Head of Compliance and Regulations (Crypto/Mobile Operator/Remittances/Africa)

Black Pen Recruitment; Remote; GBP 100,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading recruitment agency is looking for a Head of Compliance & Regulation to drive the compliance strategy within a fintech environment. You will be responsible for leading regulator engagement, managing multi-country compliance frameworks, and ensuring regulatory adherence across various markets. The ideal candidate has 8-12+ years of experience in compliance within payments and fintech, with excellent organizational and cross-functional collaboration skills. This position is fully remote, allowing for flexible work arrangements.

Qualifications

• 8–12+ years of experience in compliance, regulatory, or risk roles.
• Strong expertise in payments regulation and cross-border money movement.
• Hands-on experience with AML, CFT, sanctions, and regulatory reporting.

Responsibilities

• Maintain understanding of regulatory frameworks governing payments.
• Lead regulator engagement and ongoing regulatory reporting.
• Define compliant operating models for collections and payouts.

Skills

Experience in payments regulation

Strong organisational skills

Cross-functional collaboration skills

Job description

The Head of Compliance & Regulation plays a critical role in the development, implementation and execution of our clients compliance, regulatory, and risk management strategy. This role supports the Head of Legal and works closely with Product, Payments, Treasury, Engineering, and external stakeholders to ensure compliant scaling of payments, cross-border money movement, crypto, and Merchant-of-Record (MoR) operations across multiple jurisdictions.

Job Type: Full-time

Workplace: Remote

Location: London, United Kingdom

Report: General Manager

Department: Legal, Regulatory and Compliance

Competency framework: Enabling Competencies

Requirements

• 8–12+ years of experience in compliance, regulatory, or risk roles within payments, fintech, crypto, or financial services.
• Strong expertise in payments regulation, cross-border money movement, Merchant-of-Record models, and domestic acquiring.
• Hands-on experience with AML, CFT, sanctions, transaction monitoring, and regulatory reporting.
• Proven experience managing multi-country regulatory frameworks, including emerging and developing markets.
• Demonstrated ability to design compliant operating models for collections, payouts, FX, and merchant settlement.
• Experience engaging regulators, central banks, PSPs, and financial institutions across multiple jurisdictions.
• Ability to operate independently, exercise sound judgment, and make pragmatic decisions in high-growth environments.
• Strong organisational, communication, and cross‑functional collaboration skills.

Advantageous

• Experience launching or operating payments or MoR products in Africa or other emerging markets.
• Exposure to mobile money, domestic acquiring, and local PSP ecosystems.
• Familiarity with crypto or stablecoin-related compliance frameworks.
• Startup or scale‑up fintech experience.
• Professional compliance certification (e.g. CCEP or equivalent).

Responsibilities

• Maintain deep understanding of regulatory frameworks governing payments, cross-border money movement, crypto, and Merchant-of-Record models across all operating markets.
• Lead regulator engagement, licensing, approvals, and ongoing regulatory reporting across jurisdictions, including central banks and payment authorities.
• Own and evolve the end-to-end compliance framework covering payments, MoR, AML, CFT, sanctions, transaction monitoring, and data protection.
• Define compliant operating models for collections, payouts, domestic acquiring, and cross-border flows in each market.
• Oversee KYC, customer and merchant due diligence, ongoing monitoring, and assessment of high-risk exposures.
• Lead AML, CFT, sanctions screening, and transaction monitoring for payment flows, last‑mile payouts, and merchant activity.
• Oversee tax, VAT, and statutory compliance requirements linked to MoR structures, ensuring audit readiness and accurate settlement reporting.
• Embed compliance requirements into payment flows, APIs, product design, and internal tooling in partnership with Product and Engineering teams.
• Act as the primary compliance point of contact for regulators, banks, PSPs, acquiring partners, and strategic partners.
• Support due diligence, onboarding, and ongoing oversight of local PSPs, acquiring partners, and payment vendors.
• Provide technical guidance to the business on regulatory change, translating requirements into pragmatic operational controls.
• Manage external advisors, consultants, and service providers supporting compliance activities.
• Act as Data Protection Officer and Money Laundering Reporting Officer where required. 14. Perform additional duties aligned with regulatory, payments, and compliance leadership as needed.