{"id":2183504,"url":"https://alion.io/job/wise-country-manager-3","title":"Country Manager","company":{"id":3856,"name":"Wise","domain":"wise.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/wise","size_band":"1001-5000","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"SmartRecruiters","truth_index":{"grade":"B","score":80,"open_postings":34,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":1,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":21,"computed_at":"2026-10-12T06:55:09Z"}},"role":"Operations","role_family":"Operations","seniority":null,"employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"hybrid","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Johannesburg, South Africa"],"countries":["ZA"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-10-09T14:56:55Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-09","last_verified_at":"2026-10-13T00:08:49Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":3,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":3},"description":"Wise is a global technology company, building the best way to move and manage the world’s money.\nMin fees. Max ease. Full speed.\nPeople and businesses all over the world use Wise to avoid big bank fees and week-long international wires when they send, spend, and receive money abroad. We have over 15 million customers who move $15 billion every month with us. We help them save more than $6 million in bank fees every day.\nAs part of our team, you will be helping us create an entirely new network for the world's money.\nFor everyone, everywhere.\nMore about our mission and what we offer.\n About the role\nWe’re looking for an executor with a brilliant mind and strong communication skills to expand Wise’s product offering in South Africa.\n\nThis is a unique opportunity to play a pioneering role in growing Wise in one of Africa’s most important financial markets, helping millions more potential customers save money by using our services.\n\nYou’ll be responsible for overseeing local operations, defining our market expansion strategy, executing on it, and being the face of Wise in South Africa.\n\nOur banking relationships determine the quality of our product and a large part of its economics. Our relationships with regulators, governments and payment systems are crucial too.\n\nKey aspects of this role will include:\nExpanding Wise’s regulatory presence in South Africa.\n\nBuilding and improving relationships with banks, payment partners and other financial institutions.\n\nHelping Product teams build better, faster and more cost-effective products for customers.\n\nDriving Wise’s market expansion strategy from a payments infrastructure, regulatory and operational partnerships point of view.\n\nWhat will you be doing?\nWorking with Product teams - Product Managers, Analysts and Engineers - you will help define the opportunities for Wise’s products in South Africa and, where relevant, other markets in Southern Africa. You’ll collaborate across teams and inspire others so that we deliver the best solution for our customers.\nYour mission will be to:\nOwn and expand Wise’s regulatory presence in South Africa\n\nIdentify the most appropriate way to grow Wise in South Africa and, where relevant, other countries in the region.\n\nManage the regulatory and licensing process end-to-end, including understanding the regulatory landscape, preparing and coordinating applications, submitting materials, securing regulatory buy-in, and supporting the fulfilment of local requirements.\n\nBuild strong, constructive relationships with relevant regulators and public-sector stakeholders, including the South African Reserve Bank, the Financial Sector Conduct Authority, the Financial Intelligence Centre and other relevant bodies.\n\nUnderstand existing and new regulations, and figure out the best ways our product can comply with them.\n\nTranslate regulatory requirements into product implementations together with our Compliance teams.\n\nBe one of the Product team’s go-to people for regulatory knowledge. We see regulation as an opportunity.\n\nShape the product opportunity in South Africa\nIdentify opportunities to offer the best product in the market by taking advantage of our existing and future authorisations.\n\nContribute to defining the opportunities and direction for Wise’s products in South Africa.\n\nWork closely with Product Managers and Product Engineers to develop our vision and build better products and experiences for customers.\n\nHelp Product teams understand local payments infrastructure, customer pain points, regulatory requirements and operational constraints.\n\nWork with global teams - Product, Finance, Treasury, Legal, Compliance and Operations - to ensure our customers and products are at the centre of our mission.\n\nBuild new relationships with financial institutions and payments partners\nIdentify and open new relationships with relevant financial institutions, including banks, payment processors, card issuers, card processors, authorised dealers, authorised dealers with limited authority, clearing and settlement participants, system operators and other payments ecosystem partners.\n\nManage the process end-to-end: find the right potential partners, pitch Wise as a client, negotiate commercial agreements and contracts, complete account opening forms, explain our compliance processes, pass due diligence, and do anything else needed to be ready for development.