Senior Product Compliance & Risk Manager - UAE

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.

Job Description

More about our mission and what we offer.

We are looking for a candidate ready to leverage their UAE regulatory and fincrime legal experience in a dynamic, fintech environment. This is an exciting, hands‑on opportunity working directly with product managers, analysts and engineers to launch and manage compliant products.

Your Mission

Wise has already pioneered new ways for people to transfer money across borders and currencies. Your mission is to enable our UAE Product team to launch new products, grow our presence and manage compliance risks in the UAE through a deep understanding of Fin Crime and other regulatory requirements and regulator expectations around them.

You will exhibit a high degree of ownership in ensuring our products are compliant and have a structured approach to mitigating local risks, all while balancing this with an excellent customer experience.

This is a first line of defense, hands‑on role, embedded in the MEA Product Squad.

Creating and improving our products in a compliant and scalable way

• By deeply understanding both the Wise product and regulatory needs in the UAE, support Product and other teams on interpreting regulatory requirements, including fincrime ones, and improving processes, controls and our product accordingly;
• Perform risk assessments of new products and services, and ensure that related controls are implemented consistently prior to launch; and
• Enable Product teams to adopt a risk‑based approach in developing products, processes, and controls.

Regulatory Change And Remediation

• Conduct regulatory gap analyses, define and scope required actions to remediate gaps, and take ownership over ensuring implementation plans are executed in a timely manner; and
• In collaboration with global teams, identify opportunities to maximise synergies and drive consistency and scalability by leveraging programmes of work already executed or in flight across the Wise Group.

Manage And Mitigate Regulatory Risks And The Control Environment

• Oversee the control environment for the UAE, designing effective, creative and targeted controls and evaluating the residual risk exposure;
• Collaborate with Compliance colleagues, to ensure Wise Product Teams are constantly aware of the most recent regulations and guidance; and
• Work with Product Teams and the wider Risk & Compliance Team to implement and maintain Management Information that enables Wise to make informed decisions at the regional and Global levels.

Audit, Issue Management And Remediation

• Manage audits, and (where required) challenge audit findings in collaboration with Product and second line of defence Risk and Compliance teams; and
• Develop remediation plans, and ensure they are agreed upon and executed promptly.
• Represent Wise in meetings with Banking Partners and Central Banks, being able to clearly and effectively articulate Wise’s products and compliance framework.

This Role Will Give You The Opportunity To

• Grow your hands‑on Fintech knowledge at full speed;
• Build state‑of‑the‑art products that are compliant for our customers and regulators;
• Work together with all our amazing teams both locally and globally; and
• Play a key role in owning and shaping Wise’s compliance program in the UAE.

About You

• You have a strong compliance background with expertise in and knowledge of applicable regulations in the UAE, specifically for entities regulated by the Central Bank;
• A natural owner that drives and delivers projects from inception to completion, timely and with attention to detail;
• Strong communicator, with the ability to effectively interact with different audiences (from Product & Engineering teams to external auditors and regulators such as CBUAE);
• Problem‑solving…