Customer Operations Subject Matter Expert (SME)

About Thunes

Thunes operates a global network facilitating the seamless movement of money worldwide. As the company expands its partnerships with leading fintechs and global financial institutions, maintaining operational excellence is crucial for growth, customer retention, and trust.

Role Overview

Thunes is seeking a Customer Operations Subject Matter Expert (SME) to join the team in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. This full-time role requires 5-10 years of experience and serves as a specialist layer between the Global Support team and in-country White Glove resources. The SME will apply deep operational, language, and local-market expertise to complex cases and escalations, while continuously transferring knowledge to the wider support organization. The objective is to resolve complex issues and enhance the team's capability to resolve them independently over time.

Key Responsibilities

• Act as the subject matter expert for complex operational cases and escalations.
• Support L1 and White Glove teams with issues requiring deeper operational or local-market expertise.
• Coordinate with Network, Compliance, Product, Engineering, and other internal teams to drive issues to resolution.
• Provide clear operational guidance during high-impact customer escalations.
• Develop deep knowledge of Saudi payment methods, partners, operating practices, and customer requirements.
• Bring local context to issues not effectively managed through standard global processes.
• Translate market-specific knowledge into practical guidance for the wider support organization.
• Work closely with in-country White Glove resources supporting strategic customers, providing specialist operational expertise.
• Support complex investigations and escalations without becoming the primary processor of standard customer inquiries.
• Help identify and remove recurring reasons for customer contact.
• Convert complex cases and lessons learned into SOPs, troubleshooting guides, and reusable knowledge.
• Coach and upskill the Global Support team on recurring issues.
• Identify cases that can be progressively shifted back to L1 through improved knowledge, processes, or tooling.
• Ensure market knowledge is institutionalized rather than dependent on individual employees.
• Analyze recurring escalations and identify underlying operational gaps.
• Recommend improvements across processes, tooling, automation, and customer education.
• Work with relevant teams to address root causes rather than repeatedly managing the same issues.
• Contribute to building a repeatable SME model for introduction into other strategic markets as Thunes scales.

Success Metrics

Success in this role is measured by the organization becoming less dependent on SMEs over time. This will be demonstrated through faster resolution of complex cases, fewer repeat escalations, stronger L1 capability, reduced operational dependency on Account Managers and White Glove resources, and continuous transfer of local-market knowledge into the Global Support organization.

Experience Required

• 5-10 years of relevant experience in customer operations or a similar field.
• Demonstrated expertise in operational processes, local market dynamics, and language.
• Proven ability to manage complex cases and escalations effectively.
• Experience in knowledge transfer and capability building within support organizations.

Work Environment

This is a full-time position based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, working within a global organization focused on operational excellence and continuous improvement.