Chief Operating Officer - Payments

About ThriveCart

ThriveCart is a powerful platform used by over 50,000 people worldwide to generate over $5B in sales. Included within the ThriveCart platform is a learning management system (LMS), affiliate management, cart and checkout functionality, making it a top solution for creators, coaches, consultants, and other businesses.

Location: Remote (EU/UK)

Job Overview

ThriveCart is seeking an exceptional Chief Operating Officer with deep roots in payments & fintech to serve as a key strategic partner to the CEO and drive operational excellence across the business. This role demands a leader who understands the nuances of payments ecosystems, merchant dynamics, and fintech scale — and can translate that expertise into operational rigour, cost discipline, and cross‑functional execution. The ideal candidate will be equally comfortable reviewing financial metrics, managing complex product roadmaps, and guiding distributed teams toward ambitious milestones in a fast‑moving payments environment.

Key Responsibilities

• Strategic Leadership & CEO Partnership
  • Serve as the right hand to the CEO, providing strategic counsel grounded in payments and fintech market dynamics.
  • Translate company vision and strategy into actionable operational plans, with particular focus on checkout optimisation, payments infrastructure, and merchant growth.
  • Act as a sounding board for strategic decisions, bringing informed perspective on fintech trends, competitive positioning, and regulatory developments.
  • Lead key meetings and represent the CEO in operational and partner discussions, including with payment processors, acquiring banks, and fintech partners.
• Operational Excellence
  • Oversee day‑to‑day operations across all departments, ensuring alignment with company objectives and the demands of a payments‑first business.
  • Develop and implement operational processes and systems that reflect the compliance, security, and reliability standards expected in fintech environments.
  • Establish and monitor KPIs across operational health, payments performance, chargeback rates, merchant satisfaction, and platform uptime.
  • Identify bottlenecks and inefficiencies across the merchant lifecycle and implement solutions to optimise workflow and resource utilisation.
• Financial Management & Cost Optimisation
  • Lead company‑wide cost reduction initiatives while maintaining the quality and resilience standards critical in payments infrastructure.
  • Conduct regular analysis of operating expenses, payment processing costs, vendor contracts, and resource allocation to identify savings opportunities.
  • Develop and manage operational budgets across departments with a strong understanding of the unit economics of a payments and SaaS business.
  • Negotiate with payment processors, technology vendors, and service providers to secure favourable terms and pricing.
  • Implement data‑driven decision making to maximise ROI on operational investments, with fluency in payments‑specific metrics such as processing margins, interchange, and dispute rates.
• Project & Programme Management
  • Oversee and coordinate strategic projects across the organisation, including payment method expansions, compliance programmes, and platform integrations.
  • Establish project management frameworks and governance structures appropriate for a regulated, payments environment.
  • Set clear milestones, timelines, and success metrics for company initiatives.
  • Monitor project progress, identify risks — including regulatory and compliance risks — and implement corrective actions to ensure on‑time, on‑budget delivery.
• Product & Technology Roadmap
  • Partner with product and engineering teams to oversee the product development roadmap with particular emphasis on checkout optimisation, payment flows, and merchant tooling.
  • Ensure roadmap alignment with business strategy, merchant needs, payment network requirements, and evolving regulatory obligations.
  • Balance competing priorities and resource constraints to optimise delivery schedules in a technically complex, compliance‑sensitive environment.
  • Drive continuous improvement in development processes, with a focus on reliability, security, and conversion performance.
• People & Culture
  • Build, lead, and mentor high‑performing teams across operational functions.
  • Foster a culture of accountability, continuous improvement, and operational excellence consistent with fintech standards.
  • Develop talent within the organisation through coaching, training, and professional development.
  • Facilitate effective communication and collaboration across departments, particularly between technical, compliance, and commercial functions.

Additional Responsibilities

• Support business development activities, payment partnerships, and strategic growth opportunities including new market entry and payment method expansion.
• Ensure compliance with relevant payments regulations, PCI‑DSS standards, card network rules, and applicable financial services requirements.
• Represent the company at industry events, fintech conferences, and partner meetings.
• Lead special projects as assigned by the CEO.

Required Skills

• Proven track record of successfully scaling operations in payments, fintech, or payments‑adjacent SaaS businesses.
• Deep understanding of payments ecosystems including acquiring, processing, chargebacks, fraud, and merchant services.
• Demonstrated expertise in cost optimisation and financial management with measurable results, including payments processing cost management.
• Strong project management skills with experience overseeing complex, cross‑functional and compliance‑sensitive initiatives.
• Deep understanding of product development processes within regulated or technically complex environments.
• Familiarity with PCI‑DSS, payments compliance frameworks, and financial services regulatory requirements.
• Exceptional analytical and problem‑solving abilities with a data‑driven mindset and fluency in fintech metrics.
• Outstanding communication and interpersonal skills with the ability to influence at all levels, including external payment partners and regulators.
• Hands‑on experience using AI tools day‑to‑day to improve productivity, decision‑making, and operational output — not just awareness, but active and proficient use.
• Demonstrated ability to design, build, and implement AI agents that automate repeatable business processes across operational, financial, and cross‑functional workflows.
• Proven experience identifying automation opportunities across teams and deploying solutions that measurably reduce manual effort, increase throughput, and improve consistency.
• Comfortable working with AI‑powered workflow tools such as n8n, Make, Zapier, or similar platforms to connect systems and eliminate operational friction.

Experience and Education

• 10+ years of progressive operational leadership experience, with at least 5 years in a senior executive role within payments or fintech.
• Direct experience working with payment processors, card networks, acquiring banks, or merchant services providers.
• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Engineering, Finance, or related field; MBA or advanced degree preferred.
• Demonstrated track record of business transformation and change management in regulated or compliance‑heavy environments.
• Experience managing remote or distributed teams across multiple time zones.
• Strong technical acumen with the ability to engage credibly with engineering teams on payments infrastructure, platform architecture, and AI‑driven automation.
• Proven experience leading or contributing to AI adoption initiatives at an operational level, including the rollout of agent‑based workflows across business functions.
• Previous experience supporting a CEO or founder in a COO or similar executive capacity within a fintech or payments business.

Learn More About ThriveCart

Our team thrives on collaboration, innovation, and continuous growth. We foster an open environment with regular knowledge‑sharing sessions and encourage active participation in shaping the platform. Our values include:

• Commit to Excellence – We believe in delivering high‑quality work and continuous improvement.
• User‑Focused Problem Solving – Every design should contribute to solving a real problem for our users.
• Team Collaboration – We work better together, valuing input from every team member.
• Growth Mindset – We embrace challenges as opportunities to learn and grow.