Job at a glance
Founding Operations Lead – Regulated FinTech Payments Infrastructure UK / Ireland / Netherlands = REMOTE c.€110k + Equit y The opportunity I'm proud to be partnering with one of Europe's most interesting early-stage fintechs - building regulated financial infrastructure that enables money to move seamlessly between traditional banking systems and blockchain networks. The platform sits at the intersection of regulated banking and digital assets, combining programmable payment infrastructure, multi-currency IBANs, stablecoin wallets and cross-border settlement into a single ecosystem.
The business holds a rare European licence in the digital assets space and is one of a very small number of companies operating at this intersection in a fully regulated capacity. Backed by institutional investment and operating across multiple jurisdictions, the business is founder-led, fast-moving and entering a critical stage of growth. They are now hiring their first Operations Lead. What this role actually is This is not an Operations Manager role focused on running and maintaining processes that already exist.
This is a 0→1 build role. The business needs someone who has joined a company before the operational infrastructure existed - who has written the first SOPs and policies, designed the first workflows, figured out what needed to be built , built it, and then adapted it when reality met the first real customers. If your career has been spent optimising and scaling within established, mature operational functions, this is probably not the right fit.
If, on the other hand, you have been the person who built the operational foundation of a scaling fintech from scratch - ideally at Seed or pre-Series A stage - and you are comfortable doing that inside a small, flat, founder-led team with very little hierarchy, this could be a strong match. The role spans payments operations, onboarding, customer lifecycle, compliance workflows and product-adjacent process improvement across multiple entities within a multi-licence, multi-jurisdiction structure.
You will sit at the centre of Operations, Compliance, Product and Commercial - helping turn a licensed platform into a scalable, revenue-generating infrastructure business. What you'll own → Operational architecture across onboarding, payments, settlement and reconciliation → Writing the first SOPs, policies and operations manual from a blank page - then adapting them to specific customer needs in practice → KYB/KYC and onboarding workflows that reduce friction while maintaining robust controls → Transaction monitoring, operational risk controls and compliance process design → Efficiency and automation improvements across compliance and product operations → Customer service standards, escalation frameworks and response procedures → Roles, permissions and workflow design across a multi-entity, multi-licence structure → Translating regulatory requirements (EMI, FCA, MiCA) into practical operational infrastructure → Cross-functional alignment across Compliance, Product, Technology and Commercial teams → Supporting early operational hiring as the team grows What we're looking for You are likely from a payments, fintech or EMI background - with direct, hands-on EU payments experience (SEPA, SWIFT, cross-border settlement) and demonstrable evidence of building operational infrastructure from scratch, not inheriting it.
Third-party or adjacent payments exposure is not sufficient for this role. You have done this inside a small, founder-led business - ideally at Seed or pre-Series A stage - where the pace is high, the structure is flat and the expectation is that you figure things out. Series B experience alone is not sufficient evidence of the ability to build from scratch. We are deliberately looking for someone slightly more junior to mid-level but recently hands-on.
Senior profiles who have moved away from day-to-day delivery are unlikely to be the right fit. Strongly aligned candidates will have: → Direc