Group Chief Information Officer - Fintech

One of the leading South African fintech and payments solutions companies specialising in payment collections, payroll processing, financial transaction management, and data-driven automation services is recruiting for a group CIO

The Chief Information Officer (CIO) is responsible for defining and executing the technology strategy that enables secure, scalable, and compliant payment services within the South African fintech ecosystem. The role ensures that technology platforms support rapid innovation while maintaining resilience, regulatory compliance, and operational excellence.

The CIO will lead the design and delivery of payment infrastructure, digital platforms, and data capabilities that enable real-time, API-driven financial services across merchants, banks, and digital ecosystems.  The CIO will the responsibilities of the enterprise technology strategy, regulatory technology compliance, vendor and cloud economics, enterprise data and AI strategy, and risk, security, and resilience for the company.

The role requires deep understanding of the South African National Payment System (NPS), payment rails, and regulatory frameworks overseen by the South African Reserve Bank and PayInc. These bodies regulate clearing, settlement, and participation in the payment ecosystem to ensure the safety and stability of the financial system. 

• Technology Strategy & Architecture
  
• Define and execute the company’s technology vision
  
• Architect scalable payment platforms supporting current platforms including: real-time payments, digital wallets, digital customer and merchant onboarding, embedded finance, open banking APIs, agentic payments and biometrics and digital identity
  
• Ensure technology architecture supports high availability, real-time processing, and horizontal scalability.
  
• Lead adoption of modern technologies including cloud-native infrastructure, microservices architecture, event-driven systems, API-first design, Mobile applications design and development and Artificial Intelligence
  

• Scalable payment processing platform
  
• Secure real-time payments infrastructure
  
• API-enabled partner ecosystem
  
• Resilient cloud infrastructure
  
• Regulatory compliant technology stack
  
• Industry-leading fraud and identity capabilities
  

Own the design and delivery of payment capabilities across multiple rails including Instant payments, Card processing, EFT and debit orders, Voucher rewards and payments, QR and mobile payments, Crypto currencies, Digital identity and authentication Cross-border payment infrastructure

Ensure platforms integrate with national payment and wider payments ecosystem where appropriate to support the company Strategy. South Africa’s payment ecosystem includes multiple payment streams managed within the National Payment System and settled through the central bank infrastructure. 

National Payment System Act and Authorisation Framework, SARB Prudential Authority operational resilience expectations, Financial crime legislation (FIC Act) and Data protection regulations (POPIA)

Implement enterprise cyber security frameworks

Accountable for meeting board-approved operational resilience tolerance levels for critical payment services

Ensure 24/7 availability of payment systems

Design business continuity and disaster recovery capabilities

Oversee fraud prevention and transaction monitoring platforms.

Oversee the development of an effective Risk Management Strategy     

Lead high-performing engineering teams responsible for payment processing platforms, customer and merchant APIs, mobile and digital applications, data platforms and analytics, cloud infrastructure and DevOps, cloud cost optimisation (FinOps), vendor concentration risk, contractual SLAs with banks, schemes, processors

Ensure best practices in CI/CD pipelines, platform observability, site reliability engineering (SRE), secure software development

Technology Financial Stewardship of Cloud spend optimisation and chargeback models, strategic vendor management and substitution planning and commercial support to procurement and legal teams

Develop the organisation’s data strategy including real-time payment analytics, fraud detection, credit and risk scoring, payment insights, data lineage and quality controls and AI governance forums.

Ensure data architectures support emerging payment standards such as ISO 20022, ISO 27001, ISO 9001, etc, which enables richer data exchange and interoperability across financial institutions.  

Represent the company in industry forums and working groups where applicable across banks, regulators, payment schemes and fintech industry bodies

Collaborate with regulators and innovation bodies shaping fintech policy and experimentation environments.