\n\nBuild partnerships that improve our ability to offer faster, cheaper, more transparent and more reliable services to customers.\n\nImprove existing banking and payments relationships\nTake ownership of improving existing relationships with transactional banking partners and other financial institutions.\n\nLead commercial and relationship discussions with partners.\n\nMonitor our economics to ensure we offer the most sustainable and competitive service in the market.\n\nCreate new opportunities within existing relationships with financial institutions in South Africa and the broader region.\n\nContinuously improve our product by increasing speed, reducing costs, improving reliability, adding visibility to transactions, and expanding access to local payment rails.\n\n A bit about you. This role would suit someone who is:\nAble to independently negotiate ideal terms with a clear product vision and strong commercial understanding.\n\nAble to figure out the right operational and commercial process with every new partner.\n\nExcellent at managing financial regulatory relationships and constantly creating opportunities to improve them.\n\nAble to get stuff done. You’re not afraid to get your hands dirty to deliver what is needed.\n\nEntrepreneurial, comfortable with ambiguity and excited by a fast-growing environment.\n\nDeeply familiar with how financial, payments and FX regulators work, including the different decision makers that need to be taken into account to make things happen.\n\nComfortable working with financial, payments and FX regulation in a changing regulatory environment.\n\nInterested in AML, KYC, sanctions, exchange control and risk controls.\n\nFamiliar with relevant financial licensing and regulatory frameworks in South Africa, including payments, money remittance, FX, exchange control, banking partnerships and financial services requirements.\n\nFamiliar with the South African financial ecosystem, including the South African Reserve Bank, Financial Surveillance Department, National Payment System Department, Prudential Authority, Financial Sector Conduct Authority, Financial Intelligence Centre, Payments Association of South Africa, BankservAfrica, authorised dealers and authorised dealers with limited authority.\n\nFamiliar with how corporate banks and financial institutions work, who the key decision makers are, and how to manage those relationships effectively.\n\nFluent in English.\n\nHappy to work independently and flexibly within a fast-moving environment.\n\nPassionate about transforming the financial industry for good.\n\nIt would be ideal, but not essential, if you:\nHave strong relationships and experience with regulators and payment ecosystem stakeholders in South Africa, especially the South African Reserve Bank.\n\nHave experience obtaining licences, authorisations or regulatory approvals in South Africa or comparable markets.\n\nUnderstand South Africa’s payments infrastructure and are well-versed in the nuances of the FX, remittance and cross-border payments market.\n\nUnderstand financial regulation in the broader Southern African region\n\nHave experience working with or around the National Payment System, BankservAfrica, local EFT rails, card payments, real-time payments, cross-border payments, or regional settlement infrastructure.\n\nFor 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.\nWe're proud to have a truly international team, and we celebrate our differences.\nInclusive 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.\nIf you want to find out more about what it's like to work at Wise visit Wise.Jobs.\nKeep up to date with life at Wise by following us on LinkedIn and Instagram.","description_format":"text","description_chars":8261,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":null,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[{"language":"English","level":"Advanced (C1)","optional":false}]},"benefits":[],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"South Africa","iso":"ZA","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Financial Services","Money Transfer & Remittances","Currency Exchange & FX Payments"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-09T15:33:20Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":63,"band":"ok","label":"Likely open","p_open":1,"p_active":0.632,"p_room":1,"age_days":2,"expected_fill_days":21,"reasons":["conf:3","stale_co","velocity","win:early","comp:brand"],"computed_at":"2026-10-12T06:55:09Z"},"pay":null,"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/wise-country-manager-3","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/wise-country-manager-3.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-13T00:59:00Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":1427,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-14T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":3856},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=3856"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fwise-country-manager-3"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fwise-country-manager-3"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fwise-country-manager-3"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/wise-country-manager-3\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fwise-country-manager-3"}]}