Manager - Merchant Acquiring Operations

Pine Labs; Metro Manila; On-site; PHP 2,400,000 - 4,000,000; Full time

Job summary

Pine Labs in Metro Manila is seeking a senior operations leader to drive the merchant onboarding journey, risk governance, and payment processing optimization. You will partner with Product and Tech to enhance routing and integrations, while ensuring compliance and SLA adherence.

Role requires 12+ years in payments/fintech operations, strong leadership, and deep market knowledge of the Philippines. The company offers a dynamic, growth‑oriented environment and opportunities to lead major platform

Qualifications

• 12+ years of core operations experience within payments, merchant acquiring, fintech, or related sectors.
• Strong leadership experience with regional or market governance.
• Deep knowledge of merchant onboarding, risk underwriting, settlements, chargebacks, and payment rails.
• Bachelor’s degree in business, finance, operations, or related field.

Responsibilities

• Oversee operational performance and optimization across merchant experience, onboarding, and settlement processes.
• Drive efficiency by reducing turn-around-times and minimizing handoffs across the merchant lifecycle.
• Own risk governance, AML/KYC checks, and daily transaction monitoring to mitigate financial risk.
• Ensure SLA adherence, field operations, and cost management across terminals and deployments.
• Lead data‑driven queue optimization and root-cause analysis of bottlenecks.
• Collaborate with Product and Tech teams to optimize payment routing via APIs, SDKs, and POS terminals.
• Champion AI/RPA initiatives and lead change management for migrations and platform upgrades.
• Support strategy for portfolio growth, merchant activation, retention, and audit readiness.

Skills

Operations leadership

Payments domain

Merchant onboarding

Risk & compliance

Negotiation skills

Education

Bachelor’s degree (Business/Finance/Operations)

Job description

We at Pine Labs are looking for those who share our core belief - “Every Day is Game day”. We bring our best selves to work each day to realize our mission of enriching the world through the power of digital commerce and financial services.

Responsibilities we entrust you with:

Operational Performance & Optimization

• Merchant Experience & VoC Advocacy: Serve as the internal "Voice of the Merchant," systematically gathering feedback to ensure every touchpoint—from technical setup to daily settlement is intuitive, while continuously improving digital service models and self‑service merchant dashboards
• Operational Efficiency & Friction Reduction: Proactively identify and eliminate bottlenecks across the merchant lifecycle to reduce turn‑around‑times (TAT), minimize operational handoffs, and optimize the overall merchant experience
• Core Risk, Compliance & Onboarding Controls: Take end-to-end ownership of the merchant onboarding journey (including KYC, AML checks, and risk underwriting) alongside daily transaction monitoring, chargeback management, and dispute resolution to mitigate financial and operational risks
• SLA & Field Operations Management: Oversee all core operational and terminal/field deliverables—including settlement timelines, business onboarding support, terminal deployment, cost management, and operational reporting, ensuring strict adherence to agreed SLAs
• Data-Driven Queue Optimization: Closely monitor daily operational metrics, ticket backlogs, and aging queues, utilizing rigorous root‑cause analysis to systematically address and resolve recurring bottlenecks
• Cross-Functional Workflow Integration: Collaborate with Product and Tech teams to optimize payment routing and integration methods across APIs, SDKs, and POS terminals
• AI Transformation & Operational Readiness: Champion AI‑led operational transformations and robotic process automation (RPA) while successfully leading change management and operational readiness for system migrations, platform upgrades, and new payment application rollouts

Strategic Account Lifecycle

• Portfolio Growth & Wallet Share: Identify operational opportunities to increase merchant wallet share by seamlessly introducing new payment rails, including QR payments, alternative payment methods (APMs), and digital assets
• Merchant Activation & Enablement: Lead the post‑onboarding transition to steady‑state operations, ensuring merchants are fully trained on self‑service dashboards and financial reporting tools to drive early adoption
• Operational Retention & Churn Prevention: Act as the primary escalation point for critical operational or systemic failures, resolving deep‑seeded friction points to safeguard long‑term merchant retention
• Compliance & Risk Governance
• Audit Support: Ensure merchant files and operational processes are audit‑ready and compliant with PCI‑DSS standards

What matters in this role:

• Experience: 12+ years of core operations experience within the payments, merchant acquiring, fintech, or commercial credit card sectors.
• Leadership: Minimum of 3–5 years in a managerial or team lead capacity, preferably handling regional or market‑specific governance.
• Domain Expertise: Comprehensive knowledge of merchant onboarding, risk underwriting, settlements, chargebacks, and payment processing rails.
• Education: Bachelor’s degree in business administration, Finance, Operations Management, or a related field.
• Market Knowledge: Deep understanding of the Philippines payment ecosystem.
• Technical Proficiency: Familiarity with payment gateway architecture, settlement/reconciliation flows, and API‑based integrations.
• Soft Skills: Strong negotiation skills and the ability to translate complex technical/operational issues into business‑friendly language.

What we value in our people:

• You take the Shot: You decide fast and deliver right.
• You are the CEO of what you do: Youshow ownership and make things happen.
• You own tomorrow: You build solutions for the merchants and do the right thing.
• You sign your work like an artist: You seek to learn and take pride in the work you do.