Customer Care and Payment Operations Manager

About Tensec

Tensec is Vertical AI for cross-border trade. Trade is two flows, money and goods, and the trading companies that move them: freight forwarders, shipping lines, customs brokers, 4PLs — still run both on systems built for large corporations and a lot of manual work. Tensec is the agentic AI layer those companies use to move both flows for their importer and exporter clients: FX and payments today, quoting and booking next, trade finance to follow. Cross-border B2B is a $50 trillion market. We're building the version all global trading companies choose to use.

We started in the US, Mexico, and Brazil and are expanding globally, onboarding enterprise trading companies whose trade flows run to billions of dollars a year across every major corridor. Founded in 2023 by a team that has built and exited startups and run global teams at Meta, PayPal, Credit Karma, Goldman Sachs, Visa, Mastercard, and American Express. Tensec is backed by world-class investors such as Quiet Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Costanoa Ventures, Renegade Partners, Clocktower, and WillowTree.

Your mission

Run customer care and day-to-day FX and cross-border payment operations for Tensec's Brazil business. You lead a small team that answers clients, and you own the bank relationships that settle their money. When a payment breaks, you find out why, fix it, and tell the client what happens next.

Outcomes — your first 12–18 months

Customer care runs on Zendesk. Workflows, macros, support tiers (N1/N2), escalation matrix, knowledge base, reporting and templates are live in Portuguese and English. You own it, from configuration to daily management.

Payment exceptions get resolved. Exceptions and settlement breaks are worked to closure, with clear client updates throughout. Recurring problems get fixed at the root cause, not answered again.

The team runs to written standards. You set the operating model, governance, and service, communication and accountability standards, and measure them with metrics such as SLA, AHT (TMA), FCR and CSAT/NPS.

Bank partners are held to SLAs. Partners know what Tensec expects. Settlement exceptions go back to them in writing, with the facts.

Compliance inputs arrive accurate and on time. You own the operational data for Brazil regulatory reporting and deliver it with Compliance and the banks.

What you'll do

Customer care and CX

• Own end-to-end support for our B2B commercial FX and cross-border payment clients: freight forwarders, shipping lines, customs brokers and 4PLs, and the importers and exporters they serve.

• Run omnichannel support (email, WhatsApp, phone) in Portuguese and English.

• Take the escalations that reach you and investigate in the systems yourself. Don't wait for a report.

• Use voice of the customer (VoC) and operational data to continuously improve customer experience management and the customer journey.

• Lead and develop the team through feedback, coaching and quality monitoring.

FX operations and banking relationships

• Run day-to-day banking partner management in Brazil: account operations, PIX/SPI and TED settlement, and the FX operational cycle (registration, confirmation, reconciliation and settlement).

• Investigate payment and settlement exceptions, coordinate resolution, and hold banking partners accountable with the facts.

• Apply Banco Central do Brasil FX purpose classification codes (Resolução BCB 277/2022, the Novo Marco Cambial) and the processing requirements for each.

• Coordinate operational inputs for regulatory reporting with Compliance (AML/PLD-FT) and banking partners.

• Make the operational call on what Tensec can and can't commit to. Bring Compliance in when it matters.

Processes, automation and AI

• Write and maintain the SOPs for customer support and payment operations.

• Find the automation worth building, including AI agents in support, and cut the manual work it replaces.

• Keep Brazil and global stakeholders informed and surface issues early. Send recommendations and the decisions you need, not status for its own sake.

As the business grows and you demonstrate results, there is an opportunity to take on broader responsibility across customer care, communication and operations in Brazil.

What you bring

• 7+ years in financial operations, banking operations, or customer support within FX, cross-border payments or fintech.

• 2+ years managing people, staying hands-on while you do it.

• Direct experience running a support function, including escalations and process change.

• Working knowledge of commercial FX (câmbio comercial), Banco Central do Brasil FX classification, and Brazil's operational reporting obligations.

• Hands-on experience with settlement and bank reconciliation (PIX/SPI, TED, SWIFT).

• Fluent Portuguese and fluent, professional English, written and spoken.

How you work

• You challenge a banking partner when service falls short, with the facts.

• You explain complex issues simply, set realistic expectations, and tell a client no when the answer is no.

• You learn tools fast, work in them yourself (including building reports), and describe problems clearly to engineers.

• You follow an issue to resolution and fix the root cause, not just the ticket.

• You have the context and autonomy to decide, know when to bring others in, and develop the people who report to you.

• This role is hybrid. You’ll be in the office three days a week.

Nice to have

• Hands-on Zendesk implementation or administration (or similar: Salesforce Service Cloud, Freshdesk, Intercom).

• Experience at an FX brokerage (corretora de câmbio), FX bank, or cross-border payments fintech.

• Experience serving foreign trade (comex) or logistics clients.

Compensation & benefits

• Competitive base salary

• Vale-refeição/alimentação (meal/food voucher)

• Plano de saúde (health insurance)

• Paid time off and local statutory holidays

• Learning and development budget

  This role is hybrid. You’ll be in the office three days a week