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Acquiring AI-Native Team Structure

Acquiring AI-Native Team Structure

Objective: Transform current 27-person structure to AI-leveraged teams focused on senior expertise + AI execution.

Centralised Leadership

Head of Engineering

  • Scope: Technical leadership across all 4 teams
  • Focus: Architecture alignment, engineering standards, AI adoption strategy
  • Reports to: VP Engineering

Head of Country Commercial Manager

  • Scope: Commercial strategy and market alignment across teams
  • Focus: Market requirements, commercial partnerships, regional compliance
  • Reports to: Commercial Leadership

Team Structure Overview

Team 1: Digital Experience

  • Size: 6 people
  • Composition: 1 Senior PM, 1 Senior EM, 2 Senior Engineers, 1 Senior Analytics Engineer, 1 Senior Product Designer
  • Focus: Payment links, Gateway, Digital UPI, Web/Mobile UX
  • AI-Native Model: Senior professionals design strategy/architecture → AI executes implementation
  • Owns: End-to-end digital payment flows, experimentation, performance, quality

Team 2: In-Person Experience

  • Size: 6 people
  • Composition: 1 Senior PM, 1 Senior EM, 2 Senior Engineers, 1 Senior Analytics Engineer, 1 Senior Product Designer
  • Focus: TCR, Tap2Pay, Hardware integration, Mobile apps
  • AI-Native Model: Hardware integration strategy → AI-generated mobile/backend code
  • Owns: Physical payment acceptance, device management, monitoring, quality

Team 3: Platform & Integration

  • Size: 6 people
  • Composition: 1 Senior PM, 1 Senior EM, 3 Senior Engineers, 1 Senior Operations Engineer
  • Focus: Merchant onboarding, PSP integration (Adyen), Core platform services
  • AI-Native Model: Platform architecture design → AI-automated service development
  • Owns: Platform services, vendor integrations, quality, performance, monitoring, operational excellence

Team 4: Risk & Compliance

  • Size: 3 people
  • Composition: 1 Senior PM, 2 Senior Engineers
  • Focus: Fraud monitoring, Chargeback management, Compliance oversight
  • AI-Native Model: Risk system design → AI-automated compliance monitoring
  • Owns: Risk systems, compliance automation, fraud detection, regulatory monitoring

Key Principles Applied

🧠 Leverage Over Volume

  • Current: 27 people
  • Traditional Growth Path: Would require +6 people (33 total) over next 12 months
  • AI-Native Target: 23 people (21 team members + 2 centralised leaders)
  • Total Efficiency Gain: 30% fewer people than traditional scaling (10 people fewer)
  • Focus: Senior expertise that can leverage AI for 2-3x output

🔄 AI-First SDLC

  • Each team owns quality, performance, monitoring, experimentation
  • AI handles implementation, testing, deployment automation

🎯 Outcome-Driven Culture

  • Teams own complete end-to-end delivery
  • Senior people focus on strategy/architecture, AI handles execution

🚀 Organised for Speed

  • Cross-stream functions absorbed into teams
  • Embedded leadership within each team
  • Minimal handoffs between product, design, engineering

Operating Model

Human-Led Functions

Senior People Do:

  • High-level thinking and strategy
  • System design and architecture
  • Business logic and requirements
  • Risk assessment and compliance strategy
  • Strategic analytics and experimental design
  • Complex operations and incident response
  • Design strategy and user research
  • Data science insights and business intelligence

AI-Delegated Functions

AI Handles:

  • Code implementation and generation
  • Automated testing and quality assurance
  • Deployment and infrastructure automation
  • Performance monitoring and optimisation
  • ETL pipelines and data processing
  • Standard reports and dashboard automation
  • Design system implementation and responsive layouts
  • Basic operational monitoring and alerting

Function Distribution

Analytics Engineering

  • Teams 1 & 2: Embedded senior analytics engineers for product analytics and experimentation
  • Team 3: Platform metrics and operational analytics handled by operations engineer
  • AI: Automates data pipelines, standard reporting, dashboard generation

Operations

  • Team 3: Dedicated senior operations engineer leads operational strategy
  • All Teams: Senior engineers own operational excellence for their domains
  • AI: Handles deployment automation, monitoring, basic incident response

Design

  • Teams 1 & 2: Embedded senior product designers for customer-facing experiences
  • Cross-team: Design system coherence maintained through collaboration
  • AI: Implements design systems, creates responsive layouts, generates basic prototypes

Target state for Acquiring proposition across global markets

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