Compliance Operations Lead

Company Description

Wise is a global technology company, building the best way to move and manage the world’s money.

Min fees. Max ease. Full speed.

Whether people and businesses are sending money to another country, spending abroad, or making and receiving international payments, Wise is on a mission to make their lives easier and save them money.

As part of our team, you will be helping us create an entirely new network for the world's money.

For everyone, everywhere.

More about our mission and what we offer.

Job Description

We’re looking for a Compliance Operations Lead focusing on driving performance of the compliance operations team who are responsible for making decisions on our higher risk customers for selected APAC entities. Based in Hyderabad, you will work with a growing team of multidisciplinary specialists (Product, Banking, Operations based in our offices in APAC, Estonia and HQ in London) to help deliver world class products and services in APAC. You’ll help manage and strengthen our control environment, by having a clear overview of our highest risk customer portfolios and how our control environment is working to effectively mitigate financial crime risk and meet regulatory obligations locally. While being an advocate of the Wise values, you will need to ensure that your team is consistently delivering high-quality customer due diligence reviews as well as meeting the operational metrics according to the organisation’s wider objectives. You will also oversee quality framework and decision quality for enhanced customer due diligence, and provide input into first line operational teams’ training and procedures.

This role is based in Hyderabad, India

Wise has already pioneered new ways for people to transfer money across borders and currencies. Our customers can also manage their hard-earned money with the world’s first platform to offer true multi-currency forex. Your mission is to play a key role in supporting a financial crime program that is driven by Wise’s mission for money without borders, transparency, and protecting customers. We are looking for a seasoned professional who can bring both in-depth financial crime compliance expertise and commercial foresight to our team. This role is for a natural investigator and a lead who is passionate about fighting financial crime while delivering world class customer service, and contributing to building an efficient and effective compliance operations team.

Job Responsibilities

• Group Leadership

  Lead by example and drive a customer focused mindset across your team as well as the wider organisation. Promote a culture of ownership and accountability. Build high-performing teams that value knowledge sharing and continuous learning.

• People management

  Coach and develop a strong team of Compliance Operations. Come up with initiatives to help your team to grow their skills, behaviours, and competencies. Design and manage development plans on identified opportunities. Conducts career map check-ins and makes recommendations for promotions, salary raises, and other decisions.

• Operational management

  Identify and propose opportunities for process improvements. Collaborate with central functions and other operational teams as needed to increase automation and operational efficiency. Monitor team resource allocation and refine standard operating procedures to improve the ways we work.

• Performance management

  Measure group wide KPIs and ensure that your team meets performance targets and quality standards. Conduct regular one on one coaching sessions, usually on a weekly or biweekly basis. Act as a key escalation point for issues that cannot be resolved by team leads. Generate reports based on teams performance and propose corrective actions on identified opportunities.

• Expertise Sharing

  Be a subject matter expert in your area with the ability to train and coach your team on operational topics. Maintain a great understanding of our regulatory obligations, internal policies, and applying a risk-based approach to deterring and preventing money laundering and financial crime. Able to assist senior leadership with audits and developing our policies and processes. Be 1st point of contact for operational teams into 2LoD when advisory is required on KYC/CDD matters. Liaise with/escalate to regional compliance officers for complex situations as required. This involves working with local Compliance teams to understand upcoming changes, review issues/findings from internal and external reviews, and make necessary adjustments to the escalation criteria.

• Planning and execution

  Ensure operational team plans are set in place and provide insights to other stakeholders. Take full accountability in delivering your own initiatives and making sure your group is making progress on their goals. Effectively executing and supporting department goals through delegation and empowerment of the team. There are clear initiatives within your group that are used as a basis of larger team plans.

• Stakeholder management and communication

  Collaborate closely with your stakeholders ensuring clear communication and coordination of actions. Your initiatives and reports are well documented and you choose the right platforms to communicate to a wider audience in a timely manner. The documentation has a clear scope and includes potential impact in different areas. You can communicate confidently with difficult stakeholders. Proactively work on improving cross-team communication, acting as the liaison between different layers of the organization and your own team.

This role will give you the opportunity to:

• Develop an in-depth knowledge of Wise’s business and get to know teams across Wise as you work with them to understand the product and regulatory framework.
• Build an efficient and effective Compliance Operations team in our Hyderabad office.
• Help keep compliance right at the heart of our product developments by managing our compliance obligations in APAC, managing regulatory change, driving second line monitoring and oversight, and providing assurance to the Senior Leadership team and local entity Boards.
• Take on and own initiatives that arise in customer due diligence on a project basis. Take a problem-solving approach, whether designing a new process to be implemented or driving an effort for multiple teams to work together to remediate control gaps or process enhancements.
• Global cross team collaboration with focus on delivering impact for our fastest growing APAC markets - Singapore, Japan, Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, India and more.

Qualifications

• At least 2+ years of leading medium to large sized teams (10-20) preferably in FinCrime operations or Compliance
• A minimum of 4 years experience in FinCrime Operations or Compliance relating to customer due diligence and risk assessments, great communication and organisational skills, tons of motivation and positivity. More specifically, we’re looking for someone who can demonstrate they have these attributes:
• Theory. You are an experienced financial crime practitioner having a background in financial services and a thorough knowledge of the AML/CTF regulations in APAC markets as they relate to customer due diligence(such as Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore).
• Practice. You have worked in the first line FinCrime operational function dealing with most complex customer cases, and ideally have worked in a compliance advisory role in the second line of defence. You have experience in dealing with regulatory inspection/audits and FIU reporting. You understand how to establish policy requirements and maintain oversight on policy adherence.
• Passion. You get a kick out of improving current practices and processes and have the drive to apply different compliance strategies to develop multiple compliance frameworks. You have thought deeply about the Wise mission and how it intersects with compliance.
• Get the job done. You are a problem-solver. You have a sense of urgency and an ability to work well under pressure, prioritising, taking responsibility and working to tight deadlines.
• Communication. You’re a strong relationship builder across all levels of the business and externally. You lead by example and can demonstrate the Wise values in all your actions.
• Development. You’ve considered the challenges and development opportunities of working at a fast growing scale-up and are looking to get into FinTech or payments compliance.
• Project management and communication. You have the ability to write and communicate clearly about our products, processes and controls as well as how they can be improved. You’re able to analyse different viewpoints across stakeholders and tailor your communication to get the message across.
• Autonomous. You’re a proactive problem solver and able to work independently to contribute to the team’s overall objectives. You’re adaptable to evolving priorities and have a strong ability to project manage such changes effectively.
• Curious. You have an insatiable curiosity about Asia/Hong Kong products, processes and puts our customers interests at the forefront. You’re excited to make an impact at Wise and enjoy working with cross functional teams to fuel the revolution.

Additional Information

For everyone, everywhere. We're people building money without borders - without judgement or prejudice, too. We believe teams are strongest when they are diverse, equitable and inclusive.

We're proud to have a truly international team, and we celebrate our differences.

Inclusive teams help us live our values and make sure every Wiser feels respected, empowered to contribute towards our mission and able to progress in their careers.

If you want to find out more about what it's like to work at Wise visit Wise.Jobs.

Keep up to date with life at Wise by following us on LinkedIn and Instagram.