growth and scaling operations into new markets.
High EQ. You need to be able to challenge people, including the Founders, and still bring people with you, earning compliance through judgement and trust rather than authority.
Genuinely curious. You want to understand the product, customers and commercial detail rather than importing a fixed playbook.
Bold and direct, paired with humility and a willingness to learn the business first, moving at the speed of trust before pushing hard on change.
A willingness to be hands-on. This is not a role where you set the strategy and hand it off, you will work alongside the team on the operating rhythm day to day.
Strong commercial judgement and comfort using data to inform decisions, even if finance isn't your core background.
A finance or accounting background is a genuine bonus.

Location

Ideally based in Singapore or Hong Kong. Candidates willing to relocate to Singapore or Hong Kong will also be considered.