“Fintech operations” can describe very different jobs. In one business, it means managing payment exceptions and reconciliations. In another, it involves trading support, customer onboarding or coordinating issues between commercial and technology teams.
Before searching for candidates, define the operational problem the person will own. A familiar job title alone may not tell you whether someone has the right experience.
Define the scope around your business model
Start with the products and customers the role supports.
Will the person work with payments, trading services, digital assets or another financial technology product? Will they manage daily transactions, investigate exceptions, improve processes or lead an operations team?
Clarify where the role begins and ends. Operations may work closely with finance, risk, compliance and technology, but those relationships do not make the responsibilities interchangeable.
Identify the technical understanding required
Not every operations hire needs to write code. Some roles require confidence using reporting tools, investigating transaction data or explaining system issues to developers.
Others may need deeper experience with integrations, trading platforms or automated workflows.
Ask what the person must be able to do independently. This helps distinguish practical requirements from an unnecessarily technical wish list.
Assess commercial judgement
Operational decisions can affect customers, service delivery and business relationships. Candidates should be able to explain how they balance accuracy, urgency and communication.
Useful interview questions include:
Tell us about an operational issue that affected a customer.
How did you establish what had happened?
Who needed to be involved, and when did you escalate?
What changed afterwards to reduce the chance of recurrence?
Look for clear ownership and reasoning rather than a polished description of the team’s collective work.
Explore how candidates work across functions
An effective operations professional should be able to communicate with colleagues who have different priorities.
Ask for an example involving technology, finance or a commercial team. Explore how the candidate clarified responsibilities, handled disagreement and kept the issue moving towards resolution.
Use a relevant assessment
A short, fictional scenario can reveal how someone approaches an unfamiliar problem. For example, provide a transaction discrepancy or service interruption and ask the candidate to outline their first steps.
Keep the exercise proportionate to the role. Assess the quality of their questions, prioritisation and escalation decisions without requesting confidential information from a previous employer.
Hire for the work ahead
The strongest match depends on your product, operating model and stage of development. Define those factors before deciding which backgrounds belong on your shortlist.
Speak with AW Connect about your fintech hiring requirements.