Fintech Operations Director

📋 Description

• • **A transformative leadership role at the heart of Mews’ fintech expansion:** As the Fintech Operations Director, you will serve as the operational backbone of Mews’ global fintech business, reporting directly to the SVP, GM of Fintech. This role is pivotal in scaling the company’s payments, compliance, and fraud operations to support its next phase of hypergrowth. Mews, a Hotel Tech unicorn valued at $2.5 billion, is revolutionizing the hospitality industry with its cloud-based property management solution, and this role is critical to ensuring the operational excellence that powers this transformation.
• • **What you’ll do day-to-day:**
• • **Strategic leadership and execution:** Develop and execute the fintech operations strategy, ensuring that payments, fraud, and compliance operations scale seamlessly with Mews’ growth. This includes overseeing end-to-end payment operations across multiple rails (e.g., cards, SEPA, APMs, wallets), settlements, reconciliation, exceptions, and incident management.
• • **Fraud and risk management:** Lead first-line fraud and risk operations, including rule design, monitoring, and investigations. Drive initiatives to reduce losses while maintaining a seamless customer experience, ensuring that fraud management aligns with regulatory expectations and business objectives.
• • **Compliance and regulatory oversight:** Oversee first-line compliance operations, including KYC/KYB (Know Your Customer/Business), transaction monitoring, sanctions screening, and ongoing reviews. Collaborate closely with second-line compliance teams to ensure policies, controls, and audits meet regulatory standards.
• • **Dispute and chargeback management:** Run chargeback and dispute operations, improving recovery rates and ensuring scheme and acquirer metrics remain within agreed thresholds. This involves analyzing trends, implementing process improvements, and working cross-functionally to resolve disputes efficiently.
• • **Team leadership and development:** Build, mentor, and scale a high-performing fintech operations team of 15–16 members (via four direct reports). Set clear priorities, expectations, and growth paths, fostering a culture of continuous improvement, accountability, and collaboration.
• • **Process optimization and automation:** Drive continuous improvement across tools, processes, and workflows. Leverage data, KPIs, and automation (including AI where relevant) to identify inefficiencies, prioritize fixes, and scale operations efficiently in a fast-paced, high-growth environment.
• • **Cross-functional collaboration:** Act as a senior operational counterpart to Product, Engineering, Risk, Compliance, Finance, and Customer teams. Provide operational insights and expertise to support new products, market expansions, and strategic initiatives, ensuring alignment across the organization.
• • **About Mews and the Fintech team:**
• • Mews is a global leader in hospitality technology, powering over 5,000 customers across more than 85 countries. The company’s Hospitality Cloud is designed to streamline operations, transform guest experiences, and create more profitable businesses for modern hoteliers. The fintech team is a critical pillar of this mission, enabling seamless payments, compliance, and fraud management to support Mews’ ambitious growth trajectory.
• • The team operates in a dynamic, innovative environment where strategic thinking meets hands-on execution. As a scale-up with a start-up mentality, Mews values leaders who are comfortable navigating ambiguity, driving change, and balancing big-picture vision with operational rigor.
• • **What you’ll learn and achieve in this role:**
• • **Professional growth:** This role offers unparalleled opportunities to deepen your expertise in fintech operations, payments, fraud, and compliance. You’ll gain hands-on experience in scaling operations for a global unicorn, working with cutting-edge tools and technologies to drive efficiency and innovation.
• • **Leadership impact:** You’ll have the chance to shape the operational backbone of Mews’ fintech business, leaving a lasting impact on the company’s ability to serve customers and expand into new markets. Your work will directly contribute to Mews’ mission of transforming hospitality through technology.
• • **Cross-functional influence:** Develop strong stakeholder management skills by collaborating with senior leaders across Product, Engineering, Risk, Compliance, and Finance. You’ll learn to articulate complex operational challenges and solutions, bridging gaps between technical and non-technical teams to drive alignment and execution.
• • **Global exposure:** Work in a truly international environment, with exposure to multiple jurisdictions, regulatory regimes, and payment rails. This role will broaden your understanding of global fintech operations and prepare you for leadership in an increasingly interconnected industry.