Compliance Manager

Transak; Dubai; On-site; AED 120,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

A fintech startup in Dubai is looking for a Compliance Manager & MLRO. This role oversees regulatory licensing, suspicious activity reporting, and compliance operations. Ideal candidates will have experience in financial compliance, strong leadership abilities, and a deep understanding of AML regulations. The Compliance Manager will also maintain relationships with regulators and ensure audit readiness. This is a hands-on leadership position, perfect for those passionate about compliance in the fintech space.

Qualifications

• Experience in compliance management, particularly in financial services.
• Strong understanding of AML regulations and compliance frameworks.
• Ability to lead teams and communicate regulatory requirements effectively.

Responsibilities

• Oversee regulatory licensing and governance.
• Manage suspicious activity reporting and financial crime oversight.
• Lead compliance operations and ensure audit readiness.
• Maintain relationships with regulators and auditors.

Skills

Regulatory compliance

AML/CFT knowledge

Risk management

Leadership

Communication skills

Education

Relevant certification in compliance or financial crime

Job description

About the company

Our mission is that “Any financial application can onboard any user, anywhere in the world, in 1 click.” Transak provides onboarding to financial applications through authentication, KYC, risk checks, and fiat on/off ramps. This is a next generation of infrastructure for the next generation of financial applications that are built on blockchain and stablecoin rails. Our API and widget-based solutions are used by top partners like MetaMask, Coinbase, Ledger, and Trust Wallet to enable seamless onboarding of over 10 million users across over 450 active applications.

We have raised over $37M from top-tier investors including Consensys, Tether, and Animoca Brands.

About the Role

The Compliance Manager & MLRO is the accountable individual for licensing acquisition in the target jurisdiction and AML/CFT, sanctions, and regulatory governance post license approval. This role maintains the company’s compliance and financial crime frameworks within the target jurisdiction, ensuring adherence to laws, licence conditions, supervisory expectations as well as Transak’s Group Compliance standards.

It is a hands-on leadership role, balancing strategic regulatory responsibilities with operational oversight. The role is responsible for suspicious activity reporting, transaction monitoring effectiveness, licensing obligations, regulatory relationship management, and embedding compliance requirements across Product, Engineering, Operations, and Risk.

The role reports to the Group Head of Compliance.

Key Responsibilities

1. Licensing & Regulatory Governance

• Apply for, maintain, and vary regulatory licences in accordance with business requirements.
• Maintain compliance and AML policies, risk assessments, and control frameworks.
• Ensure accurate, complete regulatory submissions.
• Maintain compliance registers and evidence libraries.
• Advise internal teams on licensing constraints and regulatory expectations.

2. MLRO Duties (Suspicious Activity Reporting & Financial Crime Oversight)

• Receive, assess, and investigate suspicious activity escalations.
• Draft and file SARs/STRs with structured, evidence-based narratives.
• Identify financial crime patterns and typologies.
• Conduct thematic reviews and risk assessments.
• Maintain SAR documentation and ensure timeliness.

3. Compliance Operations Oversight

• Oversee high-risk KYB, corporate/OTC KYB, and EDD workflows.
• Conduct 4-eye reviews on critical decisions and token listing due diligence.
• Ensure process consistency across monitoring, screening, and onboarding.
• Maintain audit-ready documentation and evidence quality.

4. Sanctions & PEP Governance

• Calibrate country level requirements for PEPs & sanctions screening.
• Review escalated sanctions/PEP cases and determine true/false matches.
• Lead escalation to regulators when necessary.
• Support sanctions rule tuning and ongoing improvements.

5. Regulatory Relationship Management

• Act as primary contact for regulators and auditors.
• Manage inspections, audits, thematic reviews, and information requests.
• Provide structured, comprehensive documentation.
• Maintain proactive, transparent regulatory relationships.

6. Product Advisory

• Define AML/CFT, sanctions, and licensing requirements for new features.
• Translate regulatory obligations into technical specifications and acceptance criteria.
• Review product changes for compliance implications.
• Support validation/testing of product workflows for correct control functioning.
• Maintain ongoing awareness of upcoming regulatory changes and prepare the business for new requirements in a timely manner.

7. Cross-Functional Leadership

• Provide compliance guidance to Operations, Product, Engineering, Risk, Customer Support.
• Tailor communication of regulatory requirements to audience expertise.
• Represent Compliance internally as SME in critical discussions and planning.

8. Training & Culture

• Deliver AML/CFT, sanctions, and risk-awareness training.
• Promote consistent documentation standards and escalation behaviours.
• Model sound judgement, integrity, and proportional decisioning across teams.

9. Group Compliance

• Support the Group Head in maintaining the Transak Group Compliance Programme.

Nice-to-Haves

• Experience in high-growth fintech or Web3 startups.
• Prior work with KYC, payments, or liquidity systems.
• Exposure to AI or automation tools to scale operations.
• Experience with multi-region product launches or regulated environments.
• Familiarity with crypto payments, on/off-ramp APIs, or blockchain ecosystems.