Head of Payments & Transaction Services

Confidential; Metro Manila; On-site; PHP 2,400,000 - 4,200,000; Full time

Job summary

Confidential seeks an accomplished operations leader to head a high-impact transaction operations function within a technology-enabled financial services organisation. You will own end-to-end performance across refunds, clearing, billing and complex servicing, shaping an organisation that is resilient, controlled and scalable.

You will partner with Technology, Product and Finance to reduce manual interventions, strengthen controls and drive automation, while maintaining service standards and

Qualifications

• Degree in business, finance, accounting or related discipline.
• Significant leadership experience in high-volume transaction operations.
• Strong knowledge of refunds, clearing, billing, reconciliation and exceptions.
• Experience leading teams for investigations and escalations.
• Understanding of controls and financial integrity.
• Record of improving service levels, accuracy and resilience.
• Proven ability to reduce manual intervention through process redesign and automation.

Responsibilities

• Oversee refunds, corrections and adjustments with robust controls.
• Lead clearing and transaction processing with emphasis on exception resolution.
• Guide billing operations ensuring accuracy and timely investigations.
• Direct complex servicing and escalations to sustainable resolutions.
• Strengthen operational controls and financial integrity.
• Drive automation and end-to-end process improvements.

Skills

Leadership

Operations management

Payments processing

Analytical thinking

Cross-functional collaboration

Education

Degree in business/finance

Job description

We are conducting a confidential search for an accomplished operations leader to lead a business-critical transaction operations function within a technology-enabled financial services organisation.

This is a broad leadership mandate spanning key activities across the transaction lifecycle, including refunds, clearing and adjustments, billing, transaction exceptions, and complex servicing and escalations.

The successful candidate will be expected to deliver strong operational performance today while building a more resilient, controlled and scalable operating environment for the future. This calls for a leader who understands that transaction operations goes beyond processing volumes. It is about safeguarding financial integrity, resolving complex exceptions, strengthening controls and continuously improving the customer experience.

The incoming leader will have end-to-end responsibility for the performance and continued development of this critical operations function.

Key priorities will include:

• Refunds and transaction adjustments: Lead the effective management of refunds, corrections and adjustments, establishing robust controls and service standards while improving accuracy, turnaround times and root-cause resolution.
• Clearing and transaction processing: Oversee clearing and related transaction-processing activities, ensuring breaks and exceptions are identified promptly, investigated thoroughly and resolved accurately.
• Billing operations: Provide leadership across billing activities, strengthening accuracy, controls and the timely investigation and resolution of discrepancies.
• Complex servicing and escalations: Lead the resolution of transaction-related cases requiring deeper investigation beyond frontline servicing, with an emphasis on appropriate resolution, customer outcomes and addressing recurring issues at source.
• Exception management: Strengthen disciplines around the identification, ageing, prioritisation, escalation and resolution of operational exceptions, supported by clear ownership and management visibility.
• Operational controls and financial integrity: Maintain a strong control environment across transaction operations, balancing service delivery with appropriate financial and operational risk management.
• Service performance and operational resilience: Establish meaningful measures across turnaround time, accuracy, volumes, backlogs, ageing, exception rates and resolution quality, using these insights to improve service levels and operational resilience.
• Process optimisation and automation: Identify recurring failure points, control gaps and unnecessary manual interventions, partnering with Technology and other functions to simplify processes, increase automation and improve straight-through processing where appropriate.
• Issue management: Provide senior leadership during significant operational issues, bringing structure and pace to investigation, containment, stakeholder communication, root-cause analysis and sustainable resolution.
• Cross-functional leadership: Partner effectively with Technology, Product, Finance, Risk, Compliance and customer-facing functions to address issues spanning the end-to-end transaction lifecycle.
• Organisation and capability: Build a high-performing operations organisation characterised by clear accountability, sound judgement, strong controls, disciplined execution and continuous improvement.

We are looking for a seasoned operations leader with substantial experience in payments, transaction processing, banking operations or a similarly complex financial-services environment.

Strong candidates will bring:

• A degree in business, finance, accounting, management or another relevant discipline.
• Significant leadership experience in complex, high-volume transaction or financial operations.
• Strong practical knowledge across several areas such as refunds, clearing, transaction adjustments, billing, reconciliation, exception management and complex customer servicing.
• Experience leading teams responsible for transaction investigations, operational exceptions and complex escalations.
• A strong understanding of operational controls, financial integrity and the potential customer and financial impact of processing errors.
• A track record of improving service levels, accuracy, productivity, control effectiveness and operational resilience.
• Demonstrated experience reducing manual intervention through process redesign, automation and sustainable systemic improvements.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving capability, including the ability to identify patterns, determine root causes and distinguish isolated processing issues from broader systemic concerns.
• Experience managing significant operational events and senior stakeholder escalations.
• The ability to operate effectively across Technology, Product, Finance, Risk and Compliance.
• Strong judgement and the ability to translate operational data and insights into decisive action and measurable improvement.
• Demonstrated success in developing leaders and building a culture of ownership, accountability and continuous improvement.

Experience gained within payments, banking, transaction processing or other sophisticated, regulated financial-services environments would be particularly relevant.

The opportunity

The mandate is to strengthen a critical operational capability and develop an organisation equipped to manage increasing transaction complexity without relying on additional manual effort as the primary solution.

The successful candidate will have the opportunity to shape operating standards, strengthen controls, improve service performance and develop leadership capability, while influencing how transaction-related issues are prevented, detected and resolved across the end-to-end lifecycle.

This opportunity will particularly suit a leader who enjoys moving operations beyond reactive case management towards proactive prevention, stronger controls, greater automation and systemic improvement.