We are looking for a Senior Manager, Merchant Onboarding to own regulatory, statutory, concurrent, internal, and external audits for merchant onboarding, while also holding overall governance of onboarding SOPs, process adherence, and AML/EDD execution.
The role is primarily accountable for audit closure, root cause analysis, and CAPA — partnering with Operations, Product, Technology, Risk, Compliance, and Legal, ownership of SOP upkeep, process-adherence reporting, and AML/EDD oversight to keep onboarding audit-ready year-round. We're looking for someone from a fintech, payments, or bank onboarding/compliance background who is comfortable using AI and modern tech tools to solve problems, not just manage them manually.
Key Responsibilities1. Audit Observation Management & Timely Response
Act as the single point of contact for all onboarding-related regulatory, statutory, concurrent, internal, and external audits.
Conduct detailed research across internal systems, policies, operational records, and documentation to prepare accurate, timely, and evidence-backed responses to audit observations.
Ensure every audit observation is responded to and closed within agreed regulatory and internal timelines.
Maintain complete audit documentation, evidence repositories, and audit trails.
2. Root Cause Analysis, CAPA & Advisory
Perform root cause analysis for every audit observation to identify underlying process, product, or system control gaps.
Develop structured corrective and preventive action (CAPA) plans to eliminate recurrence of observations.
Provide advisory to Operations, Product, and Technology teams on control gaps identified through audits, and partner with them to design sustainable, ideally automated, fixes.
Use AI and automation tools to speed up evidence-gathering, observation analysis, and CAPA tracking wherever possible.
3. Compliance Coordination & Action Item Tracking
Serve as the primary coordination point for all internal compliance items relating to onboarding, liaising with Compliance, Legal, Risk, and Operations.
Own end-to-end governance of audit and compliance action items across multiple teams, all year round — tracking progress, resolving blockers, and driving accountability.
Establish governance mechanisms — reviews, dashboards, escalation frameworks — and present progress, risks, and mitigation plans to senior leadership.
4. SOP, Process Adherence & AML/EDD Oversight
Own onboarding SOPs and process documentation, keeping them current with every product, regulatory, or process change.
Build and maintain reporting/dashboards to track process adherence and flag exceptions or control deviations.
Maintain oversight of AML and EDD (Enhanced Due Diligence) execution quality for onboarding, coordinating with the teams running day-to-day AML/KYC checks.
Recommend automation and AI-enabled opportunities to reduce manual effort across SOP tracking, reporting, and control monitoring.
7+ years of experience in Onboarding Operations, Audit Handling, or Risk Operations within Payments, Fintech, or Banking.
Hands-on comfort with AI and modern tech tools (e.g., LLM-based assistants, automation platforms, SQL/BI tools) to solve operational and compliance problems, not just track them.
The ideal candidate should possess a strong understanding of:
Merchant/customer onboarding and lifecycle management in a bank, fintech, PA/PG, or acquiring context.
AML, KYC, and enhanced due diligence (EDD) processes.
RBI regulations applicable to Payment Aggregators and Payment Gateways, and/or banking compliance norms.
Card scheme and network compliance requirements (Visa, Mastercard, RuPay, American Express, etc.).
Using AI/automation tools to build reporting, streamline audit evidence collection, or flag exceptions at scale.
Strong program management skills with the ability to drive complex cross-functional audit and compliance initiatives.
Excellent stakeholder management across Operations, Product, Technology, Risk, Compliance, and Legal.
Exceptional written communication and documentation skills for audit responses and SOPs.
Strong analytical and root cause analysis capabilities.
Genuine curiosity and fluency with AI tools and automation — able to identify where they can replace manual audit/compliance work and implement them practically.
High attention to detail with a structured, process-oriented mindset, and comfort managing multiple audits against regulatory timelines.
Success Metrics
Timely closure of audit observations within agreed timelines, and reduction in repeat findings.
Timely completion of CAPA plans, validated for effectiveness.
Quality and completeness of audit documentation and evidence trails.
Adherence to SOPs across onboarding, and currency of SOP documentation.
Quality of AML/EDD execution
Demonstrated use of AI/automation to improve audit and compliance turnaround.