Customer Operations Manager - CDD

🧡 About Alma At Alma, we believe sustainable commerce depends on fair, well‑balanced trade. Because finance plays a pivotal role in business, our mission is to put it back in its rightful place - serving merchants and consumers. Our installment and deferred payment solutions help merchants boost sales by 20% or more, increase customer loyalty, and deliver a seamless shopping experience - without encouraging bad debt. As the buy now pay later leader in France and active in 10 European countries, we've empowered over +25,000 merchants and 10 million consumers. With 380+ Almakers and €100M+ ARR, Alma is scaling rapidly across Europe as a member of the Next40, and we're just getting started! 👐 About the team You will join the Customer Operations team and report to the Head of Customer Operations. You will directly manage 9 direct Reports (Team leads and Experts), within a 30-40-person team, with a focus on merchant operations across Care & Risk. This role is a maternity leave replacement, with the objective of ensuring management continuity, quality and operational performance throughout the contract. This position is an 8-month CDD based in Lille, running from 15 November 2026 to 15 July 2027. It includes 2 days of remote work per week, with on-site presence required during the training period. 💼 About the job Set clear priorities for the 9 direct reports you manage directly, organize their day-to-day activities and support their development through regular coaching and feedback. Ensure the continuity and performance of merchant operations by allocating work effectively, anticipating potential backlogs and taking action when needed. Use feedback from the team and merchants to improve processes and ways of working within the merchant perimeter. Coordinate with the wider Customer Operations organization, communicate progress and challenges clearly, and make decisions that protect the merchant experience. Contribute to quality, operational performance and management continuity across the merchant perimeter. 🧰 You will work with Zendesk, Looker, Slack, Lattice and Lucca. 🧩 About you To succeed in this job You have experience managing a Customer Operations team or a similar customer-facing operations team. You can organize daily activity, set clear expectations and prioritize workloads across a team. You are comfortable coaching team members, giving feedback and supporting their development. You put merchants at the center of your decisions and communicate clearly with stakeholders. You enjoy having an impact, working in a culture of operational execution, engaging large teams and innovating. And it will be nice if you also You have experience in merchant operations, customer support or another operational environment. You have contributed to improving processes, quality standards, training or documentation. You take a pragmatic, data-informed approach to operational prioritization. Don't meet every single requirement? At Alma, we believe great hires come from diverse paths. If this role excites you, we encourage you to apply. We value potential, curiosity and the ability to grow as much as experience. 🧘 What's in it for you If you join, you will be able to grow and have an impact by: Lead a team in Operations organization. Own the merchant perimeter and directly contribute to the continuity and quality of merchant operations. Have an immediate impact in a key management role in Lille by ensuring stability during a maternity leave replacement. 🤑 Compensation & benefits Competitive salary based on 12 months Profit-sharing and employee savings plan Health insurance: 100% covered by Alma including family package Disability insurance: 100% covered by Alma Sport: partnerships with Gymlib and Classpass, or €30/month reimbursement for your sports activities Maternity/paternity leave: salary maintained at 100% during leave with no seniority requirement. Return to work at 4/5 schedule paid at 100% for 8 weeks. Sustainable Mobility Package (FMD): €544.80/year (excluding full-remote contracts) Meal vouchers: €10/day, 50% covered by Alma Mental health: free access to MindDay platform Paid time off: 25 days/year (+ additional paid leave granted for employees on executive contracts) Access to our Learning & Development Platform 2 weeks of full remote possible per year in summer 🎯 Interview Process Video call with a Talent Acquisition team member to understand your path and motivation, and present you the role. Interview with your future manager or peers to deep dive into the role, the team and your profile, and answer all your questions. Business case presentation and debrief with 2 to 3 team members, ideally in-house, to assess your practical knowledge. Team Fit interview, with 1 or 2 additional interviews customized to the role's level to further assess your skills and team fit. 🌍 Diversity & Inclusion At Alma, we believe that diversity fuels innovation and makes our community stronger. We are committed to building a workplace where every person feels seen, respected, and empowered to do their best work whatever their gender, background, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, religion, disability or lived experience. As an equal opportunity employer, we welcome applicants from all walks of life, and all employment decisions are made based on qualifications, merit, and business needs.