At a Glance
- Tasks: Lead compliance and risk functions to enable safe scaling of NALA's global payments.
- Company: Join NALA, a fast-growing fintech revolutionising global payments for the next billion users.
- Benefits: Enjoy private medical insurance, generous leave, learning budget, and fun monthly socials.
- Other info: Dynamic startup environment with significant growth opportunities and a collaborative team culture.
- Why this job: Be a key player in transforming global payments while protecting customers and driving innovation.
- Qualifications: Experience in fintech compliance, AML/CTF, and multi-jurisdictional regulatory frameworks required.
The predicted salary is between 63000 - 77000 £ per year.
About Us
NALA is building Payments for the Next Billion. Faster, smarter, and fairer transfers for everyone. Since 2022, we've grown our business 120x, grew the team from 9 to 150+, raised $50M+ from top-tier investors, and were named to the Forbes Fintech 50 in 2025. We operate two core products: NALA, our consumer app making cross-border payments cheaper, faster and more reliable for the global diaspora, allowing users to send money from the UK, US and EU to Africa and Asia; and Rafiki, our B2B payments infrastructure, powering global payments.
Our team includes alumni from Wise, Stripe, Monzo, Revolut, and CashApp — operators who’ve scaled world-class products. We act with urgency, think deeply, and put our customers first always. At NALA, this isn’t just a job. It’s ownership, impact, and the chance to change global payments forever.
Your Mission
Your mission is to build and lead a world-class compliance and risk function that enables NALA to scale safely across consumer and B2B payments. You will protect our customers, licences and reputation while helping the business move at the pace that being NALA requires. Your regulatory leadership is focused on our Western licensed markets - the UK, EU, US, Canada and Australia - with our Africa and emerging-markets footprint folded into your remit over time. This spans both our consumer app and the infrastructure powering some of the world's largest payments companies.
Compliance at NALA is not a blocker function. It is the function that decides which corridors we open, which products we launch, which acquisitions we close, and which regulators we earn the trust of. Done well, it is our most defensible competitive advantage. This role is both the guardian of NALA's licence to operate and a growth partner that helps us find compliant ways to put innovative financial products in front of customers in frontier markets.
Your Responsibilities in this Role
- Lead and enable NALA's global group of MLROs and BSA/AML officers across the UK, EU (Belgium), US and Canada.
- Own NALA's global compliance strategy across AML/CTF, sanctions, consumer protection, licensing, regulatory reporting, financial crime and fraud controls, covering both the NALA consumer business and the Rafiki B2B infrastructure platform.
- Act as both the guardian of NALA's licence to operate - maintaining the compliance infrastructure and standards regulators expect, staying clear of any criminal lines, and proactively helping regulators - and a growth- and customer-focused partner who helps the business find compliant ways to deliver innovative financial products to customers in frontier markets.
- Act as NALA's most senior regulatory leader, building trusted relationships with regulators (FCA, NBB, FinCEN and US state regulators, and others), banking partners, and acquirer counterparties.
- Continuously acquire and maintain the licences NALA needs to operate, including scaling NALA's US footprint from current licensed states to 30+, and building the US-resident compliance presence required for the highest-volume states (CA, NY, TX, NJ, MA, WA).
- Own risk management across the organisation, running NALA's enterprise risk framework and steering the Risk Committee.
- Lead integration and M&A-related compliance activity on a rolling basis, including the in-flight regulated acquisitions in the UK and EU.
- Build, hire and lead a high-performing compliance team.
- Lead compliance input into every new product, corridor, partnership and acquisition, including stablecoin settlement infrastructure, local currency wallets, B2B collections, and emerging markets corridors.
- Own the regulatory examinations and audit cycle across NALA's licensed entities, including upcoming audits in Canada, the UK, and the EU.
- Build the Group risk and compliance framework, including an enterprise risk management system, board-level Risk & Compliance Committee, and the data architecture for direct regulatory reporting.
- Create clear, decision-useful reporting for the CEO, ExCo and Board on regulatory and enterprise risk, control performance, and key compliance priorities.
- Be the executive who decides when to enable, when to challenge, and when to stop, and who can defend each of those decisions to a regulator, a board, and an acquirer.
Must-have requirements
- Led the compliance function at a regulated fintech, payments, EMI, MSB, remittance or banking business.
- Deep, hands-on experience with AML/CTF, sanctions, financial crime, transaction monitoring, regulator engagement, and licence obligations.
- A hands-on leader who can problem-solve and do the work themselves when they need to.
- Emerging-market exposure.
- Exposure to stablecoin, digital asset or crypto regulatory frameworks.
- Experience in cross-border payments, remittance, card issuing/acquiring, banking infrastructure or B2B payments.
- Held an SMF, MLRO, BSA/AML Officer, or equivalent regulated role.
- Built compliance frameworks from the ground up.
- Multi-jurisdictional experience.
- Clear judgement on when to enable, when to challenge, and when to stop activity.
- Track record advising CEOs, Boards or ExCo on material regulatory and compliance risk.
- Excellent written and verbal communication with regulators, banking partners, acquirer counterparties and senior internal stakeholders.
- Comfort with a fast-moving, ambiguous, builder-stage environment.
Nice to have requirements
- Operated across UK and US regulatory regimes simultaneously.
- Compliance leadership through an M&A transaction.
- Working understanding of African or other emerging-market regulatory regimes.
- Built compliance teams through periods of high growth.
Benefits
- Private Medical Insurance: Full medical cover through a leading UK provider.
- 27 Days Off Plus UK Bank Holidays.
- Birthday Leave: Celebrate your special day with a bonus day off.
- Enhanced Parental Leave: 16 weeks of full pay for the primary caregiver and 4 weeks of full pay for the secondary caregiver.
- Enhanced Pension: Salary sacrifice pension scheme via Penfold.
- Life Insurance: 3x salary cover.
- Global Workspace: Access to WeWork locations worldwide.
- Learning Budget: $1000 annually for learning and development.
- Sarabi: Themed snacks and Friday lunch.
- Monthly Socials: Join fun social events every month.
- Free Coffee: Enjoy barista-style coffee.
Global Head of Compliance in London employer: Nala Inc
NALA is an exceptional employer, offering a dynamic work culture that prioritises ownership and impact in the fast-paced fintech landscape. With generous benefits like enhanced parental leave, a robust learning budget, and a commitment to employee growth, NALA empowers its team to thrive while making meaningful contributions to global payments. Located in the UK, employees enjoy a vibrant environment with opportunities for collaboration and innovation, all while being part of a mission-driven company that is reshaping financial services for the next billion users.
