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Thunes is a global payments network enabling real-time money movement across 140+ countries and 90+ currencies. The company connects directly to over 12 billion mobile wallets, stablecoin wallets, and bank accounts, plus 15 billion cards via 220+ payment methods. Thunes serves major clients including Uber, Deliveroo, Grab, WeChat, and leading fintechs and financial institutions.
The Operations Subject Matter Expert (SME) will serve as the specialist layer between Thunes' Global Support team and in-country White Glove resources, based in Riyadh. This role focuses on resolving complex operational cases and escalations while systematically building capability across the wider support organization—success means making the team increasingly independent, not creating dependency on the SME.
Key responsibilities include:
**Operational Expertise & Escalations**: Act as the subject matter expert for complex operational cases and escalations. Support L1 and White Glove teams with issues requiring deeper operational or local-market expertise. Coordinate with Network, Compliance, Product, Engineering, and other internal teams to drive resolution. Provide clear operational guidance during high-impact customer escalations.
**Local Market & Language Expertise**: Develop deep knowledge of Saudi payment methods, partners, operating practices, and customer requirements. Provide Arabic and English language support. Bring local context to issues that cannot be managed through standard global processes. Translate market-specific knowledge into practical guidance for the wider support organization.
**White Glove Support**: Work closely with in-country White Glove resources supporting strategic customers. Provide specialist operational expertise while White Glove resources retain customer ownership. Support complex investigations and escalations without becoming the primary processor of standard inquiries. Help identify and remove recurring reasons customers need to contact Thunes.
**Knowledge & Capability Building**: Convert complex cases and lessons learned into SOPs, troubleshooting guides, and reusable knowledge. Coach and upskill the Global Support team on recurring issues. Identify cases that can progressively be shifted back to L1 through better knowledge, processes, or tooling. Ensure market knowledge is institutionalized rather than dependent on individual employees.
**Continuous Improvement**: Analyze recurring escalations and identify underlying operational gaps. Recommend improvements across processes, tooling, automation, and customer education. Work with relevant teams to address root causes. Contribute to building a repeatable SME model for other strategic markets as Thunes scales.
**Requirements:**
- 5+ years' experience in payments, fintech, banking operations, customer operations, or technical support
- Demonstrated ability to investigate and resolve complex operational issues
- Strong root-cause analysis and problem-solving skills
- Experience managing complex customer or operational escalations
- Experience working with enterprise customers (preferred)
- Strong written and verbal communication skills in Arabic and English (required)
- Experience within Saudi Arabia or strong knowledge of the Saudi payments ecosystem (highly desirable)
- Ability to work across Customer Experience, Network, Compliance, Product, Engineering, and commercial teams
- Strong customer orientation while maintaining operational discipline and scalable processes
- Comfortable operating in a global, distributed, and fast-moving environment
