About Paystack

Paystack’s mission is to accelerate digital payments on the continent of Africa. Over 200,000 of some of the most renowned businesses in Nigeria, as well as a growing number of merchants in South Africa, Ghana, and Kenya use Paystack’s modern payments gateway. They include the likes of MTN, Burger King, UPS, AXA Mansard Insurance, FairMoney, PiggyVest, FilmHouse Cinemas, Smile Communications, Air Peace Airlines, Crocs, Under Armour, Richemont Lifestyle Group (RLG), and many others.

In just over 10 years, our growing team has introduced a steady cadence of innovation within the online payments landscape, such as automated recurring payments, the ability for customers to pay directly from their bank accounts, automated chargebacks, and much more. 

We’re obsessed about building the best place to work on the continent while accelerating digital commerce across Africa and we need your help!

About the role

As a senior full-stack engineer, you take responsibility for delivering and supporting robust back-end and front-end applications that exposes our data and functionality to internal and external users.

Applications handling financial information need to be able to handle large data sets in a performant manner, while being highly accurate and reliable.

You’ll work with a team of talented engineers to design and build systems that support some of South Africa’s best known brands.

What we expect of you:

• Architect and Develop: Design and implement robust solutions for our platform, ensuring scalability, efficiency, and reliability.
• Product Innovation: Design and development of technical solutions to deliver on our product vision.
• Technical Problem Solving: Tackle complex technical challenges, providing innovative solutions to enhance system performance and reliability.
• System Integration: Collaborate on the refinement of the platform’s architecture, focusing on optimization and seamless integration to other systems.
• Code Review and Testing: Review specifications and code submissions and conduct thorough testing to maintain code quality.
• System support: Collaborate with other teams, both inside and outside engineering, to assist merchants and customers where necessary.

What you are good at:

• You have extensive programming experience in at least one language such as Javascript, Typescript, Java, C++, C#, Python or another major language
• Working on large, distributed systems at scale
• Understanding and working with SQL databases
• Writing solid unit testing and integration tests
• You communicate clearly and are able to collaborate in a remote environment
• Taking ownership of work assigned to you
• You have a passion for building products to help African businesses

Technology stack:

Our technology stack includes the following:

• Typescript and Javascript
• Node.js
• Frameworks: Express.js, Sails.js and Nest.js
• Frontend frameworks: React, Angular and Vue
• Redis
• MySQL and MongoDB
• Docker
• Kubernetes
• AWS

Application Instructions - Read carefully!

1. To apply, click the "Apply for this job" button

2. Complete all the required questions

3. This role is only open to candidates based in Cape Town, South Africa

Questions? Please contact careers@paystack.com.

Technical Financial Crime Manager

About Paystack

Over the past nine years, Paystack has established itself as a pioneer in African fintech with a mission to help merchants get paid by anyone, anywhere in the world. Processing over $300 million in monthly transactions, our modern payments infrastructure supports tens of thousands of notable corporations, including MTN, Bolt, and Domino’s Pizza.

As we enter a phase of accelerated growth, we are seeking a Technical Financial Crime Manager to own, design, and scale our fraud and AML detection capabilities. This role sits at the intersection of data, engineering, and financial crime operations, with end-to-end accountability for ensuring our monitoring systems are technically robust, domain-accurate, and scalable across multiple markets.

This is a hands-on technical leadership role. You will define detection logic, guide system design, and directly influence how financial crime risk is identified and managed at Paystack, while also leading and developing high-performing fraud and AML teams.

What You’ll Do

As the Technical Financial Crime Manager, you will run the day-to-day fraud and AML detection stack; from data and rules to operational outcomes. You will combine deep technical expertise with financial crime domain knowledge to design effective monitoring systems, manage domain specialists, and ensure Paystack remains a safe, trusted payments platform.

You will be accountable for:

• The technical quality and effectiveness of fraud & AML monitoring logic
• The operating model and performance of Financial Crime Monitoring teams

Translating risk, regulatory, and business requirements into scalable detection systems

Key Responsibilities

Technical Ownership of Detection & Monitoring

• Define, build, test, and optimise fraud and AML detection rules, scenarios, thresholds, and models used in production systems.
• Translate complex datasets and domain insights into actionable detection logic embedded in monitoring and alerting platforms.
• Establish feedback loops between investigation outcomes and detection logic to continuously improve signal quality.
• Measure and manage detection performance using quantitative metrics (precision, recall, false positives, alert-to-case conversion, loss metrics).

Maintain structured, auditable documentation of rules, logic, assumptions, and changes.

Data Analysis, Modelling & Insights

• Analyse large, complex transactional and behavioural datasets to identify emerging fraud and AML risks across markets.
• Design and implement statistical models, machine learning approaches, and/or time-series analysis to enhance detection capabilities.
• Build and own dashboards and reporting frameworks tracking KPIs, SLAs, alert quality, investigator productivity, and risk outcomes.

Conduct trend analysis, root cause analysis, and deep dives on losses, typologies, and control gaps.

