Payment Operations Regional Team Lead - Service Delivery

Wise is seeking a Payment Operations Team Lead to build, scale, and lead a new India Payment Operations team in Hyderabad. This foundational role involves driving operational excellence for cross-border products in India, managing internal and external stakeholders, setting and executing goals focused on quality, speed, risk, and cost, and ensuring efficient resource and workflow management. The lead will also own core operational metrics, lead incident management, champion a risk-first culture, and manage the full lifecycle of specialists, focusing on retention and development.

Must Have

• Build and scale the new India Payment Operations team from ground-up
• Support recruitment & onboarding of the team
• Ensure a high-skilled and well-trained team of problem solvers
• Own operational excellence of cross-border products in India
• Work closely with internal teams (Product, Engineering, Compliance, Banking) and external partners (banks, regulators)
• Define clear measures of success and set OKRs focusing on quality, speed, risk, and cost
• Manage team’s resources and skills for high-quality, high-speed workflow
• Own team's core operational metrics, ensuring adherence to SLAs, quality scores, and error rates
• Lead incident management, root cause analysis, and preventative measures
• Champion a risk-first culture and ensure team adherence to risk and compliance protocols
• Manage the full lifecycle of specialists, providing actionable feedback for career growth
• Proven track record of managing a front-line operational team to high-stakes KPIs
• At least 2 years of leadership experience building high-functioning teams
• Comfortable entering an environment that needs restructuring or refinement
• Great relationship builder and honest communicator, able to persuade stakeholders
• Self-starter who takes ownership of team's output and leads with humility

Good to Have

• Experience in a cross-border team
• Background in payments/fintech
• Experience working with product and engineering teams
• Knowledge of Lean Six Sigma methodologies

Perks & Benefits

• Opportunity to make an impact and drive goals
• Inspire teams and fuel revolution with ideas and customer insight
• Develop Wisers and create a positive work environment
• Opportunity to work globally and travel to other locations
• Diverse, equitable, and inclusive team environment
• International team with 70+ nationalities

Company Description

Wise is a global technology company, building the best way to move and manage the world’s money. Min fees. Max ease. Full speed.

Whether people and businesses are sending money to another country, spending abroad, or making and receiving international payments, Wise is on a mission to make their lives easier and save them money.

As part of our team, you will be helping us create an entirely new network for the world's money. For everyone, everywhere.

More about our mission and what we offer.

Job Description

We’re looking for a Payment Operations Team Lead who will help build, scale and lead our new India Payment Operations team in Hyderabad. This role is a unique opportunity to have an impact on Wise’s mission, grow as a leader of our Operations teams and help save millions more people money.

Here’s how you’ll be contributing to the Operations Team

This is a foundational, high-impact role. You’ll be instrumental in building and scaling the new India team from ground-up, supporting recruitment & onboarding of the team in the immediate 6 months and ensuring a high-skilled and well-trained team of problem solvers who are experts in India payment operations.

• Operational Excellence & Strategy: You’ll own the operational excellence of our cross-border products in India as we continue to expand our footprint in the region.
• Stakeholder Management: Work closely with internal teams like Product, Engineering, Compliance, Banking as well as external partners including banks and regulators, to strengthen and continuously improve the state of Payment Operations in India. This includes building strong working rhythms, identifying bottlenecks early, and driving scalable solutions that support our growth.
• Goal Setting & Execution: Help the team define clear measures of success. You will set OKRs based on high-impact areas—specifically focusing on quality, speed, risk and cost—and drive your team toward delivering on these goals.
• Resource & Workflow Management: Manage your team’s resources and skills to ensure high-quality, high-speed workflow with optimal coverage. You will ensure the team is not just busy, but productive and impactful.
• Metrics Ownership: Own your team's core operational metrics, ensuring consistent adherence to SLAs, quality scores, and error rates. You will dig deep into data to understand why a metric moved and how to stabilize it.
• Incident Management & Resilience: Drive operational excellence by leading incident management. You will insist on thorough root cause analysis (RCA) and implement preventative measures to ensure we don't make the same mistake twice.
• Risk & Compliance: Champion a risk-first culture, ensuring flawless team adherence to all risk and compliance protocols.
• People Leadership: Manage the full lifecycle of your specialists (with a focus on retention and development over mass hiring). You will provide regular, actionable feedback to drive individual career growth and ensure the team is composed of high-performing Wisers.

This role will give you the opportunity to:

• Make an Impact - You’ll help drive the definition of our goals and vision while increasing the efficiency of the operations team and dreaming big, driving us towards Mission Zero!
• Inspire Teams - You’ll fuel the revolution with your ideas, knowledge, self-starter attitude, and customer insight, which you’ll use to work with product and engineering as well as other operational teams to help solve our customer’s problems!
• Develop Wisers - You’ll drive culture and help to create a positive and motivating work environment for our Wisers. You’ll ensure the health and productivity of the specialists within your teams by helping to set the right culture and implement the right approaches. We don’t believe in drama, only good Karma!
• Work Globally - You’ll work closely with internal and external partners and help to figure out ways to make our customers’ lives better. You’ll also occasionally travel to work and learn with our teams in other locations! We’re 6500+ Wisers with 70+ nationalities located in offices from Austin to Tokyo, and much like our product, we operate without borders communicating across teams and locations. We get it done!

Qualifications

About you:

• Operational & Analytical Excellence: You have a proven track record of managing a front-line operational team to high-stakes KPIs. You don't just report on data; you use it to fix problems at the root. You are skilled at stabilizing chaotic processes and setting clear OKRs.
• Leadership & Performance Management: You have at least 2 years of leadership experience building high-functioning teams. You are passionate about nurturing talent and are effective in managing performance, creating an inspiring environment where feedback is valued.
• Change Management: You are comfortable entering an environment that needs restructuring or refinement. You know how to guide a team through change, re-establishing standards without losing morale.
• Collaboration & Influence: You're a great relationship builder and an honest communicator. You can adapt your style to persuade stakeholders and aren't afraid to challenge the status quo when needed.
• Ownership & Mindset: You're a self-starter who thrives in an autonomous environment. You take ownership of the team's output, are passionate about the customer experience, and lead with humility.

Some extra skills that would be awesome:

• You have worked in a cross border team - know their challenges and how to overcome these
• You have a background in payments/fintech, and have experience working with product and engineering teams
• Lean Six Sigma: You know how to use process improvement methodologies to reduce waste and variance.

Additional Information

We’re people without borders — without judgement or prejudice, too. We want to work with the best people, no matter their background. So if you’re passionate about learning new things and keen to join our mission, you’ll fit right in.

Also, where and what you studied isn't important to us. If you’ve got great experience, the right skills for the role and you’re great at articulating your thinking, we’d like to hear from you.

For everyone, everywhere. We're people building money without borders — without judgement or prejudice, too. We believe teams are strongest when they are diverse, equitable and inclusive.

We're proud to have a truly international team, and we celebrate our differences. Inclusive teams help us live our values and make sure every Wiser feels respected, empowered to contribute towards our mission and able to progress in their careers.

If you want to find out more about what it's like to work at Wise visit Wise.Jobs.

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