Director of Operations – Payments, Asia
Type: Full-time
Location: Remote (Asia preferred; Dubai or Europe also considered)
Agreement Type: Service Agreement
Salary: Up to 10,000 USDT per month, negotiable
Reports to: Group COO
About the Company
Our client is building a new kind of financial membership, combining onchain banking, rewards, wellness, lifestyle benefits, and physical products into one connected experience, backed by a broader fintech infrastructure and affiliate network.
A profitable company with a 5-year runway, a team of 100+ people and global operations.
About the Role
This role leads Payments Operations for Asia, building the regional network of banking, payment, card and regulated crypto partners.
The first phase is weighted toward business development: sourcing and launching new payment providers and card issuers while the product is being built out. As coverage matures, the focus shifts toward operations: partner performance, settlement, reconciliation and controls.
Key markets are South Korea and Japan, followed by Vietnam, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia are the next planned markets. Experience in every market is not expected. The role also builds the regional team, starting with 1–2 people and growing as new markets launch.
Who We're Looking For
Someone at the intersection of crypto and payments: they understand regulated payment businesses and compliance, and they already know which providers in Asia work with crypto
A senior operator who is equally comfortable negotiating with a bank's leadership and digging into settlement and reconciliation issues
Proactive and fast-moving, able to run several workstreams in parallel within a small team and bring market and regulatory insight to leadership without being asked
Comfortable with a broad, evolving scope that spans partnerships, product, tech and compliance as priorities shift
Strong English; Korean or Japanese is a significant advantage
Based in Asia, Dubai or Europe, with working hours that overlap Asian business hours
MUST-HAVE EXPERIENCE
Crypto industry experience combined with payments: hands-on work with crypto-friendly and high-risk fiat payment providers. Pure payments experience without crypto exposure is not a fit
Knowledge of crypto and payments licensing across Asian jurisdictions, with the ability to proactively flag regulatory changes, restrictions and new licensing opportunities to leadership
Track record of sourcing and launching payment partners in Asia: banks, PSPs, acquirers, issuers or VASPs, taken from first contact through commercial negotiation, onboarding, integration and launch
8+ years of experience across payments, fintech, banking or crypto
People management experience with at least 2–3 direct reports
Working understanding of KYC, KYB and AML requirements and of how partner due-diligence processes are run together with Compliance
Nice to Have
Experience at a Korean or Japanese crypto exchange, or in the Korean or Japanese division of a global exchange; Korean or Japanese language; a background that combines regulated fintech with crypto; card programs, acquiring or card-processing infrastructure, including crypto-linked cards; work with licensed VASPs and regulated custodians; experience across several Southeast Asian markets; an existing network in the Asian banking, payments or crypto ecosystem.
Key Responsibilities
Regional payments and regulated crypto expansion: define the payments infrastructure strategy for priority Asian markets; identify coverage gaps; build a pipeline of banks, PSPs, acquirers, issuers, VASPs and licensed custodians; negotiate pricing, settlement and operational terms; build redundancy across critical providers.
Regulatory awareness: track crypto and payments licensing across Asian jurisdictions and advise leadership on what is permitted in each market; assess partners' licensing status and regulatory scope together with Legal and Compliance.
Partner onboarding and relationship management: own new partners from first contact through launch, coordinating KYB, due diligence, contracting, compliance reviews, technical integration and testing; manage ongoing relationships, RFIs, periodic reviews, SLAs and escalations.
End-to-end money movement: own the operational performance of fiat on/off-ramps, local payment methods, bank-transfer rails, SWIFT and cross-border payments, with clear visibility into success rates, failures, delays and exceptions.
Card and acquiring operations: support the regional rollout of crypto-linked card programs; manage issuers, BIN sponsors, processors, acquirers and card networks; monitor authorization rates, declines and settlement.
Reconciliation, settlement and controls: work with Finance to keep reconciliation and settlement accurate and timely, resolve discrepancies between internal systems and providers, and reduce manual work through automation.
Cross-functional coordination: act as the bridge between Operations, Product, Engineering, Finance, Compliance, Legal, Risk and Support for regional launches and issue resolution.
Performance and process: define payment and partner KPIs, build SOPs and playbooks, and give leadership clear visibility into onboarding progress, performance, blockers and risks.
Team building: hire, manage and mentor a dedicated Payments Operations team for Asia, working closely with the wider Payments Operations function.
