Scheme Compliance Function Lead

Wise; Greater London; On-site; GBP 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Wise in London is seeking a Scheme Compliance Function Lead to own issuer-side scheme compliance and card disputes across Visa and Mastercard. You will build scalable controls, lead a team of specialists, and partner with stakeholders to ensure compliant, secure card issuance at scale.

You will design multi-year strategies, drive launch integrity for new issuance initiatives, and manage external relationships with schemes while embedding governance and risk reduction into daily operations.

Qualifications

• Extensive experience in leading issuer-side scheme compliance and disputes operations (Visa and Mastercard).
• Proven track record of operationalizing scheme rules and audit-ready control frameworks.
• Excellent communication and negotiation skills with senior leaders and external scheme executives.
• Deep knowledge of the card issuance supply chain including processors, tokenisation, 3DS and dispute tooling.
• Strong leadership and team development skills in ambiguous environments.

Responsibilities

• Develop and execute a 1-3 year Spend Scheme Compliance strategy.
• Act as the accountable leader for issuer-side scheme topics across Visa and Mastercard programs.
• Manage and develop a team of Compliance Product Specialists.
• Own Card Disputes Compliance end-to-end across fraud and non-fraud disputes.
• Lead launch integrity for new issuance initiatives (BINs, chip profiles, market expansions).
• Oversee scheme compliance across the issuer supply chain including processors and 3DS providers.
• Establish early-warning monitoring programs for scheme KPIs (fraud, disputes, thresholds).
• Lead negotiations and external relationship management with Visa and Mastercard.
• Design and maintain a robust control framework and audit readiness.
• Drive continuous improvement with scalable dashboards and playbooks.

Skills

Issuer-side scheme compliance

Disputes operations

Stakeholder management

Leadership and coaching

Negotiation skills

Regulatory knowledge

Cross-functional collaboration

Process improvement

Governance and controls

Job description

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.

Job Description

We're looking for a Scheme Compliance Function Lead to join our Spend & Card Issuance Team in London.

This role will focus on leading issuer-side scheme compliance and card disputes frameworks across Visa and Mastercard programs. It's a unique opportunity to build on your regulatory and commercial expertise, help deliver Wise's mission of money without borders, and grow within a global, fast-paced environment while ensuring our card issuance operations remain compliant, secure, and built to scale.

Wise is a fast-growing business, so we expect that the right candidate will be able to clearly demonstrate exceptional behaviors and risk leadership that have resulted in scalable, compliant outcomes and material risk reduction in prior organizations.

Your mission:

At Wise, our mission is to make money borderless - and Scheme Compliance plays a key role in making that happen. We establish robust control frameworks and operational governance that ensure Wise meets scheme obligations, protects customer outcomes, and drives maximum value from our card issuance ecosystem. Our goal? To make launching and operating card programs at Wise as compliant, resilient, and frictionless as sending money across borders.

Scheme Compliance sits within our Spend & Card Issuance function, overseeing issuer obligations, monitoring programs, launches, and vendor governance. We're a dedicated team that supports the business across all Visa and Mastercard product flows.

This is your chance to help shape what Scheme Compliance looks like at Wise - providing high evidence standards, building scalable processes, driving product integrity, and helping us create a best-in-class global issuer compliance function!

Your mission is to enable, protect, and empower the business and people of Wise by ensuring our card products meet scheme rules, mitigate fraud and dispute risks, flow through frictionless operations, and support our global growth.

About the Role:

• Develop and execute a 1-3 year Spend Scheme Compliance strategy that aligns with Wise's business objectives and translates into clear quarterly priorities.

• Act as the accountable leader and key stakeholder for all issuer-side scheme topics across Visa and Mastercard programs, including BIN management, thresholds, and rule interpretations.

• Manage and develop a team of Compliance Product Specialists, helping them navigate complex scheme environments through effective coaching, performance management, and clear role definitions.

• Own Card Disputes Compliance end-to-end across fraud and non-fraud disputes, ensuring rules are operationalised, risks are governed, and recovery rates are optimised.

• Lead launch integrity for new issuance initiatives (BINs, chip profiles, market expansions), ensuring correct-first-time scheme submissions and go/no-go readiness.

• Oversee scheme compliance across the issuer supply chain, including processors, 3DS/authentication providers, tokenisation partners, and card personalisation vendors.

• Establish early-warning monitoring programs for scheme KPIs (fraud, disputes, thresholds) to prevent fee escalation or enforcement actions.

• Lead high-stakes negotiations and external relationship management with Visa and Mastercard, setting the tone for Wise advocacy and commitment tracking.

• Design and maintain a robust control framework, leading audit readiness and managing executive responses for scheme, external, and internal queries.

• Drive continuous improvement by establishing scalable mechanisms, including automated dashboards, standardised templates, and playbooks that reduce manual tasks and single points of failure.

This role will give you the opportunity to:

• Choose your path to impact. As a Lead, you’ll take ownership from day one, backed by smart, curious people across Wise while enjoying high levels of autonomy.

• Be extremely hands-on. We don't have far-away leaders at Wise; you’ll be directly leading escalations, shaping controls, and executing solutions yourself.

• Be part of our mission to make money without borders the new normal.

Qualifications

About you:

• Extensive experience in leading issuer-side scheme compliance and disputes operations (Visa and Mastercard) within fintech, banking, or payments.

• Proven track record of operationalizing scheme rules, managing threshold monitoring programs, and delivering audit-ready control frameworks.

• Excellent communication and negotiation skills, with a track record of successfully influencing senior internal leaders and external scheme executives.

• Deep knowledge of the card issuance supply chain, including processors, tokenization, 3DS authentication, and dispute tooling.

• Demonstrable ability to evaluate complex scheme rules and incident scenarios, translating them into pragmatic product and operational requirements.

• Strong leadership and team development skills, with experience coaching specialists to drive cross-functional outcomes under ambiguity.

• A get-it-done, collaborative approach to problem-solving with a focus on building scalable systems.

Additional Information

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.