Strategic Operations Manager

What's the opportunity?

As our Strategic Operations Manager, you will play a pivotal role in driving operational efficiency, scaling processes, and supporting strategic initiatives across the organization. The ideal candidate is a strategic thinker, detail-oriented executor, and skilled collaborator passionate about delivering impactful outcomes.

What will I be doing?

• Act as the right-hand person to the Country Manager, supporting daily operations, decision-making, and strategic initiatives across the region.
• Lead and manage high-impact, cross-functional strategic and operational projects that drive growth, efficiency, and scalability in the region.
• Build and maintain strong relationships with key external partners, including acquirers, banks, regulators, and other stakeholders.
• Analyze market dynamics, identify growth opportunities, and collaborate with internal teams (Product, Operations, Finance, Legal) to execute country strategies.
• Support the Country Manager in managing relationships with key merchants, identifying expansion opportunities, and ensuring exceptional service delivery.
• Proactively identify, prioritize, and lead initiatives to improve the overall partners onboarding experience and reduce time-to-revenue.
• Drive the onboarding process for processors, ensuring all regulatory, compliance, and operational requirements are met efficiently and in accordance with local laws.
• Collaborate closely with the Legal and Compliance teams to ensure adherence to local regulatory frameworks, including licenses, tax requirements, AML, and KYC obligations.
• Work alongside the Compliance team to develop and implement robust frameworks for transaction monitoring and fraud prevention.
• Monitor tax regulations and coordinate with internal and external tax advisors to ensure compliance and identify opportunities for optimization.
• Analyze country performance metrics, including Total Payment Volume (TPV), revenue and cost targets, budget execution, and growth pipelines and translate insights into actionable business recommendations.
• Active engagement in daily operations, collaborating closely with the Payins and Payouts teams to oversee processing execution, control, and overall payments performance.
• Collaborate with Finance and FP&A teams to ensure budget accuracy and alignment with regional growth targets.
• Identify underperforming segments or countries and design turnaround strategies.
• Identify bottlenecks in merchant activation and processing go-lives; proactively work with relevant teams to resolve issues and accelerate time-to-market.
• Be the local owner for internal audit preparation and follow-ups.
• Develop and refine operational playbooks, frameworks, and best practices for country operations, with a focus on scalability and standardization.
• Prepare business cases and recommendations to support strategic decisions, including market entries, partnership opportunities, and product launches.
• Actively participate in regulatory meetings and industry forums, representing dLocal and strengthening our presence in the country.
• Act as an ambassador of dLocal’s culture and values, both internally and externally.

What skills do I need?

• Background in finance, with solid knowledge of industry trends and practices.
• Minimum of 6 years in operations management, strategy, or a related role.
• Experience in the Payments Industry, Fintechs, and Digital Banks.
• Familiarity with all business functions, including Legal, Finance, Product, and IT.
• Strong professional network with the ability to build and leverage relationships to drive opportunities and success.
• A hands on, results-oriented approach with strong ownership to lead and deliver efficiently within tight deadlines. Creative thinking with accountability in the execution.
• Proven ability to manage large-scale projects and deliver results in a fast-paced environment, with a track record of top performance.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with a data-driven approach to decision-making.
• Open to constant change in an ambiguous, fast-paced environment, a self-starter, open to working across time zones with teams all over the world.
• Fluent in written and verbal English.
• Availability to travel.