Head of Compliance & MLRO

Head of Compliance & MLRO

LOCATION:

Doha, Qatar Financial CentreTYPE:

Full-time, on-site

REPORTS TO:

CEO and Board, Ihsan LLCRESIDENCY:

Based in Qatar or open to relocate

About Ihsan Ihsan is a private messenger and a riba-free wallet in one app, built from the Ummah, for the Ummah. People chat, call, and send, save and give money in the same place, with no interest anywhere and no ads.

Ihsan LLC is headquartered in the Qatar Financial Centre. Our next step is Ihsan Gold: a token that records ownership of real, allocated physical Gold, which people can hold, give and transfer inside a chat. We are preparing to develop it with the QFC through its Digital Assets Lab, overseen by our Sharia board.

The role

You will be Ihsan's first compliance hire and our Money Laundering Reporting Officer. You will build our compliance and anti-money-laundering programme from the ground up, lead our relationship with Qatar's regulators, and take Ihsan Gold from the Lab to a licence. This is a hands-on leadership role with a direct line to the CEO and Board.

What you will do

• Act as our primary contact with the QFC Authority, the QFC Regulatory Authority and the Qatar Central Bank.
• Lead our participation in the QFC Digital Assets Lab and prepare our licence application.
• Work with licensed payment partners and oversee their compliance as we launch Ihsan Pay.
• Track regulatory change in Qatar and our future markets, and brief the Board.

• Design and own our AML and counter-terrorist-financing framework and business risk assessment.
• Set up customer onboarding, due diligence, enhanced due diligence and sanctions screening.
• Run transaction monitoring and file suspicious transaction reports with the authorities.
• Apply the travel rule to token transfers and train the whole team.

• Oversee daily reconciliation of tokens to gold held in the vault.
• Run due diligence on vault, custody and audit partners.
• Coordinate independent reserve audits and our published bar list.

• Write and maintain our compliance policies and report regularly to the Board.
• Work with our Sharia board so that regulatory and Sharia requirements fit together.
• Own consumer protection, complaints and data protection.
• Grow the compliance team as Ihsan scales.

• Help shape the first regulated framework for gold-backed Islamic money in Qatar, with the QFC.
• A founding role with real ownership and a direct line to the CEO and Board.
• Work alongside our Sharia board and a senior engineering team on a product used across the Ummah.
• A mission that matters: money without riba, and tools that answer to the people who use them.

The package will be discussed with shortlisted candidates.

• 7+ years in compliance within financial services, including at least 3 years of hands-on AML/CFT work.
• Experience as an MLRO, deputy MLRO or Compliance Officer at a regulated firm.
• Direct experience with the QFCRA, the Qatar Central Bank or another GCC regulator (such as the FSRA, DFSA, VARA or CBB).
• Background in payments, e-money, digital assets or precious metals.
• Eligible for approval by the QFCRA as MLRO, and able to meet fit-and-proper requirements.
• Professional AML qualification, such as CAMS or an ICA diploma.
• Resident in Qatar, or ready to relocate to Doha.
• Fluent English.

• Arabic.
• Understanding of Islamic finance and AAOIFI standards.
• Experience with tokenisation, custody or a virtual asset licence application.
• Familiarity with travel-rule, KYC and blockchain analytics tools.
• Experience building a compliance function at a startup or fintech.

• Principled, calm under scrutiny, and clear in writing.
• A builder who enjoys designing systems, not only reviewing them.
• Someone who sees compliance as an Amanah: protecting the people who trust us.