Head of Banking Partnerships & Operations

At Cleo, we're not just building another fintech app. We're embarking on a mission to fundamentally change humanity's relationship with money. Imagine a world where everyone, regardless of background or income, has access to a hyper-intelligent financial advisor in their pocket. That's the future we're creating.

Cleo is a rare success story: a profitable, fast-growing unicorn with over $200 million in ARR and growing over 2x year-over-year. This isn't just a job; it's a chance to join a team of brilliant, driven individuals who are passionate about making a real difference. We have an exceptionally high bar for talent, seeking individuals who are not only at the top of their field but also embody our culture of collaboration and positive impact.

If you’re driven by complex challenges that push your expertise, the chance to shape something truly transformative, and the potential to share in Cleo’s success as we scale, while growing alongside a company that’s scaling fast, this might be your perfect fit.

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About the role

As the Head of Banking Partnerships and Operations (12 month FTC), you will be a crucial part of the team scaling Cleo. Your focus will be on operationalising our card, direct deposit, and savings programs, and all future banking-related products, working closely with external partners, as well as product, engineering and customer support teams. 

This is a maternity cover and Fixed Term Contract for 12 months, reporting into the CFO.

What you will be doing

• Leading: You will be responsible for leading the team and 4 direct reports that support all the banking partners and their operations, including but not limited to, banking partner & processing relationship management, complaints, disputes, audits and more. 
• Credit Card and Banking Operational Excellence: You will oversee all of the normal operations behind banking products - audits, testing, quality assurance - working to elevate the visibility, performance, and importance of banking operations across the company and strengthening cross-functional relationships with product, engineering and more. You will serve as a central hub of resource and knowledge around banking operations and responsible for securing resources to enable operations and product teams. 
• Partnerships: You will oversee the management of all the relationships with our external banking partners to serve complex financial products, overseeing the day-to-day management of tasks, issue escalation and fraud/compliance oversight.
• Product Operations:  You are the glue between product and Cleo’s external banking partners, not only will you ensure a seamless flow of information and delivery, you will also build processes to better enable collaboration between the two. You will oversee and help build out processes and success measures, and execute on initiatives to operationalize Cleo’s banking operations, improve our systems and hit OKRs.
• Customer Experience Operations: You will oversee the handling of traditional credit operations including disputes, complaint management, credit reporting and other user-impacting issues to enhance the customer journey, working to streamline resolution processes, reduce friction, and use insights to improve service and product quality. Financial Operations: You will lead the Head of Financial Operations, overseeing payment flows, troubleshooting, and reconciliation to ensure accuracy and efficiency. Ensuring focus on optimising financial operations and improving payment processes.

About you 

• You have worked in partnerships, operations or with third party banking providers 
• You have worked within a financial technology company and/or have experience in the financial technology sector, 8+ years experience 
• You have led teams of 5+ people, and have experience managing across a horizontal business, and experience in leadership functions 
• You have participated in a senior leadership function, helping drive strategy and making clear business decisions
• You can demonstrate a sharp analytical mind, and the ability to identify root-cause issues
• You have the ability to distill complex issues into structured frameworks and action plans, and communicate them clearly across company disciplines
• You’re good at working from 0-1 on problems and can share examples of teams or operational processes and systems that you have led from idea to execution. 

Nice to haves

• You have worked in consumer lending, in cards before, and know how to operate at a fast pace with care
• You have worked at a VC-backed startup before, and seen hyper-growth in action
• You have worked in financial services or other similarly regulated industry
• You have managed sensitive commercial relationships with external vendors successfully, and can give examples of where you made a tangible business or customer impact through your relationships with these vendors.
• You have experience improving processes and efficiency for customer-facing teams 

What do you get for all your hard work?

• A competitive compensation package (base + equity) with bi-annual reviews, aligned to our quarterly OKR planning cycles. You can view our public progression framework and salary bandings here: https://cleo-ai.progressionapp.com/. 
• Work at one of the fastest-growing tech startups, backed by top VC firms, Balderton & EQT Ventures
• A clear progression plan. We want you to keep growing. That means trying new things, leading others, challenging the status quo and owning your impact. Always with our complete support. 
• Flexibility. We can’t fight for the world’s financial health if we’re not healthy ourselves. We work with everyone to make sure they have the balance they need to do their best work
• Work where you work best. We’re a globally distributed team. If you live in London we have a hybrid approach, we’d love you to spend one day a week or more in our beautiful office. If you’re outside of London, we’ll encourage you to spend a couple of days with us a few times per year. And we’ll cover your travel costs, naturally.
• Other benefits:
  • Company-wide performance reviews every 6 months
  • Generous pay increases for high-performing team members
  • Equity top-ups for team members getting promoted
  • 25 days annual leave a year + public holidays (+ an additional day for every year you spend at Cleo, up to 30 days)
  • 6% employer-matched pension in the UK
  • Private Medical Insurance via Vitality, dental cover, and life assurance
  • Enhanced parental leave
  • 1 month paid sabbatical after 4 years at Cleo
  • Regular socials and activities, online and in-person
  • We'll pay for your OpenAI subscription
  • Online mental health support via Spill
  • Workplace Nursery Scheme
  • And many more!

We strongly encourage applications from people of colour, the LGBTQ+ community, people with disabilities, neurodivergent people, parents, carers, and people from lower socio-economic backgrounds.

If there’s anything we can do to accommodate your specific situation, please let us know.

UK App access: The Cleo app is no longer downloadable in the UK (but only until next year). If you’re an existing user, you’ll still have access to the app. But some features won’t be available (just for a little while). Why? 99% of our users are based 

in the US – where financial health is often overlooked. We’ve decided to shift our focus to where we can provide the most value and make the greatest impact for users who need it most. Then we’ll be able to apply what we learn to better support our UK users in the future.