The posting
About The Role:
We're looking for a Lead/Head of Transaction Monitoring (Enterprise) to own how Paysend detects suspicious activity across all products, corridors and payment methods, and to lead the TM Enterprise Program that modernises it.
Objective and Key Results
Objective (Q4 2026): AI-Powered Enterprise Financial Crime: build scalable, risk-based transaction monitoring
Enterprise clients can submit legitimate transactions with minimal friction, suspicious transactions are correctly identified and declined, unnecessary RFIs are minimised, and transaction-monitoring performance is measurable and continuously optimised.
Metrics clearly separate client-generated risk, Financial Crime controls and downstream payout execution, so TM declines are not confused with prefunding, network or technical failures, and stages reconcile without double-counting.
Key Results you will be accountable for
- % Confirmed Fraud Rate of Enterprise-Initiated Transactions: Confirmed fraud transactions divided by total enterprise-initiated transactions, broken down by client, typology, transaction type and destination, and confirmed vs. suspected fraud. Gives clients an evidence-based view of the quality of the volume they submit.
- % Legitimate Transaction Straight-Through Processing Rate: Legitimate transactions processed without an RFI divided by total legitimate transactions submitted. The central measure of balance between risk protection and customer friction.
- % Enterprise TM Decision Quality: Combines confirmed-fraud prevention rate (stopped before payout), false-positive rate, and control coverage of material enterprise TM risks by documented, approved and tested controls.
- % Enterprise TM Investigation Efficiency: Median RFI time to resolution, % resolved within SLA, % with a clear documented decision, % outstanding beyond SLA, and RFI backlog and ageing.
What you will own
- KRs and Initiatives: Own and deliver the Enterprise TM KRs and Initiatives, from definition and prioritisation through delivery, measurement and reporting to senior leadership.
- TM Enterprise Program: Lead the TM Enterprise Program end to end: scope, roadmap, milestones, budget, dependencies, risks and governance.
- TM framework: Own the enterprise-wide TM framework: scenario and rule coverage, thresholds, risk-based calibration, model governance and the rule lifecycle (design, test, tune, retire).
- Effectiveness and KPIs: Own the KPI and MI framework for detection effectiveness, alert quality, false positives, SAR/STR conversion, alert volumes, SLAs and team productivity.
- Regulatory assurance: Ensure TM meets AML/CTF and regulatory expectations across all licensed jurisdictions, and own TM readiness for audits, regulator reviews and partner due diligence.
- Team leadership: Build, lead and develop a high-performing TM team spanning analysts, rule owners and data/automation specialists.
What you'll do
- Define strategy and OKRs: Set the enterprise TM strategy and multi-year roadmap, aligned to company OKRs and Paysend's financial crime risk appetite; translate it into measurable KRs and a prioritised initiative portfolio.
- Drive delivery: Lead initiative delivery as accountable owner: run planning, steering committees and status reporting; remove blockers, manage trade-offs and escalate material risks early.
- Strengthen detection: Oversee translation of typologies, risk assessments and regulatory change into detection scenarios and rules; ensure backtesting, simulation and impact measurement happen before release.
- Optimise performance: Drive tuning using alert, case and SAR feedback to improve catch rate and reduce noise, with clear trade-off thinking across risk, cost and customer friction.
- Automate and scale: Replace manual analysis and reporting with scalable pipelines and self-serve dashboards; apply advanced analytics and ML-based anomaly detection where they add value.
- Collaborate: Partner across the business:
- Product and Engineering: requirements, data needs, TM platform and rules-engine enhancements.
- Compliance and MLRO: policy alignment, risk assessments, regulatory reporting, audits and regulator engagement.
- Network and Partners: Visa and Mastercard program requirements, thresholds and monitoring; bank and partner due diligence.
- Operations and Investigations: alert-handling workflow, feedback loops, capacity and quality.
- Data and Analytics: data quality, lineage, model validation and reporting.
- Govern and report: Run the TM governance cadence: rule-change approvals, performance reviews, documented decisions and rationale, and regular reporting to senior management and committees.
