Head of Financial Operations, Japan

Block is one company built from many blocks, all united by the same purpose of economic empowerment. Our products and services, including Square, Cash App, Afterpay, TIDAL, Bitkey, and Proto, help millions of people around the world access, manage, and move money with more flexibility and control. We believe everyone should be able to participate and thrive in the economy, and we build tools that make commerce and financial services more accessible.
Block’s Financial Operations team is responsible for the movement of money through our bank partners, card networks, payment partners, and internal platforms. The team’s mission is to ensure our customers’ experience taking payments, completing sales, settling funds, and getting paid is reliable, efficient, compliant, and cost effective. To deliver on that mission, Block operates within a complex and highly regulated ecosystem of financial institutions, payment networks, industry partners, regulatory requirements, and internal systems. Financial Operations plays an integral role in shaping the infrastructure, controls, partner relationships, and operational capabilities required to support Square’s long term growth in Japan.
As Head of Financial Operations, Japan, you will lead Square’s financial operations strategy in the market. You will own critical payment and banking partner relationships, strengthen operational resilience and controls, and ensure Square can scale reliably in Japan. This Tokyo based hybrid role requires deep payments expertise, strong commercial judgment, and the ability to influence senior internal and external stakeholders.
The Role
In this role, you will translate Square Japan’s Financial Operations strategy into measurable outcomes. You will work across payments, product, operations, partnerships, and regulatory engagement to improve performance, support new capabilities, and help Square grow in a complex and highly regulated market.
You Will
Lead the execution of Square Japan’s Financial Operations priorities, turning regional and global strategy into clear market plans and outcomes.
Own operational performance for incoming and outgoing payments, including reliability, settlement, incident management, controls, cost efficiency, and seller experience.
Build and manage senior relationships with banks, acquirers, card networks, payment providers, industry bodies, regulators, and other strategic partners.
Lead commercial and operational negotiations with payment and banking partners to support Square’s growth, product roadmap, risk requirements, and cost objectives.
Represent Square Japan in partner, industry, regulatory, and public forums where Financial Operations expertise is required.
Partner with Product, Engineering, Risk, Compliance, Legal, Policy, Finance, Marketing, and Operations to launch new capabilities and resolve market specific challenges.
Identify opportunities to improve authorization performance, settlement reliability, reconciliation, payment costs, dispute outcomes, vendor performance, and operational controls.
Monitor regulatory, network, partner, and industry changes in Japan and lead coordinated responses across internal teams.
Establish governance, reporting, operating rhythms, and escalation paths that improve decision making, transparency, and accountability.
You Have
15+ years of experience in fintech, payments, banking, card networks, acquiring, issuing, payment operations, or related financial services roles.
Deep expertise in Japan’s payments ecosystem, including card networks, acquirers, issuers, processors, banks, regulators, government bodies, and industry associations.
A strong track record building and influencing senior relationships with partners, financial institutions, regulators, industry bodies, and market stakeholders.
Strong commercial judgment, including experience negotiating complex agreements and balancing cost, risk, compliance, customer experience, product outcomes, and growth.
Experience representing a company externally with senior partners, regulators, government stakeholders, industry bodies, or public facing audiences.
Proven ability to lead through ambiguity, translate complexity into clear plans, and deliver measurable outcomes across business, product, operational, regulatory, and technical challenges.
Experience leading complex cross functional initiatives with Product, Engineering, Finance, Legal, Compliance, Risk, Policy, Marketing, and Operations teams.
Executive level communication and presentation skills in English, with the ability to make clear and persuasive recommendations to senior stakeholders.
Native or business level Japanese proficiency, including the ability to negotiate, influence, and build trust with Japan based partners and regulators.
Even Better:
Experience working directly with key regulators or government bodies in Japan, including METI, JFSA, or relevant payments and financial services authorities.
Understanding of Payment Facilitator, acquiring, issuing, settlement, clearing, reconciliation, and card network operating models.
Experience working in a US headquartered fintech, technology, payments, or financial services company.
Media training or experience serving as an external spokesperson, industry representative, or senior market leader.
We’re working to build a more inclusive economy where our customers have equal access to opportunity, and we strive to live by these same values in building our workplace. Block is a proud equal opportunity employer. We work hard to evaluate all employees and job applicants consistently, based solely on the core competencies required of the role at hand, and without regard to any legally protected class.
We believe in being fair, and are committed to an inclusive interview experience, including providing reasonable accommodations to disabled applicants throughout the recruitment process. We encourage applicants to share any needed accommodations with their recruiter, who will treat these requests as confidentially as possible. Want to learn more about what we’re doing to build an inclusive workplace? Check out our Inclusion & Diversity page
Application Guidelines
Candidates may submit up to 9 active applications within a 60-day period. Reapplications to the same role are accepted 90 days after a previous application has been reviewed.
Use of AI in Our Hiring Process
We may use automated AI tools to evaluate job applications for efficiency and consistency. These tools comply with local regulations, including bias audits, and we handle all personal data in accordance with state and local privacy laws.
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Every benefit we offer is designed with one goal: empowering you to do the best work of your career while building the life you want. Remote work, medical insurance, flexible time off, retirement savings plans, and modern family planning are just some of our offering. Check out our other benefits at Block.
Block, Inc. (NYSE: XYZ) builds technology to increase access to the global economy. Each of our brands unlocks different aspects of the economy for more people. Square makes commerce and financial services accessible to sellers. Cash App is the easy way to spend, send, and store money. Afterpay is transforming the way customers manage their spending over time. TIDAL is a music platform that empowers artists to thrive as entrepreneurs. Bitkey is a simple self-custody wallet built for bitcoin. Proto is a suite of bitcoin mining products and services. Together, we’re helping build a financial system that is open to everyone.
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