COO – Regional Operations — Payments Portfolio

The mandate

A multinational-owned payments portfolio operates through regional businesses that process similar customer and merchant events in different ways. Two years of local fixes have produced incompatible workflows, service metrics and partner arrangements. A channel migration towards platforms and embedded partners now sends demand across those boundaries, exposing duplicated effort, inconsistent decisions and capacity that cannot flex when one market peaks.

The new COO – Regional Operations will steward approximately A$5,000 million in assets under oversight and lead around 950 employees and material partners. The remit covers merchant onboarding, transaction operations, disputes, settlement support, service centres, complaints, operational controls and transformation. Risk and commercial leaders remain peers; the COO owns the end-to-end delivery system.

One operating system does not require one physical location. Common work definitions, queues, decision rules, service measures and escalation should allow capacity to move safely. Local exceptions must have regulatory or customer evidence, not historic preference. The COO will also clarify which channel owns a case when customer activity moves between direct, partner and digital routes.

Partner capacity needs the same standards as internal delivery. Contracts should specify quality, resilience, data and exit, while management information shows the complete journey rather than vendor output alone. Migration gates must include operational readiness and rollback, not just commercial launch dates.

The executive will make structural choices about sites, leadership and technology priorities. Productivity should come from simpler work and lower failure demand, not unfilled roles or service deterioration.

Settlement and disputes create distinct migration risks. Faster front-end channels can increase exception volumes downstream, while different cut-off rules and funding arrangements create liquidity pressure that ordinary service measures miss. The COO will link transaction flow to settlement, chargebacks, complaints and partner capacity so commercial growth does not export cost or risk into operations.

Colleague adoption will be managed through real work. Standard procedures should be tested with frontline teams and supported by decision tools, training and coaching. Performance management must reward complete, accurate resolution rather than local throughput. Where regional centres specialise, career mobility and knowledge transfer should prevent control expertise from concentrating in one site or person.

Business continuity will move beyond document review. The COO will exercise loss of a site, partner, payment rail or critical data feed with actual queues and decision authorities. Findings must alter capacity, contract or technology choices and be retested before the relevant channel migration scales.

Why this seat is open

This planned new role is approved for the next operating model. A four-to-six-month search enables arrival before the next capital and talent cycle; current executives remain accountable until activation.

What you will own

• Define common regional work, service levels, decisions and escalation.
• Reallocate capacity safely across sites, markets and channels.
• Steward A$5,000 million of assets, risk acceptance and forecasts.
• Govern migration readiness, customer ownership and rollback.
• Standardise internal and partner quality, resilience, data and exit requirements.
• Reduce repeat contacts, rework, disputes and other failure demand.
• Lead 950 employees and partners with clear journey and site accountability.
• Build regional succession and mobility across operational leadership.

The first 12 months

The opening 90 days should compare demand, work, capacity, quality, incidents and cost across regions. Meet the 30 stakeholders most consequential to incompatible delivery, including merchants, customers represented through evidence, partners, frontline teams and control leaders. Trace journeys across channels, assess leadership, stabilise immediate risk and agree board gates for migration and operating-model changes.

Months four to nine should establish shared queues and measures, assign journey owners and begin controlled capacity balancing. Fill critical leadership gaps and renegotiate priority partner arrangements. The first value should appear through lower repeats, more reliable service, reduced unit cost or capacity released without degrading customer outcomes.

By month twelve, one operating system, service reliability and scalable capacity should be visible repeatedly. The value case must land within 10% of baseline and forecasts should reconcile demand, cash, customer and people assumptions over three quarters. Priority risks require sustainable evidence of closure; severe escalations cannot age beyond 30 days.

What the board will measure

• End-to-end service and quality by journey rather than local activity.
• Capacity flexed across regions without control or customer deterioration.
• Failure demand, unit cost and partner performance.
• Channel migrations completed against operational readiness gates.
• Retention above 90% for critical people and ready-now succession across 70% of direct reports.
• Quantified improvement in regional compatibility with a clean baseline and accountable data owner.

The person

You are a Regional COO, Operations President or Service Executive with 22–28 years in payments, financial services or another high-volume regulated network. You have carried end-to-end delivery across several sites, channels or markets.

Your accountable P&L, budget, book or portfolio has been at least A$2,900 million, and you have led no fewer than 950 people. You can demonstrate a common operating model whose service and cost benefits endured for two reporting periods.

You know how to standardise work without ignoring local obligations. You make site and partner choices using evidence and will delay a channel launch when operations cannot support the promise.

Compensation and terms

Base compensation is A$520,000–700,000 plus annual incentive and LTI. The permanent role is onsite in Sydney, supports relocation and allows notice up to six months.

Confidentiality

The organisation and operating footprint will be identified only under mutual confidentiality. Composite facts are deliberately non-identifying.