Global Head of Financial Crime Strategy

Job description

**About Nium** Nium is the leading global infrastructure for real-time cross-border payments. We were founded on the mission to deliver the global payments infrastructure of tomorrow, today. Our platform enables banks, fintechs, and global businesses to move money instantly, everywhere. Co-headquartered in San Francisco and Singapore with offices in 14 markets worldwide, we are entering one of the most exciting chapters in our journey. In July 2025, we delivered the largest month in our 10-year history with record revenue, record volumes, and EBITDA profitability. Today, Nium moves nearly $50B in payments annually, almost entirely for enterprises, while continuing to strengthen an already healthy balance sheet. **It is an incredible time to join us, and we are only just getting started.** Our payout network spans 190+ countries and 100 currencies, with 100 corridors in real time. We power seamless transfers to accounts, wallets, and cards, support local collections in 35 markets, and run a card issuance business live in 34 countries. Backed by regulatory licenses in more than 40 markets, we make it simple for our partners to onboard, integrate, and scale globally. This scale and innovation have earned us recognition as one of CNBC’s World’s Top Fintech Companies 2025, winner of Best Cross-Border Payments Solution at the PayTech Awards, and inclusion in FXC Intelligence’s Top 100 Cross-Border Payments Companies list. In 2024, we raised US$50 million in Series E funding at a US$1.4 billion valuation to accelerate network expansion, product innovation, and talent growth. With the B2B payments market projected to hit US$175 trillion by 2030, Nium offers ambitious builders the chance to shape the future of global money movement with the scale of a leader and the energy of a high-growth company. **About the role** As the Global Head of Financial Crimes Compliance, you are the architect of our global financial crime combatting strategy. Your mission is to empower our MLROs and Country Compliance Officers by providing them with a world-class, tech-driven framework, unified policies, and scalable tooling. You build the global standards and systems that ensure our in-country Compliance leaders succeed in meeting regulatory expectations, including audits and inspections. ### Key Responsibilities - Global Standard Setting: Develop and implement a group-level AML/CFT control framework tailored to a diverse portfolio of payments services, cards, and emerging products, ensuring a consistent risk appetite across all entities while allowing for local legal "add-ons." - Systems & Product Enablement: Partner with Product and Engineering to build a "Global Compliance Stack." You own the global requirements for our proprietary or vendor-led KYC, screening, and advanced transaction monitoring leveraging AI / ML. - Vendor Engagement: Stay abreast of the latest tools and providers in the industry for FinCrimes Compliance and lead the technical selection for FCC vendors ensuring quality and cost-efficiency, with global scale. - Global Strategy & Governance: Develop and implement a group-level AML/CFT control framework tailored to a diverse portfolio of payments services, cards, and emerging products. - Risk Management: Conduct regular global and regional risk assessments; maintain oversight on complex investigations and filing of Suspicious Transaction Reports (STRs/SARs). - Leadership: Build, mentor, and lead a high-performing, cross-border compliance team, fostering a culture of "Challenge, Escalate, and Respect". - Operational Oversight: Drive continuous improvement in KYC/CDD/EDD workflows, rule validation, and back-testing to ensure controls remain effective during rapid scaling. ### Requirements - Experience: 12+ years of senior compliance leadership within a global payments firm, fintech, or international bank. - Industry Expertise: Familiarity with the FinCrime regulations around the world, including Payment Services Act, BSA/USA PATRIOT Act, and evolving international cross-border payment standards. - The "Architect" Mindset: You have 15+ years of experience, but you’ve moved past manual reviews. You think in terms of scalable systems and automated workflows. - Influence without Authority: Proven ability to lead a matrixed organization where regional MLROs have local accountability but look to you for functional direction and "best-in-class" tools. - Fintech Native: You understand the nuances of high-velocity payments, crypto-linkages, and digital-first onboarding. - Crisis & Advisory: You are the "Level 2" escalation point for complex, cross-border financial crime cases that span multiple jurisdictions. **Success metrics** - Time-to-Market: Speed at which a new country can "plug in" to the global FCC stack and go live. - Platform Health: Significant reduction in manual work for regional teams through automation and high-fidelity alerting. - Audit Readiness: 100% consistency in global data standards during any regional regulatory examination. - Detection Effectiveness: High "true positive" rate in transaction monitoring and significant reductions in false positive alerts. - Regulatory Standing: Zero major findings in regulatory audits and successful expansion into new markets via timely licensing.