Licence Expansion Manager – North America

Nium

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

Nium, the global leader in real-time, cross-border payments, is seeking a driven Licence Expansion Manager – North America to own the company's regulatory licensing strategy across the United States and Canada. This role will lead Nium's efforts to obtain, activate, and operationalize its US Money Transmission Licence (MTL) program, pursue crypto-specific licenses and variations on a state-by-state basis, and support Nium's integration with Canada's real-time payment infrastructure. This is a high-impact, execution-focused role at the intersection of regulatory strategy, licensing operations, and cross-functional delivery, requiring collaboration with Legal, Compliance, Product, Treasury, Tech, Ops, and Commercial teams to ensure successful market launches across North America. The ideal candidate will have a regulatory background (legal or compliance) with a hands-on operator/product mindset.

Requirements

5+ years of experience in the legal, compliance, or consulting space, with direct exposure to US financial services regulation.
Proven experience managing US state money transmission licence applications — from preparation and submission through to approval.
Strong understanding of US MTL frameworks, including state-specific requirements, surety bonds, net worth obligations, and examination processes.
Demonstrated ability to manage complex, multi-workstream licensing programmes in a fast-moving environment.
Experience working directly with regulators, including managing examiners and responding to regulatory queries.
Strong commercial and project management skills, with the ability to drive execution across cross-functional teams.
Comfortable operating in ambiguity and taking ownership of decision making.
Hands-on with a “whatever it takes” attitude.
Execution-focused and highly accountable.
Comfortable navigating regulatory complexity across multiple US states simultaneously.
Commercially minded and data-driven.
Able to influence across global and regional teams.
Excited to build in a fast-moving, high-growth environment.

Nice To Haves

Experience with crypto or virtual currency licensing at the state level (e.g. New York BitLicence, or equivalent) is highly desirable.
Familiarity with Canadian payment systems, including Payments Canada, Interac, and the Real-Time Rail, is a strong advantage.
Experience in fintech, payments, e-money, cards, or stablecoins is strongly preferred.

Responsibilities

Lead the end-to-end strategy and application process to obtain outstanding US MTLs, with a particular focus on securing licences in California and New York.
Manage regulator relationships, respond to examiner queries, and drive applications to completion with minimal delay.
Track and manage all MTL applications across states, maintaining a live view of status, timelines, risks, and costs.
Coordinate with external counsel and internal stakeholders to ensure application quality and completeness.
Transition states currently operating under a bank partner programme onto Nium's own MTL as licences are obtained, working cross-functionally to ensure operational readiness.
Define and execute the activation playbook for each state, covering compliance obligations, product configuration, treasury requirements, and go-live processes.
Identify and resolve blockers to operationalisation, including bond requirements, net worth obligations, reporting cadences, and agent registration.
Maintain a clear state-by-state activation tracker and report progress to the Head of Global Expansion and senior leadership.
Identify states where Nium's product suite requires a crypto-specific licence or a variation to an existing MTL (e.g. BitLicence in New York, virtual currency transmitter endorsements).
Lead applications and regulatory engagement for crypto licence variations on a state-by-state basis, working closely with Legal and Product.
Monitor evolving US state-level crypto licensing requirements and proactively assess impact on Nium's licensing posture.
Engage with regulators on the regulatory treatment of stablecoins and digital asset transmission where relevant to Nium's roadmap.
Support Nium's integration with Payments Canada's Real-Time Rail (RTR) and the Interac network, working alongside Product and Tech to navigate regulatory and membership requirements.
Engage with Payments Canada, Interac, and relevant Canadian regulators to understand access models, participation requirements, and compliance obligations.
Coordinate internal readiness for Canadian real-time payment capabilities, ensuring alignment across Legal, Compliance, Treasury, and Product.
Identify and manage any licensing or registration requirements arising from expanded Canadian payment capabilities.
Track budgets, risks, and timelines, and report on a periodic basis to the Head of Global Expansion and senior leadership.
Build strong relationships with state and federal regulators across the US and Canada.
Contribute to Nium's broader global licensing strategy and share North America market intelligence with the wider expansion team.