Aku is a funded and fully licensed payment-led digital bank on a mission to disrupt cash and drive financial inclusion one mobile device at a time. Aku is looking for a Lead offline merchant acquirer to lead and drive offline merchant acquisition and strategy for Aku.

JOB DESCRIPTION

Sales Strategy: Develop and execute a strategic sales plan for acquiring offline merchants, aligning it with the broader business goals and financial targets.

Merchant Acquisition: Lead the effort to identify, engage, and onboard offline merchants, building a robust portfolio of clients.

Market Insights: Stay informed about market trends, competition, and customer needs to tailor sales strategies and product offerings effectively.

Sales Team Leadership: Build, manage, and motivate a high-performing sales team, setting clear goals and providing coaching and guidance for their success.

Partnerships: Explore and establish partnerships and collaboratifons that can enhance merchant acquisition efforts and broaden the reach of our fintech products.

Customer Relationship Management: Develop strong, long-term relationships with key merchants, ensuring their satisfaction and retention.

Sales Performance Analysis: Implement tracking and analysis of sales data to identify opportunities for improvement and make data-driven decisions.

Compliance and Regulatory Adherence: Ensure that all merchant acquisition activities adhere to relevant industry regulations and compliance standards.

Bachelor's degree in a relevant field; advanced degree or certifications in sales and fintech are advantageous.

Proven track record in sales leadership roles with a focus on acquiring offline merchants in the banking or fintech sector.

Strong knowledge of offline merchant acquisition strategies, including partnership building, lead generation, and negotiation.

Excellent understanding of banking products, financial services, and compliance requirements.

Exceptional communication and leadership skills, with the ability to inspire and guide a sales team.

Proficiency in sales analytics and CRM tools.

Innovative thinker with a passion for challenging traditional norms in merchant acquisition.

Lead Offline Merchant Acquirer

Aku is a funded and fully licensed payment-led digital bank on a mission to disrupt cash and drive financial inclusion one mobile device at a time.

Aku is looking for an Engineering lead responsible for driving the development of Aku’s product in the banking sector.

Define and maintain robust architectural frameworks and standards that support the development of innovative banking solutions.

Scope and lead building of new product features and highly performant microservices.

Collaborate closely with product management, design, and other departments to ensure seamless coordination in delivering exceptional FinTech products.

Oversee the end-to-end software development lifecycle, ensuring high-quality, scalable, and secure FinTech products.

Attract, recruit, and retain top engineering talent, while continuously developing and mentoring team members to drive their growth and success.

Collaborate with the executive team to shape and execute the company's technical strategy, aligning it with business objectives and staying at the forefront of industry trends.

Communicate engineering strategy and status updates transparently and effectively to stakeholders and senior leadership.

Make tradeoffs that consider business priorities, user experience, and a sustainable technical foundation.

Establish and enforce rigorous quality assurance practices, including testing and code reviews, to maintain the highest product quality standards.

Maintain a deep understanding of industry regulations and cybersecurity best practices to ensure our FinTech products are secure and compliant.

Proven track record of leadership in engineering roles within the fintech or banking sector.

Strong knowledge of banking products and financial services.

Strong technical background, with 7+ years of hands-on experience, using Java, and Spring Boot.

Strong technical experience using Java, Spring Boot, Spring Cloud, SQL (Stored procedures, JPQL/Criteria API)

Solid knowledge of security (Access Controls, roles, Permissions).

Hands-on experience architecting and building large-scale, highly available distributed systems/applications.

Experience working with relational databases, schema design, and performing query optimizations

Leverage automated tests and observability tooling to help ship features to production with confidence.

A good understanding of CI/CD tools, and containerization (Docker/Kubernetes).

Excellent communication skills and the ability to articulate complex, technical concepts to any audience.

Experience leading, coaching, and mentoring a high-performance engineering team.

Ability to craft well-written technical design documentation.

Prior experience working on core banking infrastructure (Lending, Savings, Payments, VAS)

Engineering Lead(Core Banking)

Aku is looking for an Engineering lead responsible for the planning, development, and maintenance of integration solutions that connect our various systems and applications.

Develop and execute an integration strategy that aligns with the company's goals.

Identify opportunities for process automation and system enhancements through integrations.

