Are you a commercially minded finance leader who thrives at the intersection of operations, strategy, and financial discipline?

We’re looking for a Finance Manager – Operations to partner directly with the COO of the Merchant Division, bringing structure, visibility, and commercial insight to one of the most operationally complex areas of our business. This role blends finance, operations, analysis, and business partnering — ideal for someone who wants impact, ownership, and influence.

📍 Location: Johannesburg
📊 Reporting Line: Financial Shared Services Lead (Line) & COO – Merchant Division (Dotted)

💼 Purpose

This role exists to introduce discipline, commercial visibility, and operational clarity across the Merchant Division. You will work closely with the COO to ensure operational decisions are informed, accurate, and grounded in real-time business understanding.

This is not a traditional finance role — it is a business operations role with strong financial accountability, requiring you to understand what happens on the ground and turn that into meaningful insight for leadership.

🤝 Key Relationships

Internal

• COO – Merchant Division
• CFO – Merchant Division
• Financial Shared Services Lead
• Operational leaders across Merchant
• FP&A and Financial Control teams
• IT & Data
• Customer Care & Reconciliation
• Procurement, Legal, Risk & Internal Audit

External

• Core operational suppliers
• Technology vendors
• Third‑party logistics, installation & service providers

🔍 Key Responsibilities

Operational Performance & Insight

• Build and maintain an operational reporting framework.
• Track device uptime, throughput, system reliability & field service performance.
• Produce COO & Exco reporting, trend analysis, and commentary.
• Identify operational constraints, inefficiencies, and improvement opportunities.
• Translate operational realities into financial impact and recommendations.

Operating Cost Management

• Own the operating expense portfolio under the COO remit.
• Build cost transparency across business lines, products, functions, and activities.
• Lead variance analysis and support leaders with budgets and forecasts.
• Drive cost discipline without unnecessary bureaucracy.

Operational Cost Planning, Vendor Oversight & Automation

• Maintain cost models for POS devices, vaults, customer accounts & operational units.
• Track asset lifecycle performance and guide replacement or redeployment.
• Oversee vendor performance and cost compliance.
• Support procurement with contracting, renewals, and onboarding.
• Identify drivers of support demand, manual interventions, and financial leakage.
• Promote automation and reduction of exception volumes.
• Forecast costs based on installed base, routing patterns, vendor capacity & system dependency.
• Partner in operational forums as a key finance voice.

🛡️ Governance and Control

• Maintain strong financial and operational control.
• Participate in audits, risk assessments, and remediation.
• Ensure process consistency, compliance, and structure across operations.

💻 Systems and Data

• Support data integrity and reporting consistency.
• Improve management information quality, automation, and usability.
• Champion simplification and reduction of manual processes.

🎓 Qualifications and Experience

Required

• CA(SA), CIMA, or equivalent
• 5+ years post‑qualification experience
• Operational or commercial finance experience
• Comfort working with senior operational stakeholders

Preferred

• Experience in payments, merchant services, or lending
• Listed‑company exposure
• Exposure to automation or system implementation projects

🧠 Skills and Competencies

• Strong commercial judgement
• Analytical capability
• Senior‑level engagement confidence
• Structured, logical thinking
• Ability to thrive in ambiguity

🌟 Personal Attributes

• Calm under pressure
• Organised and disciplined
• Curious and engaged
• Objective and balanced
• Strong delivery mindset

🔗 Ready to bring financial discipline and operational clarity to a high‑impact environment?
Apply now — or share with someone who fits this strategic, business‑critical role.

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