Merchant Operations Manager

Nicoll Curtin; Philippines; On-site; PHP 1,200,000 - 1,600,000; Full time

Job summary

Nicoll Curtin is assisting a fast-growing payments company in Manila to recruit a Merchant Operations & Risk Manager on a 12-month contract. The role focuses on tightening operations, managing risk, and building a scalable setup for the team.

You will act as an individual contributor, coordinating with Operations, Risk, Compliance, Finance, Product, and Tech to drive improvements and keep the business compliant with card schemes.

Qualifications

• 5+ years in merchant acquiring, payments, or fintech.
• Solid grasp of merchant processing, settlement, disputes, and fraud.
• Working knowledge of Visa and Mastercard rules.
• Experience with chargebacks and PCI DSS.

Responsibilities

• Oversee day-to-day acquiring operations, from merchant onboarding to settlement, disputes, and servicing.
• Spot gaps in processes and controls, and fix them.
• Keep the business in line with card scheme rules and regulations, and track every fix until it's closed.
• Strengthen how merchants are onboarded, monitored, and risk-assessed.
• Build dashboards that show how the merchant portfolio is performing.
• Lead working sessions with Operations, Risk, Compliance, Finance, Product, and Tech.
• Give senior leaders clear, regular updates.

Skills

Merchant acquiring

Payments

Risk management

Card schemes

Job description

We're hiring a Merchant Operations & Risk Manager for a fast-growing payments company.

The company helps merchants accept card payments, and it has grown faster than its processes and controls. This role steps in to tighten operations, manage risk, and build a setup the team can run on its own. You'll work as an individual contributor inside the business, getting teams to move together rather than managing a large team.

This is an initial 12-month contract based in Metro Manila.

What you'll do

• Oversee day-to-day acquiring operations, from merchant onboarding to settlement, disputes, and servicing
• Spot gaps in processes and controls, and fix them
• Keep the business in line with card scheme rules and regulations, and track every fix until it's closed
• Strengthen how merchants are onboarded, monitored, and risk-assessed
• Build dashboards that show how the merchant portfolio is performing
• Lead working sessions with Operations, Risk, Compliance, Finance, Product, and Tech
• Give senior leaders clear, regular updates

What we're looking for

• 5+ years in merchant acquiring, payments, banking, fintech, or card schemes
• Solid grasp of merchant processing, settlement, disputes, and fraud
• Working knowledge of Visa and Mastercard rules
• Experience with chargebacks, fraud controls, and PCI DSS
• A record of leading projects across several teams
• Sharp analysis and clear communication with senior stakeholders

Nice to have

• Experience at a PayFac, PSP, or merchant aggregator
• Pricing and profitability analysis
• Reconciliation and settlement process design
• Consulting or transformation experience

Your experience needs to be on the merchant side of payments. Card issuing-only backgrounds won't be the right fit.