- Stay ahead of regulation: Stay current on AML/CTF regulation, FATF guidance, PSD2/SCA and card scheme rules, and embed changes into controls and the roadmap.
- Manage vendors and budget: Manage vendor, tooling and budget for TM platforms, data sources and analytics.
What you'll need
- Substantial experience in transaction monitoring and AML/financial crime, ideally in fintech, payments, money transfer or high-volume B2C, including leading a TM function or a large TM transformation.
- Proven track record owning OKRs/KRs and delivering multi-stream programs or initiatives, with strong planning, prioritisation and senior stakeholder management.
- Deep knowledge of TM scenario and rule design, tuning, threshold calibration, model governance and effectiveness testing, including backtesting and below-the-line testing.
- Strong understanding of AML/CTF regulation and expectations (e.g., FCA, EU AMLD/AMLR, FATF) and experience supporting regulator and auditor reviews across multiple jurisdictions.
- Solid grasp of fraud and financial crime typologies in cross-border payments, and awareness of emerging trends.
- Working knowledge of Visa and Mastercard monitoring programs and payment methods (cards, tokenization, Apple Pay, Google Pay, A2A, wallets).
- Data fluency: able to interrogate SQL/BI outputs, define KPIs and challenge analytical approaches; understanding of modern data platforms and automation.
- Experience leading and developing teams, including hiring, coaching and building clear ownership models.
- Ownership mindset: you spot problems, propose solutions and see them through without waiting to be asked.
- Clear communication and documentation, able to explain risk and data-driven decisions to technical and non-technical stakeholders, including executives.
Nice to have
- Experience with rules engines, decisioning platforms or TM vendor solutions (selection, implementation, migration).
- Experience applying advanced anomaly detection (statistical, unsupervised or machine learning) to AML and fraud use cases, including model risk management.
- Hands-on SQL/Python background and experience building BI dashboards (Looker, Tableau, Power BI or similar).
- Familiarity with how financial crime operations run day to day, including case management and SAR/STR filing.
- Relevant certifications such as ACAMS, ICA or equivalent.
What you'll achieve
First 3 months
- Understand our products, corridors, TM framework, rules engine, data landscape and current KR/Initiative portfolio.
- Assess current TM coverage, effectiveness and regulatory exposure; identify the highest-priority gaps.
- Build relationships across Compliance, Product, Engineering, Network, Operations and Data.
- Confirm the TM Enterprise Program plan, governance and a baselined KR scorecard.
By 6 months
- Run the TM Enterprise Program on an agreed roadmap with clear ownership, milestones and steering cadence.
- Launch a reliable KPI and MI suite for detection effectiveness, alert quality and team throughput.
- Deliver the first material coverage and tuning improvements, with documented performance reviews.
- Have the team structure and key hires in place.
By 12 months
- Deliver the committed KRs and Initiatives, with measurable gains in detection effectiveness, false positive rate and operational efficiency.
- Be the recognised owner of enterprise TM, with a clean audit and regulator-ready evidence trail.
- Have introduced new detection approaches and automation that strengthen our compliance posture and scale with growth.
Why Join Paysend?
- Make a Global Impact:
Join a company that is transforming how people and businesses move money around the world. Your work will contribute to products and services that help millions of customers stay connected globally.
- Own Meaningful Outcomes:
We empower our people to take ownership, make decisions, and drive real impact. You'll have the opportunity to shape solutions, challenge the status quo, and see the results of your work firsthand.
- Grow with Us:
As a fast-growing global fintech, we offer opportunities to learn, develop new skills, take on new challenges, and advance your career across functions and geographies.
- Collaborate with Exceptional People:
Work alongside talented colleagues from diverse backgrounds and disciplines who are united by a shared ambition to build, innovate, and deliver great outcomes for our customers.
- Move Fast and Make Things Happen:
We value action, curiosity, and continuous improvement. You'll be part of a culture that encourages experimentation, embraces change, and focuses on delivering meaningful results.
- Be Part of Our Journey:
We're building the future of the global money movement. Join us at an exciting stage of growth where your ideas, expertise, and contributions can help shape what's next.
