RZ
◆ Executive resume

Rizwan Zafar, Product & Program Executive Scaling Fintech Infrastructure

Product LeadershipProgram LeadershipPaymentsFintech Infrastructure

Senior product and program leader who has scaled fintech, ecommerce and OTT infrastructure in complex markets: pay-in and payout rails, merchant onboarding, settlement, reconciliation, risk/AML controls, partner ecosystems, BNPL/subscription billing and AI-enabled operations.

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$1B+
Annual GTV
270M+
Payments a year
5
Frontier markets
99.95%
Settlement SLA
40+
Engineers led
4
Production AI deployments

Recruiter Search Fit

Built for senior hiring managers searching for product, program and payments leadership across regulated fintech, banks, payment networks and infrastructure platforms.

VP Product, PaymentsHead of Product, Fintech InfrastructureDirector Product, Payment PlatformsProduct Lead, Cross-Border PaymentsProgram Director, Fintech / PMOTechnical Program Manager, PaymentsDirector, Digital TransformationAI in Fintech Operations Lead
Proof case study

$1B+ regulated payment infrastructure

Multi-rail pay-in, payout, wallet, card acquiring, settlement and cross-border infrastructure across five frontier markets.

Proof case study

Merchant onboarding, KYC/KYB and risk controls

Activation cut from weeks to hours with risk-tiered onboarding, sanctions/PEP controls and auditable review flows.

Proof case study

Settlement and reconciliation at scale

Canonical ledger, three-way reconciliation and 99.95% settlement SLA across fragmented rails and partners.

Proof case study

Fraud, AML/CFT and operational risk

Payment risk controls, fraud loss below 0.1% of GTV and regulated operating cadence across complex markets.

Visa / Mastercard fitStripe / Adyen / Wise / Thunes fitBanks and regulated fintech fit

Executive Summary

Product & Program Executive with 17 years across payments, fintech, OTT, ecommerce operations and digital transformation.

Currently CPO at Simpaisa, where I helped scale regulated payment infrastructure to $1B+ GTV, 270M+ payments a year, working with leading global PSPs. My operating lane sits between product strategy, program delivery, compliance, risk, engineering leadership, partner ecosystems and market expansion, with adjacent work across BNPL, OTT subscription billing and crypto on/off-ramp product strategy.

Product Leadership

Payment infrastructure, pay-in/payout APIs, card acquiring, wallets, DCB, merchant onboarding, settlement, reconciliation, fraud controls, BNPL and cross-border corridors.

Program Leadership

PMO governance, multi-squad delivery, vendor management, SteerCo reporting, regulatory programs, PCI DSS, ISO 27001 and complex-market execution.

Platform Scale

Built product and operating systems across fintech, ecommerce and OTT: payment rails, subscription billing, partner ecosystems, risk controls and AI-enabled operations.

Priority Skills

Payment infrastructurePay-in & payout railsProduct strategyProgram governanceCross-border paymentsSettlement & reconciliationKYC/KYB automationBNPL & subscription billingCrypto on/off-ramp strategyFraud & AML/CFTBank/wallet partnershipsPCI DSS / ISO 27001AI in payment operationsVendor managementComplex-market execution
◆ Region coverage

MARKETS

UAEKSAQatarPakistanBangladeshSri LankaNepalMyanmarNigeriaIraqEgyptMENASouth Asia

Experience

Aug 2020 - Present
Dubai, UAE

Chief Product Officer (acting CTO, 2024) · Simpaisa

  • Owned product strategy and program execution for a regulated multi-rail payments platform spanning pay-in, payouts, wallets, DCB, IBFT, card acquiring, settlement, FX and cross-border corridors.
  • Helped scale infrastructure from $0 to $1B+ GTV and 270M+ payments a year, working with leading global PSPs across 5 frontier markets.
  • Built merchant onboarding, KYC/KYB, risk-tiering and category pricing flows that cut standard-risk activation from weeks to hours and supported 150+ merchant integrations.
  • Led a 40-engineer payments organization across 12 squads; managed $5M+ technology budget, 15+ vendor relationships, PCI DSS, ISO/IEC 27001 and multi-jurisdiction reporting programs.
  • Improved platform economics and control: 97% payment success at 90% straight-through processing, 99.95% settlement SLA, fraud loss below 0.1% of GTV and downtime down 90%.
  • Deployed four production AI/GenAI solutions across merchant support, incident auto-escalation, partner operations and fraud/AML decisioning.
Mar 2020 - Sep 2020
Karachi, Pakistan

