Customer Operations Manager 

Role Overview

We are seeking an experienced, technically proficient, and hands-on Customer Operations Manager to lead our Kuala Lumpur operations team and serve as the operational deputy to the Director of Customer Operations.

The role is responsible for overseeing customer support, merchant and partner operations, service delivery, operational governance, and continuous process improvement across Liquid Group’s payment platforms and network.

Beyond people management and service performance, the successful candidate must possess strong payment operations knowledge and technical investigative capabilities to independently assess complex transaction issues, identify probable causes, and drive effective resolution across internal teams and external partners.

This is a senior operational leadership role requiring sound judgment, strong accountability, excellent stakeholder management, and the ability to manage day-to-day operations independently.

Key Responsibilities

Operations Leadership & Team Management

• Lead and oversee daily Customer Operations activities across customer support, merchant acquiring, and partner operations in Kuala Lumpur.

• Act as the operational deputy to the Director of Customer Operations, ensuring operational continuity and effective team management in the Director’s absence.

• Manage team performance, workload distribution, service quality, staff development, and operational accountability.

• Establish clear performance expectations, coaching frameworks, and escalation protocols to strengthen team capabilities.

• Drive a culture of ownership, proactive problem-solving, and continuous improvement.

Customer, Merchant & Partner Operations

• Oversee customer and merchant onboarding, payment acceptance setup, account maintenance, transaction support, and operational servicing.

• Ensure effective operational support for wallet issuers, acquiring partners, merchants, and payment service providers.

• Manage complex customer, merchant, and partner escalations, ensuring timely investigation and resolution.

• Serve as the first-level escalation owner for customer operations, managing complex issues and coordinating cross-functional resolution, while escalating critical or strategic matters to the

Director of Customer Operations

• Support operational readiness for new products, payment corridors, partner integrations, and service enhancements.

• Ensure onboarding and operational processes are executed in line with compliance and internal controls.

• Lead operational communications and discussions with regional merchants and payment partners.

Technical Investigation & Payment Troubleshooting

• Independently assess complex payment issues involving failed transactions, QR acceptance, payment status discrepancies, refunds, reversals, and settlement exceptions.

• Analyze transaction records, system configurations, payment routing, error codes, API request/response data, callbacks, webhooks, and available system logs to identify probable causes.

• Demonstrate strong understanding of merchant configurations, payment processing flows, acquiring systems, transaction lifecycle, settlement, and reconciliation.

• Guide staff in conducting structured investigations and validating information before escalating issues to Technology, Product, Settlement, Compliance, or external partners.

• Ensure escalations contain complete transaction references, supporting evidence, preliminary findings, impact assessments, and clearly defined investigation requirements.

• Coordinate incident resolution, root-cause analysis, corrective actions, and validation of system fixes.

Operational Governance & Process Improvement

• Own and continuously improve operational SOPs, investigation procedures, escalation frameworks, and service delivery standards.• Monitor operational KPIs, including SLA performance, Customer satisfaction (CSAT), resolution turnaround, investigation quality, transaction exceptions, onboarding timelines and recurring incidents.

• Identify workflow inefficiencies, operational risks, and unnecessary escalations; implement corrective and preventive measures.

• Drive process automation, self-service capabilities, and operational enhancements in collaboration with Product and Technology teams.

• Ensure adherence to internal controls, maker-checker requirements, approval processes, and applicable compliance standards.

Stakeholder & Partner Management

• Serve as a senior operational point of contact for internal stakeholders and external payment partners.

• Lead operational discussions with acquiring partners, wallet issuers, payment service providers, and merchants on service performance, issue resolution, and process improvements.

• Work closely with Product, Technology, Settlement, Compliance, Finance, and Commercial teams to resolve operational dependencies.

• Communicate technical findings, operational risks, and resolution plans clearly to both technical and nontechnical stakeholders.

• Provide structured operational reporting, performance insights, and improvement recommendations to management.

Qualifications & Requirements

• Minimum 7–10 years of relevant experience in fintech, payment operations, merchant acquiring, payment processing, banking operations, or related financial services environments.

• Proven experience managing operational teams, complex escalations, service performance, and cross-functional stakeholders.

• Strong practical knowledge of payment processing, merchant acquiring, QR payments, transaction routing, refunds, settlement, and reconciliation.

• Demonstrated technical troubleshooting capabilities, including the ability to interpret payment flows, transaction logs, error messages, API concepts, and system configurations.

• Ability to independently investigate operational issues, identify probable root causes, and provide structured, evidence-based escalations.

• Experience managing operational KPIs and service delivery metrics.

• Experience in operational governance, SOP development, risk controls, and continuous process improvement.

• Strong analytical thinking, sound judgment, and the ability to make decisions independently in a fast-paced environment.

• Fluency in spoken and written English and Mandarin is mandatory, including the ability to conduct professional operational and technical discussions with regional merchants and payment partners.

• Familiarity with customer service platforms (e.g., HubSpot, or similar systems) is preferred.

• Strong leadership, communication, stakeholder management, and coaching capabilities.

• Bachelor’s degree or diploma in Business, Finance, Information Technology, or a related field.

• Preferred: Experience with cross-border payment networks, acquiring banks, payment gateways, API integrations, JSON, webhooks, UAT, and payment administration platforms.

What We Value

We are looking for a mature, resourceful, and accountable operations leader who can take ownership of complex challenges, develop capable teams, and continuously improve operational effectiveness.The successful candidate must be comfortable operating in a lean, dynamic fintech environment and possess the confidence and technical judgment to independently lead operations while supporting the Director of Customer Operations.