Head of Financial Crime Risk Assessment

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 are looking for a Head of Financial Crime (FC) Risk Assessment to lead and scale our first-line FC risk assessment framework across our entities.
• In this role, you will be responsible for the 1LoD execution of assessments focused on AML/CTF, sanctions, fraud and related typologies, while establishing robust governance and remediation standards.
• You'll partner closely with 2LoD Compliance, Product and Analytics to ensure the framework remains aligned to regulatory requirements, business growth and Wise's risk appetite.

Your mission:

• Manage and enhance the end to end FC risk assessment lifecycle, including risk identification, scoring, and control effectiveness.
• Establish and maintain a scalable governance framework covering ownership, completion tracking, and escalations across all Wise entities.
• Ensure alignment across risk frameworks (e.g., product risk assessments).
• Drive continuous improvement of the methodology execution through standardization and technology enablement.
• Perform regulatory impact analysis and identify jurisdiction-specific risks, typologies regulatory and expectations.
• Maintain a comprehensive framework for challenging and tracking remediation plans for control gaps and/or elevated residual risks identified during assessments
• Partner with the Analytics team to enhance data reporting, dashboards, and quality.
• Design and drive adoption of metrics and indicators for quarterly reporting.
• Prepare high-quality materials, dashboards, and trend analysis for senior management and risk committees.
• Act as a key 1LOD point of contact supporting regulatory exams, process walkthroughs and audit requests relating to FC risk assessments.
• Ensure risk assessments align with business growth, digital transformation strategies, and risk appetite statements.
• Lead a small team (currently 1 direct report) and provide prioritisation and performance management; with potential to grow the team over time in line with programme needs.

Qualifications

• Significant experience leading Financial Crime risk assessments in a complex financial institution, including multi-entity or multi-region scope.
• Demonstrated ownership of risk assessment methodology design, including scoring models, materiality, and control effectiveness integration.
• Proven ability to effectively communicate with Product, Analytics, and 2LOD Compliance and Risk teams.
• Strong capacity to prioritize tasks, maintain a problem-solving mindset, and take ownership to drive and deliver projects from inception to completion with high attention to detail
• Strong data literacy with the ability to scrutinize metrics.
• Experience implementing or running risk processes in GRC/workflow tools (e.g., internal tooling like Optro, or equivalent platforms).

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.
• If you want to find out more about what it's like to work at Wise visit Wise.Jobs .
• Keep up to date with life at Wise by following us on LinkedIn and Instagram .