Financial Crime Oversight

• Own the end-to-end fraud and AML detection domain, ensuring alignment between prevention, detection, investigation, and remediation.
• Apply deep understanding of fraud typologies, AML/CTF risks, sanctions, and regulatory expectations to detection design.
• Manage the Fraud and AML operational teams (specialists and first-line managers) to ensure adequate coverage, capability and day-to-day execution. 
• Translate regulatory, partner, and audit requirements into scalable technical and operational controls.
• Stay ahead of evolving financial crime patterns, market-specific risks, and regulatory developments across Paystack’s footprint.

Tooling, Automation & Scale

• Partner with Product and Engineering to embed detection logic into core systems and improve monitoring, alerting, and case management tooling.
• Drive automation initiatives to reduce manual effort, improve consistency, and enable scale without compromising control quality.
• Identify and prioritise enhancements to monitoring platforms, workflows, and data pipelines.
• Ensure fraud and AML tooling evolves in line with transaction growth, new products, and new markets.

Operational Excellence

• Build and continuously improve operational processes, SLAs, KPIs, and quality frameworks across Fraud and AML teams.
• Use data and metrics to manage performance, capacity, and outcomes, ensuring teams operate efficiently and effectively.
• Identify gaps, risks, and inefficiencies, leading initiatives to strengthen controls and scale operations sustainably.
• Balance speed, quality, regulatory expectations, and customer experience in day-to-day decision-making.

Cross-Functional & Executive Collaboration

• Work closely with Product, Engineering, Data, Risk, Compliance, Legal, and Customer Operations. 
• Influence roadmap priorities related to fraud, AML, and financial crime tooling.
• Provide clear updates to senior stakeholders on operational performance, risks, and emerging issues

Support audits, partner reviews, and regulatory engagements as a subject matter expert.

Who We’re Looking For

Required 

• 7+ years in financial crime roles in payments, fintech, banking, or financial services.
• Strong technical expertise in data analysis, including advanced SQL and experience working with large, complex datasets.
• Expert Python skills, including experience with libraries such as pandas, NumPy, scikit-learn, statsmodels, and/or model pipelines.
• Proven experience designing, building, and tuning risk detection systems (fraud, AML, or similar).
• Solid understanding of statistical modelling, machine learning, and/or time-series forecasting, with experience deploying models into production or operational workflows.
• Ability to translate data insights into operational detection logic used by investigators and automated systems.
• Experience measuring and optimising detection performance using quantitative metrics.

Strong systems thinking: able to design scalable, maintainable monitoring frameworks rather than one-off rules.

• Deep understanding of financial crime typologies, fraud patterns, AML/CTF requirements, and regulatory obligations.
• Experience operating within fraud, AML, risk, or compliance functions in payments, fintech, or financial services.
• Proven experience leading and developing teams, including setting direction, coaching, and performance management.
• Ability to balance technical depth with practical operational decision-making.
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to explain complex technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders.

High ownership mindset and comfort operating in ambiguous, high-growth environments.

Preferred

• Experience with dbt and modern analytics stacks.
• Experience with version control systems (GitHub).
• Experience with AI-assisted tooling or advanced analytics platforms.
• Familiarity with monitoring platforms, alerting systems, transaction screening, and case management tools.
• Experience working with OLTP (MySQL/PostgreSQL/SQL Server), OLAP (Redshift/BigQuery/Snowflake), and NoSQL (MongoDB) databases.
• Industry certifications such as ACAMS, ICA, CFE, CFCS, or similar.

Why This Role Matters

This role is foundational to Paystack’s ability to scale safely. You will define how financial crime detection works at Paystack, combining strong technical systems with sound domain judgment. Success in this role directly protects customers, merchants, partners, and the broader financial ecosystem while enabling Paystack’s continued growth across Africa and beyond.

This role is open to candidates based in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, or South Africa

About Paystack

Paystack helps businesses in Africa get paid by anyone, from anywhere in the world. Thousands of businesses, from fast‑growing startups to large enterprises, use Paystack to power payments, including Xero, Qatar Airways and many more.

Founded in Nigeria and now active across multiple African markets, Paystack is backed by Stripe and is building the payments infrastructure that will power growth across the continent. In South Africa, we work with ambitious businesses across e‑commerce, fintech, retail, logistics, and digital services.

About the Role

The Business Development Lead will own Paystack’s Business Development and Account Management function in South Africa, with a primary focus on driving enterprise growth.

This is a senior leadership role. You will be the specialised subject matter expert for enterprise revenue in South Africa. 

You will set the commercial strategy, build and lead a high‑performing team, and personally guide our most strategic opportunities and customer relationships. You will navigate complex, multi‑stakeholder sales cycles, translate Paystack’s evolving strategy into clear priorities for your function, and ensure that South African enterprises see Paystack as a trusted advisor, not just a vendor.

