Lead, Merchant & Redemption Operations

Lead, Merchant & Redemption Operations

Role Purpose

The Lead, Merchant & Redemption Operations owns both sides of Bvndle's redemption loop — the places customers spend and the reasons they spend — as one integrated motion. This is a newly merged role, bringing together merchant network growth and redemption/demand-side scaling under a single point of accountability, and reporting into the Lead, Sales Partnership & Redemption.

The Lead translates the Merchant & Redemption vertical's H2 2026 Board strategy into a managed operating rhythm — scaling monthly redemptions toward 40M+ BC, growing the merchant network to 1,000 priority-category locations, and governing the funding, risk and reporting that keep both engines paced together.

Strategic Context

Bvndle's Merchant & Redemption team is executing a paced H2 2026 ramp (Aug–Dec): redemption scaling from 10M to 45M+ BC/month, a merchant network growing from 78 to 1,000 priority-category locations, and a unified Bvndle card issued to every user. The programme is funded by a 1% coin-funding carve-out of merchant trade discount plus ~₦50M in experiential activation governed against redemption-lift KPIs and reported to the Board quarterly.

Key Responsibilities

1. Redemption & Demand Engine Leadership

• Own the monthly redemption ramp (10M → 45M+ BC, Aug–Dec 2026) against the 40M/month success bar, coordinating market surfacing, the Xtra Coins conversion mechanic and habit-building programmes.
• Drive universal Bvndle card issuance and its conversion into habitual, card-based payment (100% issuance, 60% monthly card-active).
• Ensure every redemption ladders up to the company's Habitual Redeemer standard (3+ redemptions in 90 days) and the vertical's share of the 10M company-wide target.

2. Merchant Network & Supply Engine Leadership

• Own the build-out to 1,000 priority-category merchant locations across all 7 categories, sequencing anchor-brand sign-on (e.g. TotalEnergies, Ardova, Rainoil, Chicken Republic, SLOT, MedPlus/HealthPlus, Addide/Justrite/SPAR) alongside independent and regional fill-in.
• Direct merchant enablement — signage, staff scripts and incentive design — so every outlet actively prompts redemption.
• Correct category concentration in the network (today's retail-heavy base) by directing acquisition effort toward under-represented categories.

3. Financial Governance & Funding

• Own the 1% coin-funding model as a carve-out of merchant trade discount, keeping funding paced to actual implied GTV rather than added cost.
• Run weekly funding-vs-redemption reconciliation and escalate variances early.

4. Risk Management & Governance

• Actively govern the three HIGH risks from day one: redemption liability outpacing merchant capacity; coin funding exceeding a merchant's trade-discount margin; and message dilution on “no extra cost.”
• Track experiential activation ROI against contracted redemption-lift KPIs (not reach), including the Q3 break-clause review.
• Maintain legal-reviewed messaging and standardised staff scripts at every point of sale.

5. Team Leadership & Cadence

• Manage and develop the Merchant Acquisition & Redemption Executive(s), setting and reviewing their onboarding, activation and reporting targets.
• Run the fixed review rhythm: weekly funding/redemption reconciliation, monthly ramp-vs-actuals and network-build review, quarterly Board review.
• Represent the Merchant & Redemption vertical in quarterly Board reporting and KPI checks.

Requirements

Qualifications & Experience

• 5–8+ years in merchant partnerships, trade/channel sales, retail operations, or loyalty/payments commercial roles, including at least 2 years leading a team.
• A track record of owning a revenue- or volume-linked target end-to-end (e.g. GMV, redemptions, network growth) with budget or P&L exposure.
• Experience managing multi-workstream programmes against a fixed reporting cadence (weekly/monthly/quarterly).
• Comfortable owning financial governance (funding models, budget reconciliation) alongside commercial delivery.
• Prior experience in fintech, loyalty, retail, QSR, fuel-retail or fast-growing consumer platforms in Nigeria is an advantage.

Skills & Competencies

• Strategic execution — turns a Board-level strategy into a managed, measurable operating rhythm.
• Commercial and financial acumen — comfortable with funding models, unit economics and budget governance.
• Risk governance — identifies, escalates and mitigates commercial risk before it compounds.
• Cross-functional and people leadership — aligns Finance, Legal, Marketing, Product and field teams around one loop.
• Stakeholder management — credible reporting to senior leadership and the Board.
• Data-driven decision-making — reads redemption, GTV and network data to re-pace the ramp in real time.

Working Relationships

• Reports to: Lead, Sales Partnership & Redemption.
• Manages: Merchant Acquisition & Redemption Executive(s).
• Partners with: Finance (funding governance), Legal & Compliance (messaging and T&Cs), Marketing (market surfacing and the experiential activation agency), Product & Engineering (card issuance, in-app conversion calculator), and the Board (quarterly reporting).