Sales Finance Leader, Merchant Application Processing (On-site Tampa) — Lavu POS

Own the engine that gets restaurants to go live faster. Approvals up, time-to-approve down, ARR up. Build, train, and lead the team that makes sales fly. This role is on site in our Tampa office. 

About Lavu

Lavu helps profitable high-growth restaurants run seamlessly and move money effortlessly—maximizing control, eliminating fees, and increasing profitability. We unify restaurant operations and finance into one simple, easy-to-use platform so owners can run, pay, get paid, and grow.

We’re transforming how restaurants operate with our mobile/cloud POS across fine dining, QSR, bars, cafes, pizzerias, and food trucks in 80+ countries. Our mission: partner with owners through knowledge, solutions, and expertise that accelerate growth while advancing the industry.

You Will

• Own merchant application processing end-to-end: intake from closed deals, underwriting coordination, KYC/AML workflow, approvals, go-live.
• Design and enforce SLAs to lift approval rate and shrink time-to-approve; build clear dashboards and join daily sales huddles.
• Partner with the VP Sales (your manager) to unblock deals, tighten requirements, and coach AEs to submit clean apps.
• Build and lead the Merchant Processing team: hire, train, set SOPs, run weekly enablement, and QA.
• Instrument forecasting inputs from app-to-live; improve forecast accuracy and reduce churn via cleaner onboarding handoffs.
• Collaborate with Risk, Payments, and CS to reduce chargebacks/fraud and improve first-90-day retention.

Accountable KPIs

• Merchant approval rate
• Time-to-approve (submission → decision → live)
• ARR growth from faster activations
• Forecast accuracy (app→live conversion and timing)
• Churn reduction in first 90 days

Must Have

• 2+ years in payments/merchant onboarding, sales finance, or underwriting ops (POS, ISO, PSP, or fintech).
• You know how to build a system to deliver scalable, predictable approved applications quickly
• Proven team lead/trainer; built SOPs and improved SLAs with data.
• Strong systems/analytics (HubSpot/CRM, payment processors, KYC tools). Excel/Sheets power user.
• On-site in Tampa
• bias for speed, ownership, and clean ops.

Nice to Have

• Restaurant POS/payments experience; PCI, KYC/AML, fraud/chargeback mitigation.
• Track record improving approval rates without blowing up risk.

Comp

• Competitive base, lucrative commissions and bonus, full benefits.

30-60-90 Outcomes

• 30: Successfully process Merchant Applications; map the funnel; publish SLA/defect tracker; daily dashboard live.
• 60: 15–25% faster time-to-approve via SOPs and training; reduce incomplete apps by 80%+.
• 90: Team staffed and trained; reliable forecast inputs; app→live conversion up; early churn down.