Compliance Lead - APAC

Stealth Startup; Hong Kong; On-site; HKD 900,000 - 1,500,000; Full time

Job summary

Stealth Startup is seeking an experienced Compliance Lead to head the regulatory and compliance function for a fast-growing global payments business. The role owns end-to-end licensing across jurisdictions and builds the framework from licensing to launch and ongoing operations.

The ideal candidate has hands-on regulator engagement, work with external counsel and internal stakeholders to progress financial services licences, AML/KYC, sanctions, and governance, and will scale the compliance

Qualifications

• 8+ years of Compliance / Regulatory experience within payments or fintech.
• Led or significantly contributed to obtaining payment licences.
• Experience managing multiple jurisdictions simultaneously.
• Knowledge of AML/CFT, KYC/KYB, sanctions and transaction monitoring.
• Ability to translate regulatory requirements into practical controls with product/tech/ops.
• Strong project-management across licensing workstreams.

Responsibilities

• Lead multiple payment licence applications across key jurisdictions from assessment to approval.
• Serve as primary compliance contact with regulators and external counsel.
• Translate regulatory requirements into business, product, operational, and tech specs.
• Build and maintain a compliance framework for licensed operations.
• Advise management on licensing strategy and regulatory risks.
• Manage regulatory examinations and ongoing obligations.
• Define team structure and future hiring for the compliance function.

Skills

Compliance leadership

Regulatory experience

Licence applications

AML/KYC

Regulatory liaison

Job description

We are looking for an experienced Compliance Lead to lead the regulatory and compliance function for a fast-growing global payments business.

This role will take end-to-end ownership of multiple payment licence applications across different jurisdictions, while building the compliance framework, policies and operational capabilities required to support the business from licensing through to launch and ongoing operations.

The ideal candidate is highly execution-oriented and has hands-on experience working with regulators, external counsel and internal stakeholders to successfully progress financial services or payment licence applications.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead and coordinate multiple payment licence applications across key jurisdictions, managing the process from regulatory assessment and application preparation through submission, regulator Q&A and approval.
• Act as a key compliance contact with regulators, external legal counsel, consultants and banking/payment partners throughout the licensing process.
• Translate regulatory requirements into clear business, product, operational and technology requirements.
• Build and maintain the compliance framework required for licensed payment operations, including AML/CFT, KYC/KYB, sanctions, transaction monitoring, risk assessment, regulatory reporting and governance.
• Identify regulatory gaps and drive remediation with Product, Engineering, Operations, Risk, Legal and other relevant teams.
• Establish appropriate compliance policies, procedures, controls and monitoring mechanisms as the business expands into new markets.
• Advise management on licensing strategy, regulatory risks and market-entry requirements across jurisdictions.
• Manage regulatory examinations, information requests, licence conditions and ongoing regulatory obligations.
• Build and develop the compliance function as the business scales, including defining team structure and future hiring requirements.

Requirements

• 8+ years of Compliance / Regulatory experience within payments, fintech, banking, EMI, money services, digital assets or other regulated financial services.
• Strong hands-on experience with financial services or payment licence applications, ideally having personally led or played a major role in obtaining licences.
• Experience managing multiple jurisdictions or regulatory regimes simultaneously.
• Strong knowledge of AML/CFT, KYC/KYB, sanctions, transaction monitoring and broader payment compliance requirements.
• Demonstrated ability to engage directly with regulators and manage regulatory questions through to resolution.
• Comfortable working closely with Product, Technology and Operations teams to turn regulatory requirements into practical controls.
• Strong project-management capability and ability to manage multiple licensing workstreams, dependencies and deadlines simultaneously.
• Builder mentality — comfortable operating in a fast-moving environment where frameworks and processes need to be developed from the ground up.

Strong Advantage

• Experience obtaining or maintaining licences such as MPI, EMI/PI, MSB/MTL, SVF, AFSL or equivalent payment/financial-services licences.
• Experience supporting a payments business expanding across APAC, Europe, the Middle East and/or North America.
• Experience taking a business from pre-licence regulatory approval operational launch.
• Previous experience as a Compliance Lead, Head of Compliance, MLRO or equivalent senior compliance role within a high-growth fintech or payments company.