Senior Manager – Agent Network & Distribution

The Senior Manager – Agent Network & Distribution will lead the development, expansion, performance, and optimization of ZOOD PAY's nationwide agent and distribution network.

The role will be responsible for building a scalable, profitable, compliant, and highly active agent network that enables ZOOD PAY to expand its payment services and reach customers across Afghanistan.

The Senior Manager will own the agent lifecycle from recruitment and onboarding through activation, productivity, liquidity, retention, performance management, and network expansion.

The role will work closely with Business Development, Sales, Operations, Product, Technology, Finance, Compliance, Risk, and MNO/strategic partners to ensure that the agent network becomes a major competitive advantage and revenue-generating distribution channel for ZOOD PAY.

2. Key Responsibilities

A. Agent Network Strategy

• Develop and execute ZOOD PAY's nationwide agent network strategy.
• Define the optimal size, structure, geographic coverage, and segmentation of the agent network.
• Identify underserved geographic and customer segments.
• Develop strategies to increase active and productive agents rather than focusing only on registered agents.
• Establish agent density and coverage targets by province, district, and market.
• Continuously evaluate network economics and profitability.

B. Agent Recruitment & Expansion

• Develop systematic agent acquisition strategies.
• Identify high-potential agents, distributors, retailers, businesses, and local networks.
• Establish agent selection criteria based on commercial potential, reputation, financial capacity, location, and risk.
• Build partnerships with distributors and aggregators to accelerate network expansion.
• Develop province-by-province expansion plans.
• Ensure new agents are on-boarded efficiently and according to applicable KYC/KYB and regulatory requirements.

C. Agent Activation & Productivity

The primary focus should be on productive active agents, not simply the number of registered agents.

• Develop agent activation programs.
• Monitor first-transaction conversion.
• Increase transaction frequency and value per active agent.
• Identify inactive and low-performing agents.
• Develop targeted reactivation campaigns.
• Establish agent productivity benchmarks.
• Develop incentive programs to improve transaction activity.
• Analyze agent performance by geography, segment, product, and transaction type.

D. Agent Economics & Profitability

• Develop and monitor the economics of the agent network.
• Analyze commission structures and incentive costs.
• Monitor revenue and gross profit generated per agent.
• Calculate agent acquisition and activation costs.
• Develop agent profitability models.
• Optimize commission and incentive structures while maintaining agent motivation.
• Identify unprofitable agents, territories, and distribution relationships.
• Recommend changes to improve overall network contribution margin.

E. Agent Liquidity Management

• Ensure agents have sufficient liquidity to serve customers.
• Develop liquidity management strategies across the network.
• Identify liquidity shortages and concentration risks.
• Establish escalation mechanisms for critical liquidity issues.
• Work with Finance, Treasury, Operations, and distributors to improve liquidity availability.
• Analyze cash and digital liquidity requirements by location and transaction pattern.

F. Agent Distribution Structure

• Design and optimize the relationship between ZOOD PAY, master agents, distributors, sub-agents, and retail agents.
• Define roles, responsibilities, commercial terms, and performance expectations.
• Develop distributor scorecards.
• Monitor distributor performance and coverage.
• Prevent unhealthy channel conflicts and commission leakage.
• Optimize the distribution hierarchy to minimize unnecessary costs.

G. Agent Incentives & Commission

• Develop commercially sustainable agent commission structures.
• Design performance-based incentives and campaigns.
• Recommend targeted incentives for strategic products and territories.
• Monitor incentive ROI.
• Prevent excessive or ineffective incentive spending.
• Regularly benchmark agent economics against market conditions.

H. Agent Training & Capability Development

• Develop agent training programs.
• Ensure agents understand ZOOD PAY products, transaction procedures, customer service, and compliance requirements.
• Establish training and certification processes for new agents.
• Develop refresher training for existing agents.
• Work with Compliance to ensure AML/CFT and KYC requirements are properly understood.
• Develop high-performing agent communities and knowledge-sharing mechanisms.

I. Agent Compliance & Risk

• Work closely with Compliance and Risk to ensure agents operate within regulatory and internal requirements.
• Ensure appropriate agent KYC/KYB and documentation.
• Monitor suspicious or abnormal agent activity.
• Identify fraud, transaction manipulation, commission abuse, account sharing, and other agent-related risks.
• Escalate high-risk agents and suspicious activity.
• Support investigations and remediation.
• Ensure agent agreements and operating procedures are properly implemented.

J. Network Analytics & Data

• Build agent performance dashboards and reporting.
• Monitor daily, weekly, and monthly network performance.
• Develop KPIs and early-warning indicators.
• Analyze agent productivity and geographic performance.
• Identify trends and opportunities through transaction data.
• Use data to determine where to recruit, retain, reactivate, or reduce agents.

M. New Product Distribution

• Work with Business Development and Product teams to distribute new ZOOD PAY products through the agent network.
• Develop agent strategies for launching new products.
• Establish agent training and incentive requirements for new products.
• Measure product adoption and transaction performance.
• Identify opportunities to monetize the existing agent network through additional services.

3. Key KPIs

·        Network Growth

·        Productivity

·        Financial

·        Distribution

·        Quality & Risk

·        4. Strategic Objectives

• Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Finance, Economics, Marketing, Management, or related field.
• MBA or relevant master's degree is an advantage.

Experience

• 7+ years of experience in sales, distribution, agent network management, mobile money, fintech, banking, telecom, FMCG distribution, or financial services.
• At least 3 years in a senior management position managing a large field/distribution network.
• Demonstrated experience managing geographically distributed teams, agents, distributors, or retail networks.
• Experience managing performance through data and KPIs.

Agent Experience

• Improve the end-to-end agent experience.
• Identify agent pain points and operational bottlenecks.
• Work with Product and Technology to improve agent applications, dashboards, APIs, reporting, and transaction processes.
• Improve agent onboarding and training.
• Establish effective agent communication channels.
• Develop mechanisms for collecting and acting on agent feedback.

6. Preferred Industry Experience

Strong preference for candidates with experience in:

• FinTech
• Mobile money
• Payment Institutions
• Digital wallets
• Banks
• Telecom
• MNO distribution
• Money transfer
• Agent banking
• Retail distribution
• FMCG distribution
• Large-scale field sales networks

Experience managing a nationwide agent network in Afghanistan or a similar emerging market is highly desirable.

Interested and qualified candidates are encouraged to submit their CVs along with a cover letter to hr@zood-pay.com by December 31, 2026. Please include the vacancy number and position title (VA - ZP-26-07-Senior Manager – Agent Network & Distribution) in the subject line of your email; otherwise, your application will not be considered.