Design, develop, and maintain integration solutions between various software applications, systems, and data sources.

Build and maintain APIs, connectors, and middleware to enable data flow.

Implement testing and validation procedures to ensure the reliability and accuracy of integrations.

Troubleshoot and resolve integration issues and errors in a timely manner.

Create and maintain detailed documentation for integration workflows, configurations, and best practices.

Document API endpoints, data formats, and data mapping.

Proficiency in integration technologies, API design, and data transformation.

Strong knowledge of software architecture and design patterns.

Proven track record of leadership in engineering Familiarity with integration platforms and tools.

Solid experience with third-party integrations.

Strong experience with Java, Spring Boot, Spring Cloud & microservices.

Exceptional communication and leadership skills, with the ability to inspire and guide technical teams.

Engineering Lead(Integrations)

Aku is a funded and fully-licensed payment led digital bank on a mission to disrupt cash and drive financial inclusion one mobile device at a time. 

Aku is looking for a Branch Manager  is responsible for the development, coordination, supervision, and implementation of operational and business activities in the branch. The individual will also drive sales target and grow the bank to profitability.

·      Manage and ensure overall operational readiness/efficiency of branch infrastructure (including, premises, assets, physical security, opening/closing procedures, and operational issues such as fraud, losses, and differences

·      Ensure high-quality service delivery by efficiently managing, developing, and using all available resources (i.e., staff, systems and processes)

·      Manage and ensure the overall operational readiness and efficiency of branch infrastructure (including premises, assets, physical security, opening and closing procedures, and operational issues such as fraud, losses, and differences).

·      Develop marketing and relationship management plans to achieve responsive sales targets for the bank.

·      Assume overall accountability for branch expenditure on products and services such as the administration of consumer lending, current account transactions, overdrafts, and personal loans.

·      Monitor and control business office income and expenditure to ensure profitability.

·      Ensure the effective rollout of management initiatives at the branch.

·      Expand the branch customer base through opening of new active customer accounts and activation of inactive accounts.

·      Drive revenue and profitability through mobilization of low-cost deposits and minimizing running expenses.

·      Coordinate, supervise, market loan products and process loan applications for Customers.

·      Provide strategic direction and operational support to employees.

·      Providing leadership to facilitate prompt repayment on due loans and keeping the Portfolio at Risk (PAR) within the guiding internal threshold.

·      Excellent and strong relationship management experience

·      Experience working in Fintech and/or Banking.

·      Excellent attention to detail

·      Ability to deal with confidential matters and with discretion.

·      Strong interpersonal and communication skills

·      Experienced in repayment tracking and loan collection without a day default.

·      Basic Financial Analysis: Ability to interpret income statements, balance Sheets, cash flow statements, and financial ratios.

·      Strong planning, organizational and time management competency.

Bank Branch Manager

Aku is looking for an online merchant acquire lead online merchant acquisition and strategy for Aku.

• Sales Strategy: Develop and execute a comprehensive sales strategy for online merchant acquisition, aligning it with the overall business goals and staying at the forefront of industry trends.

• Business Development: Identify and cultivate relationships with online merchants, payment service providers, and e-commerce platforms, expanding our reach and driving adoption of our fintech products.

• Product Knowledge: Deeply understand our fintech products, including their features, benefits, and value propositions, and effectively communicate these to potential clients.

• Team Leadership: Build, manage, and motivate a high-performing sales team, setting clear goals and providing coaching and guidance for their success.

• Market Insight: Stay informed about online merchant industry trends, competitive landscape, and emerging opportunities, using this knowledge to drive sales strategies.

• Client Engagement: Develop and maintain relationships with key decision-makers and stakeholders at online merchant companies, ensuring their needs are met and issues are addressed promptly.

• Revenue Growth: Meet and exceed sales targets and revenue goals, consistently driving business growth.

• Collaboration: Collaborate closely with product management, marketing, and technical teams to ensure seamless onboarding and support for clients

Lead Online Merchant Acquirer

The Technical Support Officer is expected to have a deeper understanding of systems and applications. 

Your day-to-day involves handling complex problems that require in-depth troubleshooting and collaboration across resolver teams.

1. 2nd Level Support is responsible for triaging, prioritization, tracking, and routing incidents reported by the Customer Support Team for onward escalation to internal resolver teams (Engineering, Finance, Compliance, etc).

