Operations Lead

Clera

• $180K — $220K *
Finance & Insurance
Less than 5 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 3+ years in product/process roles in banks, fintechs, or payment companies with regulated services experience.
  • Proven history of deployment with production automations in live settings, not just prototypes.
  • Hands-on experience with queue management and operational tasks.
  • Proficiency in designing comprehensive operational domains including SOPs and KPIs.
  • Strong inclination towards automation and efficiency, prioritizing systems over expanding headcount.
  • Familiarity with collaborating on operational tooling with engineering and product teams.
  • Comfort working in regulated financial service environments, with additional insight into compliance and risk.
  • Experience with AI agents or automation systems is a plus.

Responsibilities

  • Assess current processes by actively participating in operations during initial months.
  • Implement and validate automation initiatives within the first quarter.
  • Expand agent roles while minimizing human intervention for low-risk tasks.
  • Define and create operational specifications in collaboration with engineering and product.
  • Establish and refine escalation paths and operational procedures as needed.
  • Focus on improving volume efficiency while managing flat headcount.
  • Continuously measure and analyze operational success through defined metrics.

Benefits

  • Visa sponsorship is available for qualified candidates.
Full Job Description
About the Role

This is an end-to-end ownership role for one of three core operational domains: customer operations, payment operations, or fincrime operations. You report directly to the COO and are trusted with full decision-making authority from day one, running your domain like a product team inside a modern, API-first banking platform built for global fintechs and digital asset companies.
What You'll Do
  • Sit in the queue yourself during your first couple of months to map exactly where processes break and define the KPIs that prove the system works.
  • Ship the first wave of automations by months 3 and 4, validating the operating model on a live cohort and driving measurable volume increases.
  • Scale agents across your domain by months 5 and 6, leaving humans only the highest-risk decisions while the long tail runs hands-off.
  • Spec agents and shape tooling directly alongside Engineering and Product rather than filing tickets at them.
  • Own escalation paths, SOPs, and metrics, drafting and rewriting them as the system evolves.
  • Measure success by volume multiplying while headcount stays flat, not by team size.
What We're Looking For
  • 3 or more years building products or processes at a bank, fintech, payments, or crypto company, or equivalent tier-1 consulting experience with regulated financial services exposure.
  • Production automations or agents already running in live environments, not just proofs of concept.
  • Hands-on experience doing the operational work yourself, including queue management, case handling, or transaction processing.
  • Experience designing end-to-end operational domains: process design, SOP creation, KPI definition, and tooling selection.
  • Instinct to automate first and build systems smaller rather than add headcount.
  • Experience working directly with engineering and product teams to spec and build operational tooling.
  • Comfort in regulated financial services environments such as banking, payments, or fintech operations.
  • Experience with compliance, risk, or fincrime workflows is a strong plus.
  • Familiarity with AI agents, LLMs, or intelligent automation systems is a strong plus.
  • Based in New York or willing to relocate.
Compensation & Benefits

Base salary: $180,000 to $220,000 USD annually. Visa sponsorship is available.
Location

On-site in New York, NY, USA.

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