What You’ll Be Responsible For

• Lead the SA BD & Account Management function
  Define the strategy, operating model, and targets for winning, growing, and retaining South Africa’s most important customers. Translate company strategy into clear, actionable priorities and metrics for your team.
  
  
• Build and lead a high‑performing team
  Hire, develop, and manage BD and Account Management managers and their teams. Set expectations, coach through complex deals, and create a culture of ownership, collaboration, and continuous learning.
  
  
• Own enterprise pipeline and forecast
  Devise annual plans with clear segment, territory, and vertical focus. Maintain an accurate pipeline and forecast multiple quarters ahead, consistently hitting targets and earning trusted‑advisor status with customers and leadership.
• Guide complex deal and account strategy
  Support managers on high‑stakes opportunities: multi‑product, multi‑stakeholder, and multi‑year deals. Help teams manage the sales cycle artfully, understanding which levers to pull to move deals forward while protecting Paystack’s long‑term interests.
  
  
• Drive executive‑level customer engagement
  Build and maintain relationships with C‑level executives (CFO, CTO, COO, CEO) at key accounts. Understand their business drivers deeply, shape mutually beneficial deal structures, and ensure Paystack is seen as a strategic partner.
  
  
• Champion product & technical excellence in the field
  Maintain strong product and technical fluency (APIs, integrations, payments architecture) and ensure your team does the same. Use this knowledge to articulate customer requirements internally and to co‑create solutions with Product and Engineering.
  
  
• Lead cross‑functional execution
  Frequently lead cross‑functional groups (Product, Engineering, Risk, Support, Legal, Finance) through difficult decisions and trade‑offs to unlock customer value, while upholding Paystack’s risk and compliance standards.
  
  
• Model Paystack’s mission and values
  Use Paystack’s goals and values to guide decisions and communicate the “why” behind them. Help your org do the same, and motivate teams to deliver against our mission to accelerate commerce across Africa.

Core Competencies for Success in this Role

The ideal candidate consistently demonstrates the following:

• Scope & Impact: Acts as the accountable leader for enterprise revenue in South Africa; decisions on business‑critical commercial matters are trusted and often final. Influences strategy and execution across multiple teams and leads other managers to deliver outcomes.
• Decision Making: Owns complex team and cross‑functional dynamics, makes clear calls in ambiguous situations, and stands behind those decisions while incorporating feedback.
• Communication & Collaboration: Communicates complex and evolving company strategy simply and persuasively. Aligns teams around priorities and frequently leads cross‑functional groups through challenging problems.
• Managerial Skills: Leads complex, multi‑disciplinary teams and managers. Invests meaningfully in coaching, performance management, and succession planning.
• Pipeline Management: Plans and executes over a full fiscal year, with robust account and territory plans and reasonably accurate forecasts several quarters ahead. Hits targets consistently.
• Product Knowledge & Technical Competence: Understands the business and technical drivers of customer requirements, engages credibly at senior levels, and reliably finds win‑win deal opportunities for customers and Paystack.
• Sales Process Execution: Manages and reviews the sales process end‑to‑end, combining strong process discipline with an intuitive grasp of the levers that move deals. Shares knowledge proactively and is regarded internally as a subject matter expert.

What We’re Looking For

• 10+ years in enterprise business development, sales, or strategic account management, with at least 4+ years leading managers and teams in high‑growth B2B environments (fintech, payments, SaaS, or financial services strongly preferred).
• Proven track record of owning a regional or segment P&L or revenue target and consistently meeting or exceeding aggressive goals.
• Demonstrated success leading complex, multi‑stakeholder enterprise deals and account strategies in South Africa; comfortable operating at C‑suite level.
• Strong understanding of South Africa’s payments and digital commerce landscape, or the ability to ramp quickly on local market dynamics, regulation, and competitive environment.
• High technical and product fluency - able to understand APIs, integrations, and payments architecture, and to translate between business and technical stakeholders.
• Evidence of building scalable sales systems: territory design, quota setting, forecasting, CRM discipline, and sales playbooks.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to frame trade‑offs and decisions clearly for both internal and external audiences.
• Deep alignment with Paystack’s mission and values, and a track record of leading teams in a way that reflects those values in day‑to‑day decisions.

Nice to Have

• Direct experience with payment gateways, merchant acquiring, or developer‑focused fintech products.
• Existing senior‑level relationships across South African enterprises in Paystack‑relevant verticals.
• Familiarity with modern sales methodologies (e.g., MEDDIC, Challenger) and revenue operations best practices.

Why Join Paystack?

• High impact: You will shape the strategy, team, and playbook that defines how Paystack wins the South African enterprise market.
• Leadership scope: Lead managers and teams across BD and Account Management, with significant influence on product and go‑to‑market decisions.
• Strong backing: Operate with the agility of a growth‑stage African fintech and the resources and network of Stripe.
• Growth and learning: Work alongside top‑tier colleagues across Africa and globally, with meaningful opportunities for regional and global leadership.
• Competitive total rewards: Market‑leading base compensation, performance‑based variable pay, equity, and comprehensive benefits.