FinCrime Operations Team Lead - AML Investigations

Wise•Austin, TX

3d•$100,000 - $130,000•Hybrid

About The Position

As a FinCrime Operations Team Lead, you will develop and oversee the daily operations of a team of FinCrime Operations Analysts or Specialists. Your primary purpose is to ensure the effective mitigation of financial crime risks associated with Wise's customers, while maintaining a strong focus on operational efficiency, regulatory compliance, and a customer-centric approach. You will foster a high-performing team, drive operational excellence, and act as a subject matter expert in KYC/AML/Fraud/Screening and financial crime prevention. You will be responsible for ensuring your team meets performance targets, maintains or elevates quality standards, and contributes to a culture of continuous improvement within the FinCrime Operations organization. The FinCrime Operations Team Lead is a dual-focused leader, combining strong people leadership with domain and operational expertise. You will be instrumental in building and refining processes that prioritize customer impact while maintaining focus on the evolving risks within the financial services industry, specific product vulnerabilities, and the requirements set by regulations and partners. This includes supporting the development of compliant and scalable processes and possessing an understanding of financial crime risks associated with our customers, products, and tooling.

Requirements

Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English, with the ability to produce clear, concise, accurate, and professional reports, summaries, and customer communications.
At least 1-2 years of leading small to medium sized teams, preferably in operations.
Good understanding of the regulatory framework surrounding KYC/AML/Fraud/Risk and financial crime prevention.
Familiarity with money laundering methods and other financial crime trends.
Ability to build and maintain an environment where your team is incentivised to make decisions and apply a risk-based approach to their work.
Punctual, independent, proactive and willing to get things done.
Strong operational management and tactical decision-making skills.
Ability to work with tight deadlines under pressure whilst maintaining high level of quality and competency.
Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, strong organizational skills, great time management, and ability to work in a fast-paced and high-pressure environment.
Ability to multi-task and take responsibility in challenging situations.
Capable of identifying gaps in policies and processes and providing detailed feedback, including examples when possible, through the established communication channels.
A strong process-oriented and efficiency-driven mindset.
Proven track record of taking individual ownership and responsibilities as well as being a great team-player.
Ability to deliver constructive, well-evidenced feedback that drives tangible behavioral change and performance improvement.
Ability to analyze and move of team’s metrics.

Nice To Haves

Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Business Administration, Law, or related field
ICA, CAMS, or equivalent certification (KYC/EDD/AML/Fraud/Screening/Risk focused)
Ability to use analytics tools like, Looker, Superset, or other similar platforms.
Additional languages are a plus.

Responsibilities

Team Leadership: Lead by example, driving a customer-focused mindset across your team and the wider fincrime organization. Foster a high-performance, results-driven culture defined by strong ownership and accountability. Build and nurture high-performing teams that value knowledge sharing, continuous learning, and adaptability. Demonstrate strong capabilities in timely conflict resolution and foster open communication and guide effective mediation to ensure a positive working environment. Be visible and actively engaged in team management. Unify the team behind shared goals and drive collective actions.
People management: Coach and develop a strong team of FinCrime Operations Analysts or Specialists, providing tailored guidance, and taking swift, decisive action to manage performance issues effectively. Provide regular, constructive, and actionable feedback. Coach and mentor team members to support their growth, develop their skills, and help them reach their full potential. Design and manage performance or development plans. Conduct career map check-ins and make recommendations for demotions, promotions, salary raises, and other role-related decisions.
Operational management: Oversee the daily operations of the team, ensuring adherence to relevant regulations and internal policies and processes. Identify and propose opportunities for process and tooling improvements. Collaborate with central functions and other operational teams to increase operational efficiency or ensure effective cross-team collaboration on joint initiatives. Provide guidance and support on complex, high-risk cases and escalations. Manage timely administrative tasks including scheduling, training, hiring, interviewing, and organizing team activities.
Performance management: Measure team and individual KPIs and ensure performance targets and quality standards are consistently met while maintaining focus on customer experience and adherence to internal guidelines. Drive high-quality results for both the team and individuals. Conduct timely quality reviews, ensuring high decision accuracy and effectively communicate the importance of quality assurance. Conduct regular and impactful one-on-one coaching sessions, provide clear and actionable feedback. Ensure tasks are managed timely and aligned with the team’s goals. Run team meetings to ensure the team is kept up to date with the latest information, share best practices and enhance overall team spirit. Address underperformance promptly through coaching and setting SMART goals, and ensure all interventions are well-documented. Understand and articulate how to move key metrics at team and individual level through efficient performance and task management.
Expertise sharing: Be a subject matter expert in financial crime areas with the ability to obtain and maintain sufficient subject matter expertise required to train, develop and coach your team. Maintain a comprehensive understanding of regulatory obligations, internal policies, domain-specific processes, and best practices. Apply a risk-based approach to deterring and preventing money laundering and financial crime. Perform and support deep dives, understand root causes of problematic cases and propose solutions to senior leadership. Assist senior leadership with reviews and developing processes, task management, and other operational areas as requested.
Issue Management and Escalation: Escalate tooling or processing incidents, high-risk customer issues, control weaknesses, or other material problems to direct leadership in a timely and informative manner, following established protocols.
Planning and execution: Be accountable for driving your direct team's performance outcomes, ensuring key performance indicators (KPIs) are consistently met and enhanced. Possess strong knowledge of team processes and tooling, leveraging data to support initiative execution. Take full ownership of your team's results, set targets for improvement, and provide insights to stakeholders. Set and progress towards goals, adeptly identifying and resolving blockers or issues to optimize output and results.
Stakeholder management and communication: Collaborate closely with stakeholders ensuring clear communication and coordination of actions. Ensure initiatives and reports are well documented and choose the right platforms to communicate to a wider audience in a timely manner. Communicate confidently with difficult stakeholders on varied operational or domain-related topics. Proactively work on improving cross-team communication and collaboration, acting as the liaison between different layers of the organization and your own team. Employ impactful and inspiring communication skills, unifying individuals behind shared goals, and leverage strong presentation skills to convey vision and progress.
Other: Perform additional tasks as assigned by your lead, demonstrating adaptability and a proactive approach. Actively participate in meetings, trainings, workshops, and internal events to support broader team and company objectives.