2. Monitor service dashboards and reporting channels and notify support engineers as appropriate.

3. Engage resolver teams to ensure incident resolution within agreed SLAs and timelines.

4. Proactive service monitoring to identify problem triggers and offer continuous service improvements.

5. Take ownership of escalated tickets as it cycle through the incident management process.

6. Build a Knowledge Base (KB) with troubleshooting and resolution details.

1. Experience working with customer support.

2. Good analytical skills, technical troubleshooting ability and familiarity with digital banking products.

3. Collaborative team player with a results-oriented and customer-focused approach.

4. Self-motivated with the ability to work independently and escalate where needed.

5. Excellent verbal and written communication skills to articulate incident details to resolver teams.

Technical Support Officer

Technical Leadership: Led a team of talented engineers responsible for developing, maintaining, and enhancing internal tools used across the LOB.

Strategic Vision: Collaborate with senior leadership and LOB stakeholders to define and execute the strategic roadmap for internal tools, aligning it with business objectives.

Tool Development: Oversee the design, development, and maintenance of efficient and user-friendly internal tools that optimize business processes and support decision-making.

Cross-functional Collaboration: Work closely with various teams across the LOB, including operations and customer support, to understand their tooling needs and deliver effective solutions.

Process Improvement: Identify opportunities to streamline internal workflows and processes using technology, proposing innovative tooling solutions that enhance operational efficiency.

Team Development: Attract, recruit, mentor, and retain top engineering talent within the Internal Tools team, fostering a culture of learning and continuous improvement.

User Experience: Ensure that internal tools are designed with a focus on user experience, promoting usability and reducing friction for end-users.

Data-Driven Decision-Making: Utilize data analytics and user feedback to make informed decisions about tool enhancements and improvements.

Security and Compliance: Ensure that internal tools adhere to relevant security and compliance standards, protecting sensitive data and information.

Strong technical background with 7+ years

Proven track record of leadership in engineering roles with a focus on internal tools and process optimization within the fintech/banking sector.

Solid knowledge of security (Access Controls, roles, Permissions)

Strong understanding of the LOB's operations, processes, and tooling requirements.

Proficiency in agile methodologies and modern software development practices.

Innovative thinker who can challenge conventional norms and drive efficiency through tooling solutions.

Engineering Lead - Internal Tools (LOB)

1. Lead Aku’s entire product marketing strategy. You will work closely with cross-functional teams - product managers, sales, design, customer success, and many others —to acquire, engage, and retain customer segments across all geographies.

2. Recruit and coach members of Aku’s marketing team. You'll build a world-class marketing practice that attracts the best marketing talent.

3. Marketing strategy and planning: design marketing strategy and operational plan for Aku and each relevant product across all relevant channels based on a deep understanding of the business, product, and relevant marketing strategies.

4. Execution of marketing plan: own the execution of all marketing activities, including adjusting the plan as required, hands-on execution and working with internal and external teams.
5. Content marketing and social media: work with various teams to produce high-quality content and distribute it effectively across all relevant channels.

6. Targeted campaigns: Work closely with other stakeholders (internal and external) to design and execute effective events and campaigns for high-quality lead generation.

7. Conferences and events: organize targeted events for existing and potential counterparties.

8. Oversee the ongoing development of Aku’s key digital marketing assets.

9. PR and media: Develop a communication plan and relationships with media, support the team in getting speaker invitations, targeted media coverage, etc

10. Evolving and optimising our activities based on the learnings to facilitate better results and outcomes in future projects and campaigns.

11. Reporting & analytics: Work with the Data department and other relevant stakeholders to build a fact base to be able to monitor and report results of all activities and make commercially sound recommendations.

- Experience working in disruptive Fintech and/or Banking

- Strong in both digital and offline marketing: paid search, social media marketing, building a brand online, press releases, radio spots, prints, and all marketing channels.

- Advanced level of communication, negotiation, and the ability to influence and motivate at all levels

- Proven experience in successfully managing and launching new innovative products

Explore roles at Aku

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Engineering Lead(Core Banking)

Engineering Lead(Integrations)

Technical Support Officer

Engineering Lead - Internal Tools (LOB)

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