Senior Product Compliance and Risk Manager - MEA (Middle East & Africa)

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.

We are looking for a candidate ready to leverage their MEA regulatory compliance experience in a dynamic, fintech environment. This is an exciting, hands-on opportunity working directly with product managers, analysts and engineers to launch and manage compliant products. 

Your mission: 

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 international multi-currency accounts. Your mission is to enable our MEA product teams to launch new products and manage our risk profile through a deep understanding of the regulatory requirements and Regulators’ expectations around them. 

Here’s how you’ll be contributing to the MEA Regulatory Product Compliance and Risk team, in the first line: 

Collaborate on Product Design:

• Empower Product Teams to build risk based products, processes, and controls; 

• Collaborate to design practical and customer-oriented product solutions while ensuring full compliance of the product; 

• Perform pre-launch and ongoing product compliance legal and regulatory analysis and risk assessments;

• Design scalable and customer-centric solutions to regulatory requirements; and

• Offer effective advice to Product Managers on existing and forthcoming Regulations, gaps, and risks. 

Manage and Mitigate Regulatory Risks and the Control Environment: 

• As part of the MEA Product Compliance & Risk Team, you will identify and manage Regulatory Risks across all products offered to and for customers in the fast growing MEA region;

• Oversee the control environment for MEA, designing effective, creative and targeted controls and evaluating the residual risk exposure;

• Collaborate with Compliance colleagues, to ensure Wise Product Teams are constantly aware of the most recent regulations and guidance; and

• Work with Product Teams and the wider Compliance & Risk Team to implement and maintain Management Information that enables Wise to make informed decisions at the regional and Global levels. 

Audit, issue management and remediation: 

• Conduct audit management and, where required, challenge audit findings in collaboration with Compliance second line and Product teams; 

• Develop and deliver effective issue management to mitigate regulatory risks;

• Represent Wise in meetings with Banking Partners and Central Banks, being able to clearly and effectively articulate Wise’s products and compliance framework.

This role will give you the opportunity to: 

• Grow your hands-on Regulatory cross-border payments knowledge at full speed; 

• Keep compliance right at the heart of the product development cycle, in a fast-moving environment;  

• Be empowered to identify ‘regulatory problems’ and take a lead in the solution design and implementation; 

About you: 

• You have a regulatory-legal background and Financial Regulation advisory experience, you are comfortable interpreting MEA regulations;

• Ability to analyze and interpret complex regulatory frameworks and apply them effectively;

• Ability to effectively communicate with Product Managers and Engineers and provide practical, actionable, and value added recommendations; 

• Problem solving attitude, with the ability to use regulations together with data to drive business decisions; 

• Experience (or interest) in working in a fast-growing environment and working directly with product teams; 

• Willing to travel, as Wise offices are located across different countries.

Some extra skills that would be great: 

• Previous experience in a financial institution regulated in the MEA region (i.e. UAE, Türkiye, South Africa, Nigeria, or Saudi Arabia, ) 

• Previous experience as a consultant in the financial sector in the MEA region

• Previous experience working at the Regulator or directly with regulators is a plus (CBUAE, DFSA, FSCA)

• Experience in Payment Regulations / Compliance

• Nice to have: Arabic and/or Turkish speaking 

Further information: 

• We’re people without borders — without judgment or prejudice, too. We want to work with the best people, no matter their background. So if you’re passionate about learning new things and keen to join our mission, you’ll fit right in.

• Also, qualifications aren’t that important to us. If you’ve got great experience, and you’re great at articulating your thinking, we’d like to hear from you.

• And because we believe that diverse teams build better products, we’d especially love to hear from you if you’re from an under-represented demographic.

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.

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