Payments Associate

Our client is a high-growth fintech company building the next generation of payment infrastructure across Africa. Their mission is to make money movement seamless, inclusive, and scalable across borders. They operate at the intersection of financial innovation and real-world impact, empowering businesses and consumers with tools to thrive in a rapidly digitizing economy.

Role Overview

This is an execution-focused role where you will report directly to the Payments Operations Manager and CFO. You will support the day-to-day running of payment operations, contributing to the improvement and optimisation of processes. While you will have exposure to how the function is built and refined, the role is not responsible for overall process design or strategic ownership.

Job Type: Full-time/Permanent

Location: Cape Town

Workplace: Onsite

Department: Finance

Reports To: Payments Operations Manager

Requirements

• 2 to 4 years in payment operations, banking operations, treasury operations, or PSP environments.
• Strong understanding of payment rails: EFT, SWIFT, RTC, wallets.
• Experience managing banking relationships and handling RFIs.
• Solid reconciliation and exception management experience.
• High competence with spreadsheets, internal tools, and transactional systems.
• Ability to work under time pressure and handle multiple payment cycles.
• Clear communicator with strong organisational discipline.
• Experience in a fintech, PSP, or high volume transactional environment.
• Exposure to crypto on/off ramps or alternative settlement methods.
• Understanding of treasury, liquidity, and cash management processes.
• Familiarity with compliance frameworks and operational controls.

Responsibilities

Process Design and Ownership

• Build and document all payment operations processes for inward, outward, and internal transfers.
• Set up SOPs for reconciliation, settlement, exception handling, and escalations.
• Implement controls to ensure accuracy, timeliness, compliance, and audit readiness.
• Identify gaps and continuously optimise throughput, latency, and reliability.

Daily Payment Operations

• Execute and monitor daily payment flows across local and cross border rails.
• Manage queues for payouts, collections, reversals, returns, and chargebacks.
• Oversee reconciliations across banking partners, internal systems, and ledgers.
• Investigate and resolve operational issues quickly to avoid customer or liquidity impact.
• Coordinate with engineering and product when system issues require fixes.

Banking and Liquidity Partner Management

• Maintain direct operational relationships with banks, PSPs, and liquidity providers.
• Respond to and manage RFIs and documentary requests for incoming and outgoing payments.
• Track SLAs, escalate delays or failures, and ensure partner performance stays on target.
• Support onboarding of new partners including testing, documentation, and certification.

Risk, Compliance, and Reporting

• Monitor for suspicious activity and escalate when needed.
• Ensure all processes comply with regulatory, AML, and scheme requirements.
• Prepare operational reports on volumes, performance, exceptions, and liquidity status.
• Support audits and regulatory reviews with accurate documentation.