Head of KYC Operations - Americas

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

The Head of KYC Operations - Americas oversees our Customer Due Diligence (CDD) and Enhanced Due Diligence (EDD) operations in Americas, which includes the USA, Canada, Brazil, Mexico and many other markets. You will work closely with Financial Crime Prevention and Compliance acting as the First Line of Defence against AML/CTF and other risks while balancing it within Wise Risk Appetite against company Growth goals.

In this role, you will lead a team of Area Leads and their functional areas to drive strategic direction and operational excellence. You are responsible for setting and executing strategic objectives, building high-performing teams, and ensuring they meet operational and quality targets. The role usually involves overseeing 150+ employees across  multiple locations both Internally and Outsourced, ensuring achieving the organization's mission, and aligning operational strategies with business goals 

You will need to ensure the top-notch delivery in your team’s Quality, Compliance, Speed and Cost of Operations. Some examples of your Success metrics might include but not be limited to:

• For the Customers: Quality of KYC Function processes (false positive and negatives), Resolution of customer-facing cases, Response SLA, KYC-related appeals upheld

• For Wise: False Positives, False Negatives, Customer Attrition during onboarding, Handling Time, Risk Indicators, Cost per Contact

• For Wisers: Engagement Score, Attrition, Rewards

A few ways in which you’ll contribute to Wise’s success in this role

Setting the Strategy for KYC Operations Function

• Lead the design of the vision and strategy for your team, aligned with the overall Servicing Strategy, in making the processes more compliant, faster, better and more scalable, with a clear customer focus

Building the best processes

• Build and develop a robust and compliant customer onboarding program

• Build the necessary support systems for the processes: Metrics, Targets, Governance

• Utilize data and user research to optimize our on-boarding experience and transform how we currently fight financial crime and fulfill regulatory obligations 

• Drive improvement initiatives and manage an efficient process while providing continuous effective risk management and control 

• Manage and optimize 3rd party services and outsourced vendors across the KYC operating model

• Work closely with our Risk and Compliance teams to align on risk appetites and capabilities to support the growth of the business

Nurturing a great team

• Ensure that the right KYC Operations Function organization and the right leaders are in place

• Build and develop a people strategy that allows execution upon the vision - cross functions and locations

• Revamp the People management processes together with the People Operations team -  skills, career paths, performance management

• Oversight of team's budgets and high level reporting. 

• Set KPIs and developmental objectives across the current team of 150+ people (regional teams across across the globe)

Partnering with Product

• Work closely with Product teams to ship and deliver best in market KYC products and experiences to our customers 

This is not intended to be an exhaustive list. As the overall lead of this function, you are expected to take on, and hold accountability for, anything that is required in order to deliver on the mission and the performance of this function.

Qualifications

• Extensive experience, typically 10+ years, in Operations (preferably KYC/AML, financial crime, compliance, or related fields within the financial services industry).

• Demonstrated leadership experience, preferably 8+ years, in leading and mentoring large teams, fostering an inclusive and high-performance culture.

• In-depth expertise and strategic understanding of the regulatory environment and evolving framework surrounding KYC/AML.

• Proficient in utilizing advanced analyti