Compliance Lead - Canada

Wise•Austin, TX

About The Position

We’re looking for a Senior Regulatory Compliance Lead to join our growing North America Regulatory Oversight Compliance team. In this role, you’ll be leading our Canada regulatory and financial crime compliance programs and regulator engagement. . You’ll work closely with cross-functional teams and lead our efforts to ensure that Wise complies with all applicable regulations in Canada. You’ll also help shape and evolve our second-line compliance framework, providing critical insights to product, operations, and leadership teams, and helping embed compliance into everything we do. If you're passionate about systems that make compliance smart, scalable, and transparent—and you’re excited to work at the intersection of tech and financial services regulation—we’d love to hear from you.

Requirements

Knowledge of money transmission, prepaid accounts, Canada's consumer compliance regulations, and FinCrime related regulations
5 years experience in compliance or audit including experience:
Utilizing Canadian territory portals and processes to deliver ad hoc and ongoing regulatory reporting
Working with internal cross-functional stakeholders including product, operation, finance, legal, and people teams
Communicating effectively with external stakeholders including auditors and regulators
Very detail-oriented
Ability to meet tight deadlines
Discretion and personal integrity, especially in regards to sensitive financial, personal, and corporate information
Ability to be both reactive and help solve problems in the moment as well as proactive, building longer term solutions using data-driven decision making
Experience (or interest) in working at a fast-paced internet, technology, or financial services companies in risk or compliance
Experience using G-Suite, Office, Confluence, Jira and collaborative tools (e.g. Slack, Teams)
Willing to travel, as Wise offices are located across different countries; and
Legally authorized to work in the U.S.

Nice To Haves

Experience working in the Money Services Business (MSB) industry
Experience working with international teams and understanding of global regulatory environments.
Certified Regulatory Compliance Manager or similar qualification
Prior experience working with the Bank of Canada, FINTRAC and CIRO.

Responsibilities

Regulatory Liaison & Horizon Scanning: Act as a primary point of contact for Canadian regulators (such as Bank of Canada, FINTRAC and CIRO) and banking partners. You are responsible for "horizon scanning"—identifying upcoming changes in Canadian regulatory and financial crime (FinCrime) legislation (e.g., the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act) and advising product teams on how these changes impact Wise's roadmap.
Fincrime Framework Oversight: Develop, implement, and maintain the Second Line of Defense (2LoD) policies and procedures for regulatory and FinCrime compliance requirements for the Canadian market. This includes overseeing KYC (Know Your Customer), EDD (Enhanced Due Diligence), and transaction monitoring controls to ensure they effectively mitigate risks without creating unnecessary friction for customers.
Compliance Advisory: Collaborate directly with Product Managers and Engineers and Product Compliance teams to ensure new features or payment rails are "compliant by design." You would provide expert guidance on how to integrate regulatory and FinCrime controls into the user journey while maintaining the speed and transparency Wise is known for.
Monitoring & Independent Testing: Support and oversee regular monitoring and testing of the firm’s regulatory and financial crime controls to evaluate their effectiveness. This includes managing internal audits, tracking remediation plans for any identified gaps, and providing comprehensive reporting to the Board of Directors on the health of the Canadian compliance program.

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