COO

Airtm; United States; Remote; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Airtm in the United States is seeking an experienced Head of Global Operations to run the operating cadence, cross-functional execution, and enterprise payout reliability across 40+ markets. You will partner with the founder-CEO to translate strategy into scalable, data-driven processes that keep money moving smoothly.

The role demands deep fintech and payments know-how, proven leadership in high-velocity environments, and the ability to balance growth with regulatory compliance.

Qualifications

• 10+ years in operations leadership, with fintech/payments/crypto exposure.
• Experience operating in emerging markets (LATAM preferred).
• Fluent in MSB/VASP and AML frameworks and regulatory relationships.
• Has scaled operations during volume growth (3–10x).
• Strong collaboration with finance and revenue leaders; data-driven but execution-focused.
• Fluent in English and Spanish; able to work across LATAM.

Responsibilities

• Own the operating cadence: company goals, OKR cycle, and team-level key results.
• Coordinate cross-functional execution between Product, Pricing & Revenue, Finance, and Compliance.
• Manage payments operations: payout reliability, corridor performance, and incident response with Finance.
• Lead risk and compliance operations within regulatory frameworks to enable fast but compliant growth.
• Oversee customer and enterprise operations: onboarding speed, SLAs, and cost quality.

Skills

Operations leadership

Fintech

Payments

Crypto

Emerging markets

Data-driven

Regulatory compliance

Cross-functional leadership

Job description

About Airtm

Airtm is building the global stablecoin wallet for digital entrepreneurs, the place where people receive earnings, hold balances, convert value, and cash out across 40+ markets. Our mission: give the world's digital entrepreneurs, especially in the Global South, the financial freedom to thrive. Today we serve 150K+ active users and process $1.5B+ in annual payments, and our enterprise partners rely on our rails to pay contractors across LATAM and Africa.

The role in one sentence

You'll run the operating engine of Airtm organizational accountability, operating cadence and cross-functional execution. Making sure all teams are delivering on their objectives and executing on CEO’S vision and strategy so that money moves reliably across 40+ markets while the CEO focuses on product, capital, and growth.

Working with Rubén

You'll partner with a founder-CEO who has spent a decade obsessed with one mission: giving digital entrepreneurs in the Global South real financial freedom. He brings vision, product intuition, and conviction; you bring the machine that turns conviction into money moving reliably. If you've thrived as the operational counterweight to a visionary founder, and can push back with data when it matters, this partnership will work.

What this isn't

• This isn't the CEO's right hand or an extended chief of staff. Board materials, fundraising, investor relations, and internal communications belong to the CEO and Finance. You'll be measured on how well the operation runs, not on how well the CEO's week runs.

• This isn't a coordinate-other-people's-roadmaps role. You'll own outcomes, payout success rates, operational cost-to-serve, time-to-launch in new markets.

• This isn't an empire-building role, at least not on day one. Airtm already has a VP of Finance owning FP&A, treasury, and pricing & revenue , a compliance team with a BSA Officer, and VASP/AML specialists, and a Data & Analytics and Marketplace team that reports to Product. You'll partner tightly with all of them, and as the operating model matures, parts of the org may consolidate under you, but that's earned, not promised.

• This isn't a \"professionalize a mature company\" job, nor a pure back-office role. Airtm operates in volatile, fragmented markets where operations is the product: cash-out speed, reliability, and trust are why users and enterprises choose us. If you need stable processes and predictable quarters, this will frustrate you.

What you'll own

• The operating cadence: company-wide goals, the OKR cycle from annual objectives to team-level key results, and the rhythm of the business, making sure every team knows the number they own and what's in the way.

• Cross-functional execution: you're the connective tissue between Product (including Marketplace), Pricing & Revenue, Finance, and Compliance, turning their models, targets, and regulatory requirements into operational reality on the ground.

• Payments operations: payout success rates, corridor reliability, banking and on/off-ramp partner performance, and incident response when money doesn't move the way it should , working hand-in-hand with Finance, who owns treasury and liquidity.

• Risk & compliance operations: our compliance team owns the regulatory frameworks, BSA, VASP licensing, AML programs, audits. You own making the business run inside those frameworks at speed: fraud operations, market entries and exits without regulatory surprises, and compliance requirements that become workable processes rather than bottlenecks.

• Customer & enterprise operations: support quality and cost, SLAs for enterprise payout partners, and the onboarding machine that turns a signed contract into money moving in days, not weeks.

The profile / Qualifications

• 10+ years in operations leadership, with at least 5 in fintech, payments, or crypto, ideally where you owned money movement, not just process.

• You've operated in emerging markets (LATAM strongly preferred) and understand the reality of fragmented banking, currency volatility, and informal economies, not just the pitch-deck version.

• Fluent in the compliance realities of money movement, MSB/VASP frameworks, AML programs, regulator and banking-partner relationships, enough to be a strong partner (or manager) to a compliance leader, even if you've never been one yourself.

• You've scaled an operation through a step-change in volume (e.g., 3–10x) and can talk concretely about what broke and what you rebuilt.

• Strong peer to finance and revenue leaders: fluent in data and unit economics, but secure enough to let others own the model while you own the execution.

• Spanish and English fluency; comfort working across LATAM.

• Bonus: hands-on experience with stablecoins/USDC rails or two-sided liquidity problems.