Operations Director

Ryft is a regulated payment facilitator and authorised payment institution building the infrastructure layer for modern commerce platforms.

We enable marketplaces, SaaS platforms and multi-party ecosystems to embed and monetise payments natively. Our technology handles onboarding, compliance, orchestration, split payments and revenue sharing allowing our partners to focus on growth while we manage complexity.

The role is based in Manchester, and requires 3 days a week on site.

We’re looking for a Operations Director to act as the operational backbone of the business and the right hand to the COO.

This role exists to create structure at scale.

You will sit across Operations, Risk, Compliance and Underwriting, consolidating team leads under one clear operational leader. You’ll drive performance, accountability, reporting clarity and execution rhythm across the business.

This is not a middle‑management role. It is a senior leadership position with real ownership, real authority, and real impact.

• Management of Operations, Risk, Compliance and related team leads
• Create clear reporting lines and performance frameworks
• Coach and elevate existing managers
• Build succession depth across teams
• Drive high standards of accountability and ownership

• Improve processes across onboarding, underwriting, compliance and servicing
• Identify bottlenecks and eliminate inefficiencies
• Implement scalable systems and operating rhythms
• Ensure KPIs are clearly defined, measured and owned

• Build executive-level operational reporting
• Introduce dashboards and metrics that matter
• Own weekly and monthly operating cadences
• Translate data into insight and action

• Work closely with Compliance and Risk leads to ensure regulatory standards are embedded operationally
• Ensure operational processes meet FCA-level governance expectations
• Maintain audit readiness and documentation standards

• Act as escalation point for operational matters
• Reduce direct reporting load for the COO
• Filter, prioritise and solve issues before they reach executive level
• Free up the COO to focus on strategy, partnerships and scaling initiatives

• The MD has significantly fewer direct operational touchpoints
• Team leads operate with greater autonomy and accountability
• Clear KPIs exist across every operational team
• Reporting is structured, predictable and insight-driven
• Process SLAs are defined and met
• Operational maturity is visibly stronger

• 6–12+ years in operations leadership within fintech, payments, regulated financial services or high-growth tech
• Experienced managing managers, not just individual contributors
• Data-driven but commercially aware
• Calm under pressure
• Highly structured thinker
• Strong operator who can balance detail and strategy

• Senior‑level ownership and visibility
• Direct impact on company‑wide performance
• Opportunity to shape operational architecture during a scaling phase