Job description
The Private Advertiser is seeking a results-driven Merchant Growth Lead to join our Southern Region Commercial team in Johor Bahru. This senior growth and sales leadership role concentrates on accelerating merchant acquisition, activation, and revenue growth across Malaysia's southern markets. You will own end-to-end strategies to attract new merchants, engage existing partners, and optimize the merchant lifecycle from onboarding through activation and retention.
You will partner with product, marketing, logistics, and finance to design compelling onboarding experiences, fraud-resilient onboarding, and performance-driven campaigns. The role requires building a data-informed culture: define key metrics such as GMV, merchant activation rate, retention, and average revenue per merchant, run experiments, and translate insights into scalable programs. You will manage budgets, negotiate with strategic partners, and coach a regional team to meet aggressive growth targets.
Success in this role means turning complex merchant relationships into durable partnerships, driving sustainable profitability, and delivering measurable impact for merchants and the business. If you are a strategic thinker with hands-on execution, a passion for merchants, and a track record of growth in fast-moving markets, this is your opportunity to lead meaningful change from Johor Bahru.
Responsibility
- Develop and execute merchant acquisition, activation, and revenue-growth strategies to expand the Southern Region's merchant base.
- Build and manage a high-potential pipeline of merchant partnerships across online and offline channels.
- Collaborate with product, marketing, and operations to optimize the merchant lifecycle from onboarding to activation and retention.
- Analyze activity data to identify growth opportunities, run experiments, and report performance with clear ROI to leadership.
- Own budgeting, resource planning, and negotiations with key merchant partners to maximize profitability.
- Define and monitor KPIs such as GMV, activation rate, ARPU, and churn; translate insights into scalable programs.
- Lead and mentor a regional growth team, aligning efforts with the Southern Region Commercial priorities.
- Partner with regional sales and marketing to localize campaigns and improve merchant satisfaction and lifetime value.
Qualification
- Bachelor's degree in Business, Marketing, Analytics, or a related field; MBA considered a plus.
- 5+ years in growth marketing, partnerships, or merchant acquisition; experience in e-commerce or fintech is preferred.
- Proven track record of delivering revenue growth and improving merchant retention.
- Strong data analysis skills with proficiency in SQL, Excel, and business intelligence tools (Tableau/Power BI).
- Excellent communication, negotiation, and stakeholder management abilities.
- Ability to work cross-functionally in a fast-paced environment and manage ambiguity.
- Deep knowledge of the Malaysian market, especially Johor's SME landscape and local merchant ecosystem.
- Strategic thinker with hands-on execution capability and a bias for action.