- The Merchant Relationship Specialist is responsible for building and sustaining high-value relationships with a portfolio of merchants across assigned markets. This role drives merchant satisfaction, retention, and revenue growth by offering proactive account management, first-line support, and strategic product expansion. The incumbent acts as the merchant's internal advocate, ensuring seamless service delivery and maximizing product adoption across Network International's ecosystem.
Merchant Acquiring Onboarding & Implementation:
- Coordinate operational onboarding and activation of acquiring banks, merchants and partner channels across Kenya and Rwanda, ensuring implementation readiness and documented dependencies.
- Create and maintain merchant and terminal profiles; configure approved MID/TID, MCC, settlement/financial parameters and device registration details.
- Support enrolment, OTP processes, terminal activation, client training and handover to business-as-usual support.
- Maintain implementation trackers, readiness checklists, issues and action logs for new acquiring clients, pilots, migrations and launches.
- Coordinate with Acquiring, Sales, Product, Technology, Risk and Compliance on testing, required approvals, go-live and early-life support.
- Support the operational execution of acquiring expansion opportunities, including device deployment planning and resolution of onboarding bottlenecks.
POS Technical Operations & Service Assurance:
- Provide POS/SmartPOS technical support for configuration, activation, application loading, updates, connectivity and troubleshooting.
- Execute approved parameter changes including merchant financial data, MID/TID, MCC, serial numbers, Wi-Fi, fraud/restriction settings, refunds, voids and pre-authorizations.
- Process approved terminal resets, profile deletions, reassignment and replacements in accordance with documented controls.
- Support field teams and client banks in resolving terminal faults and acceptance issues; coordinate escalation to technology, vendors and product teams.
- Coordinate POS application certification, user acceptance and regression testing for APK upgrades, releases and enhancements, documenting defects and release evidence.
- Log, monitor and resolve client incidents and service requests, providing updates and tracking SLA performance and repeat issues.
- Support incident root-cause reviews, corrective actions and post-go-live service stabilization.
Terminal Estate, Inventory & Vendor Management:
- Coordinate with Procurement on POS terminal sourcing, demand forecasts, stock availability and replenishment based on deployment and recruitment trends.
- Maintain accurate records for terminal receipts, tagging, dispatch, installations, returns, transfers, repairs and decommissioning.
- Coordinate device distribution and vendor/field service deliveries, following up on timelines and unresolved issues.
- Manage repair coordination and terminal recovery, identifying opportunities to avoid unnecessary replacements and optimize asset utilization.
- Generate POS dormancy and utilization reports and engage banks and commercial teams on activation, reactivation and estate optimization.
- Monitor supplier and repair-vendor performance, turnaround times and service-level commitments.
Merchant Acquiring Business Enablement:
- Partner with Sales and Relationship Management to translate approved client requirements into operational onboarding and deployment plans.
- Support introduction of new terminal models, acceptance applications, acquiring capabilities and merchant services enhancements.
- Analyze terminal activity, onboarding delays, recurring incidents and client feedback to identify opportunities for improved adoption and service quality.
- Contribute operational insight to new-client discussions, pilots and market expansion, without owning commercial pricing, contracts or sales targets.
Controls, Reporting & Continuous Improvement:
- Follow approved SOPs, maker-checker controls, change management, information-security rules and required KYC/KYB approval handoffs.
- Maintain complete audit trails for merchant setup, configuration changes, testing, terminal movements, approvals and issue resolution.
- Escalate suspected fraud, compliance breaches, operational risks and incidents to the responsible functions.
- Prepare daily, weekly and monthly reports covering onboarding, terminal estate, SLA/ticket performance, testing, client issues and implementation readiness.
- Conduct trend and exception analysis, propose process improvements and support audit, business continuity and operational resilience activities.
- Accurate, timely merchant and terminal onboarding with complete approvals and documentation.
- Reliable POS support and incident resolution within agreed service levels.
- Controlled APK certification, regression testing and go-live readiness.
- Improved terminal utilization, accurate inventory and efficient vendor/repair coordination.
- Effective operational enablement of new acquiring clients and services across Kenya and Rwanda.
- Diploma or bachelor's degree in business, supply chain, IT, finance, operations or a related discipline; equivalent relevant experience considered.
- Experience in POS technical support, merchant acquiring operations, onboarding, terminal deployment and payments service delivery.
- Working knowledge of MID/TID/MCC setup, terminal parameterization, application upgrades, POS testing and incident management.
- Experience in terminal inventory, vendor coordination, repairs, procurement forecasting and device lifecycle management.
- Ability to support new acquiring client implementations, operational readiness and post-go-live stabilization.
- Strong analytical, documentation, client service, cross-functional coordination and problem-solving skills.
- Familiarity with KYC/KYB handoffs, operational controls, maker-checker, audit evidence and information security.
- Ability to work across Kenya and Rwanda stakeholders and manage competing priorities.