Legal & Risk Analyst (Fintech/URL Risk)

Black Pen Recruitment; Cape Town; On-site; ZAR 600,000 - 900,000; Full time

Job summary

A financial technology firm is seeking a Legal & Risk Analyst in Cape Town. This role involves managing merchant transparency and KYC risk within their portfolio. The ideal candidate will have 3–6 years of relevant fintech or payments experience and a proven track record in risk assessment and operational decision-making. Responsibilities include maintaining merchant data repositories and conducting thorough website reviews to ensure compliance and transparency.

Qualifications

• 3–6 years’ experience in payments, fintech, or regulated financial services.
• Direct operational experience in merchant onboarding and risk assessment.
• Hands-on experience reviewing merchant websites for risk evaluation.

Responsibilities

• Own and maintain a master repository of merchant URLs and app links.
• Map aggregator and sub-merchant structures for traffic transparency.
• Monitor merchant risk classifications and conduct structured reviews.

Skills

Payments experience

Risk assessment

Operational decision-making

Job description

Our client is a fast-scaling payments and financial technology business operating in a regulated environment. They sit at the intersection of commerce, technology, and risk — where structured governance and merchant transparency are critical to sustainable growth. As they expand, we are strengthening our risk infrastructure and merchant intelligence capability.

Role Overview

Our client is seeking a Legal & Risk Analyst to take ownership of merchant transparency, contractual governance, and KYC risk structure across their portfolio. This role is suited to a commercially aware risk professional with 3–6 years’ fintech or payments experience who can think in systems, exercise independent judgment, and improve operational processes over time.

This is not a checklist compliance role. It is operational risk intelligence inside a live payments business.

Job Type: Full-Time

Location: Cape Town

Workplace: Onsite

Requirements

• 3–6 years’ experience within payments, PSP, acquiring, EMI, fintech, or regulated financial services.
• Direct operational experience in merchant onboarding, underwriting, or risk assessment.
• Proven hands‑on experience reviewing merchant websites as part of onboarding and risk evaluation.
• Experience conducting enhanced due diligence and analysing corporate ownership structures.
• Exposure to aggregator or marketplace models.
• Experience reviewing commercial agreements.
• Ability to make structured first‑line risk decisions within defined guardrails.
• Applications without payments or fintech operational experience will not be considered.

Responsibilities

• Own and maintain a master repository of all merchant URLs, domains, subdomains, redirects, and app links.
• Map aggregator and sub‑merchant structures to ensure full traffic transparency.
• Monitor declared vs undeclared activity and maintain merchant risk classifications.
• Ensure the business can clearly identify at any time who is sending traffic, from which URL, and under which structure.
• Conduct structured merchant website reviews during onboarding and periodically thereafter, analysing business models, checkout flows, disclosures, refund policies, and activity alignment.
• Identify potential misrepresentation or undeclared activity and escalate where required.
• Review and amend merchant agreements in line with commercial terms and maintain deviation logs.
• Conduct enhanced due diligence on ownership structures and related entities.
• Maintain structured KYC/KYB stacks, expiry tracking, and waiver documentation.
• Strengthen onboarding workflows and introduce process improvements and automation where appropriate.