The posting
About
Swan is Europe’s embedded banking specialist. We empower software companies to embed banking features like accounts, cards, and payments directly into their products, under their own brand.Swan processes over €2.5 billion in monthly transactions for more than 150 companies - like Pennylane, Indy, Agicap, Libeo, and Lucca.
Founded in 2019, the company has received growth capital from leading investors such as Lakestar, Accel, Creandum, Bpifrance and Eight Roads. Swan is a principal member of Mastercard and a licensed financial institution, regulated by the French banking authority (ACPR).
Our mission
Banking belongs in business software
Many software companies already serve small businesses incredibly well: helping them send invoices, run payroll, manage inventory, and more. They’re on a mission to become the central hub for managing every aspect of business life.
But when it comes to financial workflows, there’s still a gap. Too many critical tasks like managing cash flow, tracking payments, or reconciling accounts happen outside the software, across spreadsheets, email threads, banking portals.
It’s a missed opportunity. Business software shouldn’t just record financial activity — it should run it.
To learn more about us: About Swan ; Career.
Job description
✨ Summary
Swan is looking for a Head of Internal Control & Operational Risk to lead and continuously improve its risk management and internal control frameworks.
Reporting to the Chief Risk & Compliance Officer (CRCO), you will lead the Internal Control team, oversee operational risks, ensure compliance with Swan’s risk appetite, and provide senior management with clear risk assessments and recommendations.
This is a key leadership role, working closely with teams across Risk, Compliance, Finance, Operations, Product, Technology, and Legal to strengthen Swan’s risk management and governance.
✨ Key Responsibilities
- Internal Control team leadership. Lead Swan’s Internal Control team of 4 to 5 professionals, covering internal control, operational risk, and remediation monitoring, while setting clear priorities, developing team expertise, and allocating resources to key risks and regulatory priorities
- Operational risk management. Own and continuously improve Swan’s operational risk framework, overseeing risk mapping, risk assessments, incident management, and risk monitoring across France and European branches
- Group-wide permanent control. Lead Swan’s permanent control framework across all markets, ensuring consistent methodologies, risk-based control plans, and effective oversight of local branch frameworks while addressing local regulatory requirements
- Risk appetite & monitoring. Maintain and monitor Swan’s Risk Appetite Framework in collaboration with the CRCO, defining key risk indicators, thresholds, and escalation mechanisms to ensure operational risks remain within approved limits
- Remediation & continuous improvement. Oversee the identification, tracking, and resolution of control deficiencies, incidents, audit findings, and regulatory recommendations, ensuring timely and sustainable remediation in collaboration with accountable teams
- Risk governance & reporting. Provide the CRCO, senior management, and governance committees with clear, actionable risk reporting and dashboards, independently challenging risk assessments, escalating material exposures, and supporting informed decision-making.
✨ Curious about your future team?
You will work closely with Terry and Kani, internal controllers, as well as all members of Swan’s Risk department, to strengthen our internal control framework and foster a shared risk culture across the organization.
You will also collaborate with teams across Swan, including Payments, Sales, Finance, Compliance and more, to support effective risk management in their day-to-day activities.
Preferred experience
✨ You’re a great match if:
- You have 8-12 years of experience in internal control, enterprise or operational risk management, audit, or another second-line control function.
- You don’t only act as an advisor, you are detailed-oriented and are able to evaluate blind spots. You have a bias to action, you are closed to the field.
- You have hands-on experience with risk mapping, RCSA, control plans, control testing, incidents, KRI and remediation and have experience developing or operating a Risk Appetite Framework.
- You are data-driven and can turn complex risk information into clear recommendations for executives and committees.
- You have successfully led and developed a multidisciplinary team.
- You communicate with clarity and conviction - in French and in English - whether you're in front of a regulator, a board, or a product team.
It’s okay if you don’t tick all the boxes - don’t let imposter syndrome prevent you from applying! 🙌
Swan is committed to providing a caring work environment for all employees, regardless of age, sex, disability, sexual orientation, race, religion, or belief.
When it comes to recruitment, we’re interested in your work experience, skills, and overall personality. Because diversity makes the workplace stronger and is necessary for Swan’s success, we are intensifying efforts to incorporate concrete actions to help us improve in this area.
About Swan
✨ Perks of being a Swanee:
- Holidays : 25 days + RTT 🏝️
- Meal Vouchers: We provide a meal voucher card to cover your meals on work days. 🥗
- Transport: Monthly mobility package for employees. In accordance with the company agreement for sustainable mobilities, you can now use your mobility package to pay for alternative commuting modes. 🚇
- Health insurance (mutuelle): Alan. This is Swan's health and welfare insurance. 🚑
- Sports: Thanks to our partnership with Classpass, you can enjoy advantageous discounts on subscriptions. They offer a wide range of sports activities as well as wellness activities. 🏋
- Well-being support: access to Moka Care for mental health and wellness. 🧘
- Hybrid remote policy: We offer the possibility of working from home for 2 days per week. 🏡
- Offsite: Once a year we gather to reconnect, deep-dive into big topics, and relax. 🤝
- This isn’t a perk, it should be the rule, but diversity and inclusion are important at Swan. We’re working hard to get better every day.
✨ Our values:
Swan’s core values guide our actions daily. Individually, they may seem obvious, but together, they form a unique culture.
Simplicity: Leonardo Da Vinci said: “simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” If something's convoluted or confusing, we work extra hard to break it down - Making complex things simple is what we do.
Long Term: We always play the long game, whether it's to support our partners in their growth journey, or make tangible commitments to climate action.
Excellence: We are a team of experts who consistently go all out to create pixel-perfect banking services and exceed our partners' expectations - whatever it takes.
Be Human: We believe in the power of kindness and the importance of acting with integrity. But embracing our humanity extends beyond interpersonal interactions, it means caring about greater issues that affect our planet.
You can find out more about our culture.
Recruitment process
- A 45-min call with our Talent Acquisition Manager, to get to know you, understand your career expectations and answer your questions
- A 1H interview with Matthieu, Chief Risk Officer
- A 1H30 Case Study with our Head of Compliance and Matthieu
- A 1H discussion with Nicolas Saison, Chief Product Officer
- An interview with Anne, our Chief People Officer
- Last Round with our CEO
