Head of Operations

About ZuriFi

ZuriFi builds financial infrastructure for emerging markets — modular rails for payments, digital assets, asset digitization, trading and market access, purpose-built for banks, fintechs and brokers. Our rails are live: real users, real partners, and real money moving through the system every day.

The role

We're hiring our first Head of Operations, based in Kigali, to own everything that keeps money moving: payout rails, liquidity and float, partner relationships, and compliance coordination. Today these live across the founders' heads and a set of dashboards — your job is to turn them into a function that scales to the next ten markets.

What you'll do

• Own day-to-day operations across our payout rails — mobile money, bank transfers, and settlement partners — including incident response when a rail degrades.
• Manage liquidity and float across currencies and partners so payouts never stall, working closely with engineering on treasury tooling.
• Run partner operations: onboarding, SLAs, reconciliation, and escalation paths with banks, fintechs, and mobile money operators.
• Coordinate compliance operations with our counsel and partners — KYC/KYB workflows, reporting, and audit readiness.
• Build the operations playbook: document processes, define metrics, and hire and lead the ops team as volume grows.
• Be the voice of operations in product decisions — what we automate next is driven by what hurts you most.

What we're looking for

• 5+ years in operations at a fintech, payments company, bank, or mobile money operator, with at least 2 years leading a team or function.
• Hands-on experience with East African payment rails — mobile money and interbank transfers — and the reconciliation work behind them.
• Comfort with numbers: you can build the float model, spot the reconciliation break, and defend the metric you chose.
• Experience working with regulators or compliance teams in a licensed financial business.
• Based in Kigali, or ready to relocate — this role is on-site with the team.
• Fluent English; Kinyarwanda and/or French are a strong plus.

Nice to have

• Familiarity with stablecoins and digital-asset settlement flows.
• Experience scaling operations across multiple countries or currencies.
• You've worked at an early-stage company and know what 'the process is you' feels like.

What we offer

• Competitive salary and meaningful equity.
• A seat at the table — you'll shape how the company operates, not inherit a finished machine.
• Real volume from day one: live rails, live partners, live money movement.
• Relocation support to Kigali if you're moving.