General Manager

Electronic Payment Services Provider (Epsp)

Reports To: Board of Directors And Chairman

Position Summary

1. Strategic Leadership

• Develop and execute the company’s strategic vision, long-term roadmap, and growth agenda.
• Lead expansion across digital payments, wallet ecosystems, merchant acquiring, payment acceptance
• channels, and financial technology services.
• Identify new business opportunities, product innovation initiatives, and strategic partnerships.
• Drive digital transformation and customer-centric service innovation.
• Present strategic plans, performance updates, and business initiatives to the Board of Directors.

2. Business Growth & Commercial Leadership

• Deliver sustainable revenue growth, profitability, and market expansion.
• Lead go-to-market strategies for retail, merchant, SME, corporate, and agent-based payment services.
• Expand customer acquisition, merchant acceptance, transaction volume, and active user growth.
• Build and maintain strategic partnerships with:
• o Banks
• o Merchants
• o Payment schemes
• o Switching providers
• o Technology vendors
• o Government entities
• o Strategic ecosystem partners
• Drive product commercialization and market competitiveness.

3. Regulatory, Governance & Compliance Leadership

• Ensure full compliance with all applicable Central Bank regulations, licensing requirements, AML/CFT
• obligations, consumer protection requirements, and payment industry regulations.
• Serve as the primary executive liaison with:
• o Central Bank of Iraq
• o Regulatory authorities
• o Banking partners
• o Auditors
• o Compliance authorities
• o Payment ecosystem stakeholders
• Ensure effective corporate governance, internal control frameworks, regulatory reporting, and policy
• oversight.
• Lead regulatory examinations, audit engagements, compliance remediation, and governance reporting.
• Maintain strong Board governance engagement and executive accountability.

4. Operations & Service Delivery Leadership

• Oversee payment operations including:
• o Transaction processing
• o Settlement governance
• o Reconciliation oversight
• o Merchant servicing
• o Wallet operations
• o Service reliability
• o Operational resilience
• Ensure business continuity, disaster recovery readiness, and operational risk controls.
• Establish strong operational governance, service standards, and performance monitoring.
• Drive efficiency, scalability, and process optimization.

5. Technology & Digital Platform Oversight

• Provide executive oversight of technology strategy, platform scalability, cybersecurity resilience, and
• digital infrastructure governance.
• Work closely with executive technology leadership to support:
• o Digital wallet platforms
• o Payment switching infrastructure
• o Merchant systems
• o API ecosystems
• o ATM/CDM integration
• o Fraud monitoring platforms
• o Digital onboarding capabilities
• Support technology modernization aligned with business growth and regulatory expectations.

6. Risk, Security & Financial Crime Oversight

• Establish a strong enterprise-wide risk governance culture.
• Ensure effective oversight of:
• o AML/CFT compliance
• o Fraud risk management
• o Operational risk
• o Cybersecurity governance
• o Information security
• o Consumer protection
• o Data privacy
• o Financial crime prevention
• Ensure compliance with relevant industry security and operational standards, including PCI DSS and
• information security best practices.
• Oversee regulatory findings closure, audit remediation, and control improvement initiatives.

7. Financial Leadership

• Own the company’s financial performance, budgeting, forecasting, and profitability targets.
• Ensure sound financial governance, treasury discipline, and liquidity oversight.
• Monitor transaction economics, settlement exposure, cost optimization, and sustainable growth
• performance.
• Support Board-level financial planning and strategic decision-making.

8. Leadership & Organizational Development

• Build, lead, and develop a high-performing executive leadership team.
• Establish governance structures, KPIs, accountability frameworks, and performance management
• disciplines.
• Foster a culture of innovation, ownership, compliance, collaboration, and operational excellence.
• Lead organizational transformation and capability development.

9. Stakeholder Management & External Representation

• Represent the company at executive level with:
• Regulators
• Banks
• Payment ecosystem partners
• Merchants
• Government stakeholders
• Industry bodies
• Strategic partners
• Board members
• Serve as the public and executive face of the organization where required.

Minimum

• Bachelor’s degree in:
• Business Administration
• Finance
• Economics
• Banking
• Computer Science
• Information Systems
• Engineering
• Related discipline

Preferred

• MBA
• Master’s degree in Finance, Banking, Strategy, Technology Management, or related field

Mandatory

• Minimum 15 years of professional experience in:
• o Electronic payments
• o Fintech
• o Banking
• o Financial services
• o Payment infrastructure
• o Digital financial services
• Minimum 7 years in executive leadership roles, such as:
• o CEO
• o Deputy CEO
• o General Manager
• o Managing Director
• o COO
• o Executive Director
• Proven experience in one or more of:
• o Licensed payment institutions
• o Electronic payment service providers
• o Fintech companies
• o Digital banking
• o Merchant acquiring businesses
• o Card/payment infrastructure organizations
• Direct experience dealing with regulators and financial supervisory authorities.
• Proven leadership in scaling regulated payment or financial services businesses.

Strongly Preferred

• Experience in payment ecosystem.
• Experience with Central Bank regulatory frameworks.
• Experience in wallet-led payment ecosystems.
• Merchant acquiring and acceptance ecosystem leadership.
• Payment switching and transaction processing governance.
• Settlement and reconciliation oversight.
• Digital product launch leadership.

Technical Knowledge

• Strong understanding of:
• Electronic payments ecosystem
• Payment transaction lifecycle
• Merchant acquiring
• Payment acceptance
• Wallet platforms
• QR payments
• Switching infrastructure
• Settlement and reconciliation
• API integrations
• KYC onboarding
• AML systems
• Fraud monitoring
• PCI DSS
• Cybersecurity governance
• Business continuity
• Operational resilience
• Risk governance
• ISO 20022

Leadership Competencies

• Strategic vision
• Commercial leadership
• Regulatory maturity
• Executive decision-making
• Governance mindset
• Crisis management
• Change leadership
• Negotiation capability
• Board communication
• Stakeholder management
• Team leadership
• Innovation orientation
• Operational discipline

Preferred Professional Certifications

• APRP (Accredited Payments Risk Professional)

• Corporate Governance / Board Governance certification
• Executive leadership certification

Language Requirements

• Arabic: Professional proficiency strongly preferred
• English: Professional business fluency required

Key Performance Indicators (Kpis)

• Success in this role will be measured by:
• Revenue growth
• Profitability
• Customer acquisition
• Active wallet growth
• Merchant growth
• Transaction volume and value
• Service uptime / availability
• Fraud loss management
• Regulatory compliance performance
• Audit closure effectiveness
• Strategic partnership expansion
• Operational efficiency

Ideal Candidate Profile

• We seek a transformational executive who combines:
• fintech innovation
• regulatory credibility
• operational discipline
• commercial execution
• governance maturity
• leadership excellence
• to build a market-leading digital payments institution in Iraq.

Application Process

• Interested candidates should submit:
• Executive CV
• Leadership profile / executive summary
• Summary of relevant payments / fintech leadership achievements
• Regulatory leadership experience overview
• Professional references (upon request)