Director, Product - Reconciliation
9 hours ago
Newcastle upon Tyne
Join Zepz: Breaking Down Borders, Together Our Meaningful Mission At Zepz, we're all about breaking down barriers for our customers and our teammates. Our purpose is deeply personal, we provide a lifeline and deliver opportunities to cross-border communities that need it most through cutting edge finance and tech. Zepz is the power behind WorldRemit and Sendwave, driven by the mission to celebrate the incredible impact migrants have, both at home and abroad. We're not just moving money; we're building a world that truly recognizes and supports global connections. Who You'll Be Joining We look for mission-driven builders who thrive in a fast-paced environment connected to a true purpose. We’re an always developing team of experts that enjoy problem solving and bring clarity to tough challenges. At Zepz, we are Relentless Learners, always seeking feedback, and Responsible Owners, treating company resources like your own. We depend on Transparent Communicators who keep the team aligned through open, honest talk. Our Core Commitments — What We Live By Our vibrant and truly diverse culture is built on three core commitments, that guide how we work and interact: • Integrity: We always do the right thing. It’s simple, but it’s the foundation of everything we build for our customers and each other., • Outcomes: We work for our customers. Their success and prosperity are the results we focus on delivering., • Velocity: We are fast! We maintain high energy levels and make smart decisions quickly, keeping us nimble and ahead of the curve. Perks of Joining Our Team We believe in empowering colleagues because we genuinely trust our team. Our culture is founded on this high trust, which naturally encourages the high ownership that drives us to meet our shared high expectations and deliver high performance. Our remote-first culture means you have the flexibility to work in your employing country wherever you feel the most focused and productive. This freedom comes with wonderful tailored, location-specific perks designed to support your whole life, not just your work. Think unlimited annual leave , great healthcare benefits, and employee discounts. We want you to thrive and focus entirely on making your biggest impact! In turn, we expect you to bring high ownership and commitment to your work. This is a place where we value trust and high performance, and we'll provide the environment and support needed for you to excel. About The Role We are looking for a Product Director, Reconciliation to take on a critical hybrid leadership role. You will own both the product strategy for our reconciliation and the operations team that performs the daily reconciliation function. This is a unique "builder-operator" role. You will be responsible for the team that ensures the accuracy and completeness of our balance sheet and P&L, while simultaneously defining the product roadmap to automate their work. Your success will be measured by your ability to maintain impeccable financial integrity and operational control today, while building a scalable, automated platform that eliminates manual processes and supports the company’s rapid growth for tomorrow. What you'll own • Operational Execution: Lead the reconciliation operations team. Oversee the reconciliation of all partner payouts, bank settlements, wallet balances, and internal ledgers., • Exception Management: Drive the strategy for investigating and resolving all settlement breaks, payment failures, and financial discrepancies. Implement root-cause analysis to prevent recurrence., • Financial Close & Reporting: Be directly responsible for the accuracy and timeliness of reconciliation data feeding into the monthly financial close. Provide regular reporting on reconciliation status, unreconciled items, and operational KPIs to finance leadership., • Platform Automation: Drive the evolution of our reconciliation platform with a clear goal: automate your own operations team. Lead the charge to build self-service tools, automated matching engines, and real-time dashboards., • Process Optimization: Continuously map, document, and re-engineer all reconciliation processes to gain efficiency, improve controls, and reduce risk before and after automation is built., • Stakeholder Partnership: Act as the primary partner to senior leaders in Finance, Treasury, Compliance, and Engineering. Translate complex financial and accounting needs into clear, actionable product requirements. (In this role, your own operations team is "customer zero."), • Technical Collaboration: Partner closely with engineering teams to build robust, scalable, and resilient systems. Make informed trade-offs between building new features and paying down technical debt., • Risk & Performance Management: Define and monitor KPIs for both operational performance (e.g., break aging, time-to-close) and system performance (e.g., auto-match rate, system uptime). Proactively identify and mitigate financial and operational risks., • Team & People Management: Manage, mentor, and grow a high-performing team of reconciliation analyst, specialist and product management. Set team goals, manage performance, and foster a culture of accuracy and continuous improvement. What you’ll bring to the table • 10+ years of experience in financial operations or product management within the FinTech, payments, or banking industry., • 5+ years in a leadership role managing high-performing operational teams in a financial systems or accounting environment (e.g., Reconciliation, Payment Operations, FinOps, Treasury Operations)., • Demonstrable experience in leveraging or developing technology to automate processes: You must show a proven track record of building and scaling platform products, internal tools, or financial systems. You must be able to "speak product" (write requirements, manage a backlog, work with engineers)., • Deep, hands-on domain expertise: You are a subject matter expert in the execution of global, multi-currency reconciliation, payment operations, and financial data flows (e.g., SWIFT, ACH, card networks, partner settlements). You would also need to have a profound understanding of accounting principles (IFRS/US GAAP) and financial controls, and a professional accounting qualification (CPA, ACA, CIMA or equivalent) is highly preferred., • "Builder-Operator" Mindset: You are just as comfortable running a daily operations stand-up as you are presenting a 3-year product roadmap to executives., • Exceptional leadership and communication skills: You have a demonstrated ability to manage both operations analysts and product managers, and to communicate effectively with senior finance and engineering leaders. Bonus points if you have • Experience in the global remittance or cross-border payments industry., • Direct experience leading a team through a significant automation or systems transformation (e.g., migrating off spreadsheets, implementing a new reconciliation or ledger system)., • Experience in using AI/ ML for financial process automation (e.g. anomaly detection, predictive matching, generative AI for parsing), • A background in finance, accounting, or computer science. Even more bonus points if you are a CPA/ACA/CIMA., • Experience with high-volume, real-time transaction processing environments. If you want to join us in our journey to help break barriers in financial access and improve lives globally, there's no better place or time to join. Our global team of 800+ people is spread across six continents. We aspire to hire the best mix of people from former Olympians to YouTube influencers and we speak over twenty languages. This incredible diversity isn't a bonus; it's the engine that lets us serve the world. Ready to Apply? Let’s Go.