Project Manager, Payments Operations · Daraz (Alibaba Group)

  • Ran payment operations governance across five markets during a COVID-driven volume surge, covering settlement cycles, disputes, fraud rules and COD-to-digital conversion.
  • Coordinated multi-country reconciliation, vendor management and Alipay localization with Alibaba teams; expanded payment coverage on checkout by ~40%.
Jul 2017 - May 2020
Karachi, Pakistan

Senior Project & Product Manager · Tapmad

  • Owned product strategy and program delivery for OTT monetization, subscription billing and payment rails, turning a high-cost billing model into a commercially viable product.
  • Launched direct carrier billing across all four major telcos and scaled acquisition from 0 to 5M paid subscribers in under three years.
  • Led wallet-billing migration that reduced payment cost from ~50% of revenue to ~1%, improved refund/subscription UX and supported MENA expansion.
Apr 2017 - Oct 2017
Dubai, UAE

PMO & Project Manager · Wing Logic

  • Built a PMO operating model for a $12M+ project portfolio, creating executive dashboards, KPI cadence and delivery governance for 50+ people.
  • Reduced project delays by 40% through clearer ownership, reporting rhythm and cross-workstream dependency control.
May 2016 - Jan 2017
Democratic Republic of the Congo

Assistant Manager, Projects · CIMKO (Nyumba Ya Akiba SA)

  • Delivered $8M+ in IT infrastructure and ERP projects in a high-complexity operating environment; reduced project delays by 12% and procurement costs by 15%.
Sep 2012 - Feb 2016
Karachi, Pakistan

Project Manager, PMO · DS Engineering Services

  • Managed governance and reporting across 400+ engineering projects and a $15M utilities/power infrastructure portfolio; improved delivery efficiency by 70%.
Jun 2009 - Aug 2012
Karachi, Pakistan

Senior Planning Engineer · Pakistan Engineering Services Co. (PESCO)

  • Built planning and monitoring systems for substation field operations, improving downtime visibility and reducing downtime by 6%.

Skills & Credentials

Payments Infrastructure

Pay-in / payout APIsCard acquiring (MPGS/MDES)Tokenization (DPAN/FPAN, 3DS2)Wallets, DCB, IBFTCross-border corridors & FXSettlement & reconciliationISO 8583 / ISO 20022 / SWIFTTreasury tooling

AI & Data

GenAI use-case identification & value modelingRAG architecture & LLM ops in productionAI-driven merchant support & integration botsAuto-escalation & log-analysis agentsAI fraud detection & AML decisioningAnalytics platforms · decline-code segmentation

Risk & Compliance

KYC / KYB automationAML / CFT controlsSanctions & PEP screeningFraud decisioning & chargebacksPCI DSSISO 27001Travel Rule & VARA / FATF alignment

Program & PMO

PMBOK-based stage gates for capital projectsAgile / Scrum / Kanban / hybrid frameworksRAID logs, SteerCo, board reportingOKRs, RICE / MoSCoW prioritisationVendor & partner negotiationProgramme governance at $1B+ scale

Product & Leadership

Payments product strategy & roadmapP&L ownership (built from $0)Org design (built 2 → 50+ across 12 squads)Network & issuer partner enablementRegulator and central-bank engagementPricing, unit economics, ARPUGo-to-market across 5 regulated frontier markets

Certifications

  • Project Management Professional (PMP), PMI
  • PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP), PMI
  • Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO), Scrum Alliance
  • Certified Scrum Master (CSM), Scrum Alliance
  • COBIT 5, IT Governance (ISACA)
  • ITIL v3, IT Service Management (Axelos)

Also led PCI DSS and ISO/IEC 27001 certification programs from scratch at Simpaisa.

Education

  • Mastering Design Thinking (Executive Program)
    MIT Sloan School of Management
    Aug 2022, Dec 2022
  • M.Sc. Physics
    University of Karachi
    2009, 2012
  • B.Sc. Physics
    University of Karachi
    2007, 2009

Recognition

  • Youngest Project Manager of the Year
    Industry honor · 2015

Contact

Dubai, UAE
Book a 15-min intro callrizwanzaffar.pk@gmail.comLinkedIn profile

Ready for senior product, payments and program leadership roles.

Best fit: fintech infrastructure, payment networks, PSPs, banks, OTT/ecommerce platforms and digital transformation programs that need product judgment plus delivery discipline.

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