Senior Manager Channel Operations at Sidian Bank

JOB PURPOSE

The job holder will be responsible for providing end-to-end back-office operational leadership for the Bank’s delivery channels. The role oversees Digital Banking Operations, Merchant & Agency Banking Operations, and Channels Monitoring & Service Delivery, ensuring secure, stable, efficient, and well-controlled processing across mobile and internet banking, USSD, cards, ATMs, point-of-sale and e-commerce services, agency banking, merchant acquiring, wallets, APIs, payment gateways, and emerging channels. The role is also accountable for transaction processing and exception management, reconciliations and settlement support, operational controls, service availability, incident coordination, service recovery, vendor performance, change readiness, and continuous improvement. It operates as a second-line operational support function to customer-facing teams and does not directly serve customers.

KEY RESPONSIBILTIES 

Channels Operations Leadership & Governance

• Set the channels operations strategy, operating model, annual plan, service standards, control framework, and improvement roadmap in alignment with the Operations Division’s objectives.
• Maintain clear ownership, procedures, service-level agreements, escalation matrices, capacity plans, and management information for all supported channels and operational processes.
• Provide effective leadership across Digital Banking Operations, Merchant & Agency Banking Operations, and Channels Monitoring & Service Delivery teams, ensuring appropriate staffing, segregation of duties, succession, and capability development.
• Act as the principal Operations liaison with Technology, Information Security, Product, Finance, Risk, Compliance, Customer Experience, Treasury, vendors, payment schemes, aggregators, and telecommunications partners.

Digital Banking Operations

• Oversee back-office operations for mobile banking, internet banking, USSD, wallets, cards, ATMs, payment gateways, APIs, account-to-account transfers, digital collections and disbursements, and other emerging digital services.
• Ensure timely processing, posting, balancing, settlement support, exception handling, reversals, refunds, dispute administration, suspense-account review, and closure of aged items within approved service levels.
• Maintain operational readiness for new products, releases, integrations, parameter changes, migrations, and upgrades through impact assessment, user acceptance support, cut-over planning, operational acceptance, documentation, and post-implementation review.
• Ensure authorized channel configurations, limits, fees, settlement instructions, routing rules, user access, reference data, and operational calendars are accurately maintained and independently verified.

Merchant & Agency Banking Operations

• Lead operational support for merchant acquiring and agency banking, including approved onboarding fulfilment, terminal or device setup coordination, profile maintenance, settlement operations, commission and fee processing, liquidity-support processes, and closure or offboarding.
• Oversee merchant and agent transaction reconciliation, settlement exceptions, chargebacks, disputes, reversals, dormant or inactive profiles, device inventory controls, and aged-item resolution.
• Track agent, merchant, aggregator, and scheme service performance; enforce contractual service levels; and coordinate corrective action for recurring failures, control gaps, or operational losses.
• Ensure operational processes comply with approved due-diligence decisions, product rules, regulatory requirements, scheme standards, Bank policies, and delegated authority.

Channels Monitoring, Service Delivery & Service Recovery

• Direct continuous monitoring of channel availability, transaction success rates, response times, integration of health, settlement status, queue volumes, exceptions, and operational dependencies using dashboards and defined thresholds.
• Own operational incident coordination for channel disruptions, ensuring rapid triage, impact assessment, escalation, stakeholder communication, workaround activation, service restoration, backlog clearance, reconciliation, and controlled return to normal service.
• Maintain and test channel-specific service-recovery playbooks, business-continuity arrangements, fallback procedures, contact trees, and recovery-time and recovery-point requirements with relevant teams and providers.
• Lead post-incident reviews and problem-management actions, ensuring root causes, customer and financial impacts, control failures, lessons learned, and preventive actions are documented, assigned, tracked, and verified.
• Publish timely service reports and dashboards covering uptime, success rates, incidents, recovery performance, transaction backlogs, recurring defects, service-level breaches, and improvement actions.

Operational Risk, Controls & Compliance

• Establish and test preventive and detective controls over channel processing, reconciliations, settlement, suspense accounts, access, parameter changes, maker-checker activities, data integrity, third parties, and end-of-day operations.
• Maintain channel risk and control self-assessments, key risk indicators, operational loss records, issue logs, audit evidence, and remediation plans; escalate material exposures promptly.
• Ensure channel operations comply with applicable banking and national payment-system requirements, consumer-protection obligations, data-protection standards, scheme rules, and internal policies.
• Support investigations into channel incidents, fraud, complaints, settlement differences, and operational losses by providing complete records, system evidence, reconciliations, and process expertise.

Performance, Vendors & Continuous Improvement

• Manage the department’s budget, workforce, vendor services, licences, devices, and operational resources to achieve service and control objectives cost-effectively.
• Define and monitor key performance indicators, including availability, transaction success rate, mean time to acknowledge and restore, reconciliation completion, exception ageing, settlement accuracy, dispute turnaround, backlog, vendor performance, operational losses, and control effectiveness.
• Drive automation, straight-through processing, workflow optimization, capacity improvement, data-quality enhancement, and elimination of recurring manual interventions and failure points.
• Prepare management reports and recommendations for the Head of Operations and relevant governance forums, highlighting service performance, risks, incidents, trends, dependencies, and investment priorities.

DECISION MAKING AUTHORITY

• Prioritizes operational incidents, service-recovery actions, workload, and resources within approved policies and delegated authority.
• Approves operational procedures, reconciliations, exception resolutions, access and parameter changes, and service-restoration decisions within established control limits.
• Recommends channel investments, vendor actions, process changes, staffing levels, risk acceptance, and material incident responses to the Head of Operations and relevant governance forums.

ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATIONS

Education

• Bachelor’s degree in business, Banking, Finance, Operations Management, Information Technology, Engineering, or a related discipline; a relevant postgraduate qualification is an added advantage.

Professional Certification

• Relevant certification in IT service management, project management, operational risk, payments, process improvement, or business continuity—such as ITIL, PMP/PRINCE2, Lean Six Sigma, or equivalent—is desirable.

WORK EXPERIENCE

• Minimum of eight (8) years’ progressive experience in banking operations, payments, digital channels, merchant acquiring, agency banking, service management, or a related financial-services environment, including at least 3 years in a leadership role.
• Demonstrated experience managing high-volume, multi-channel back-office operations, reconciliations, settlements, incidents, vendors, operational controls, and service recovery.
• Proven experience leading cross-functional service restoration, operational change, process improvement, and executive-level reporting.

SKILLS & COMPETENCIES

• Strong knowledge of digital banking, cards, ATMs, merchant acquiring, agency banking, wallets, APIs, payment gateways, transaction switching, clearing, reconciliation, and settlement operations.
• Expertise in service monitoring, incident and problem management, service recovery, business continuity, operational readiness, capacity management, and vendor service governance.
• Strong understanding of operational risk, internal controls, scheme rules, payment-system requirements, data protection, information security, and audit expectations.
• Advanced analytical ability, including interpretation of transaction, service, settlement, reconciliation, and incident data to identify trends and drive decisions.
• Excellent leadership, stakeholder management, vendor negotiation, judgement, written communication, and executive presentation skills.
• Ability to remain composed during major incidents, establish clear priorities, coordinate multiple teams, and restore services safely and promptly.