About Tala

Tala is a global technology company building the world’s most accessible financial services. With more than $350 million raised from visionary investors, we are serving millions of customers around the world who have been overlooked by traditional financial institutions – and our plan is to serve millions more, and have been named by the Fortune Impact 20 list, CNBC’s Disruptor 50, and Forbes’ Fintech 50 list for four years running. We are expanding across product offerings, countries and crypto and are looking for people who have an entrepreneurial spirit and are passionate about the mission.

By creating a unique platform that enables lending and other financial services around the globe, people in emerging markets are able to start and expand small businesses, manage day-to-day needs, and pursue their financial goals with confidence. Currently, more than 6 million people across Kenya, the Philippines, Mexico, and India have used Tala products. Due to our global team, we have a remote-first approach, and also have offices in Santa Monica, CA (HQ); Nairobi, Kenya; Mexico City, Mexico; Manila, the Philippines; and Bangalore, India. 

Most Talazens join us because they connect with our mission of enabling financial agency for underbanked people around the world. If you are energized by the impact you can make at Tala, we’d love to hear from you!

Tala is looking for a highly motivated Business Operations Manager to build and support OKRs and drive operational efficiency across our global offices through strategic communication and a problem solving attitude. Tala is a world leader in providing direct loans and financial services in emerging markets. We are a global team with diverse backgrounds who are singularly focused on using technology, data, and a customer-centric approach to meet the financial needs of the 3+ billion people of the emerging global middle class.

The Business Operations Manager will report to the SVP Operations and will be responsible for ensuring that teams are planning and delivering on the quarterly and annual objectives and hitting their key results. Sound decision making, broad understanding of multiple business functions, exceptional communication up, down and sideways and a high level of emotional intelligence are essential capabilities the person that fills this role must possess. 

OKR management

• Manage the OKR setting process on a quarterly and annual basis. Drive accountability for OKRs across teams 
• Ensure the OKR process cascades into the business groups and teams for them to develop their own OKRs
• Work closely with the finance team to drive OKR creation, as a follow-up of the annual operation planning of the company. 
• Keep a check on key metrics and identifying and implementing initiatives when they go of track

Building operational rhythm

• Establish an operating rhythm to ensure the organization is running effectively and efficiently on a day to day basis to meet objectives and key result
• Drive continuous improvement projects which lead to bottom line savings, top line impact, benefit to the stakeholders or project sponsors
• Leverage internal and external benchmarks to identify business process improvement initiatives. Develop a continuous improvement roadmap and create an operational strategy to drive cultural change towards measurable and meaningful quality and efficiency
• Identify operational inefficiencies in execution and provide analysis and recommendations (e.g. Risk Management or SMS cost reduction)
• Ensure operational excellence through adherence to designed processes and process audits
• Partner across the company to problem solve and drive effective decision making 
• Work with program team to scoping ambiguous problems into concrete projects

Strengthening Global and Local Execution

• Establish measure to assess effectiveness of local and global execution and drive continuous improvement in these areas
• Drive establishment and improvement, individually or collaboratively, to prioritized business processes to minimize complexities between global and local execution
• Partner with program teams to support large transformation and implementation projects cutting across regions and teams and ensure they are setup to achieve key OKRs of the company

Qualifications

• 5-7 years experience at a top-tier management consulting firm and/or experience in a Business Operations, Operations Strategy, or a cross-functional operational role at a technology company
• Experience with proven expertise in development of performance goals and long term operational plans, and monitoring and reporting of OKRs (or similar framework)
• Proven ability to plan and manage operational processes for maximum efficiency and productivity and ability to streamline and implement processes that create efficiency and support shifting business demands
• Exceptional organizational, communication and leadership skills demonstrated by previous professional successes
• Prior experience in working in companies with global business operations
• Practical experience working at start up pace with heavy virtual communications
• Proven ability to coach and mentor others in a replicable, scalable way
• Six Sigma Yellow Belt or higher is preferred. PMP certification nice to have
• Global travel may be required, once it is safe to do so

Our vision is to build a new financial ecosystem where everyone can participate on equal footing and access the tools they need to be financially healthy. We strongly believe that inclusion fosters innovation and we’re proud to have a diverse global team that represents a multitude of backgrounds, cultures, and experience. We hire talented people regardless of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.