Head of KYC Operations - Wise Platform

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.

To lead the KYC Operations Function organization to ensure its compliance and provide instant service with best-in-class quality, and to do this in a scalable, cost-efficient manner, working in partnership with other Wise teams and functions, most prominently with Wise Product and Compliance.

• Lead a team of Area Leads and their functional areas to drive strategic direction and operational excellence.
• Responsible for setting and executing strategic objectives, building high-performing teams, and ensuring they meet operational and quality targets. Oversee circa 75 employees across multiple locations, both internally and outsourced, ensuring they achieve the organization’s mission and align operational strategies with business goals.
• Ensure top-notch delivery in your team’s quality, compliance, speed and cost of operations.

• Lead the design of the vision and strategy for your team, aligned with overall Servicing Strategy, making processes more compliant, faster, better and scalable with a clear customer focus.

• Build and develop a robust and compliant customer onboarding program.
• Build the necessary support systems for the processes: metrics, targets, governance; utilize data and user research to optimize onboarding experience and transform how we fight financial crime and fulfill regulatory obligations.
• Drive improvement initiatives and manage an efficient process while providing continuous risk management and control.
• Work closely with Risk and Compliance teams to align on risk appetites and capabilities to support business growth.

• Ensure that the right KYC Operations Function organization and leaders are in place.
• Build and develop a people strategy that allows execution upon the vision—cross functions and locations.
• Revamp people-management processes with People Operations team—skills, career paths, performance management.
• Oversight of team budgets and high-level reporting.

• Extensive experience, typically 8–10 years, in Operations (preferably KYC/AML, financial crime, compliance, or related fields within financial services).
• Finance or compliance experience; heavy preference for awareness of correspondent service infrastructure and associated risk.
• Demonstrated leadership experience, preferably 8 years, in leading and mentoring large teams, fostering inclusive high-performance culture.
• In‑depth expertise and strategic understanding of the regulatory environment and evolving KYC/AML framework.
• Proficiency in advanced analytics tools such as Looker, Superset, or equivalent platforms to drive data-driven decision-making.
• Exceptional communication and interpersonal skills, strong organizational capabilities; ability to manage time and thrive in fast-paced, high-pressure environments.
• Expertise in multi-tasking and maintaining accountability in complex scenarios.

We are 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 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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