Compliance Officer, Payments & Digital Assets At Paystack
full-time
About the Role
We are looking for an experienced Compliance Officer who understands how payments systems, cross-border flows, and digital assets infrastructure intersect with AML/CFT/CPF and regulatory requirements.
This is an experienced, hands-on role where you will be the person who supports and builds the operational compliance infrastructure.
You will operate at the intersection of traditional payments processing and frontier stablecoin infrastructure. Your primary objective is to ensure that as Paystack expands into cross-border, stablecoin-powered money movement, the compliance program remains both operationally executable and regulatory mature.
You will own four interconnected areas: Merchant onboarding compliance and KYB/KYC operations and, FSCA CASP and FICA compliance for our South Africa entity, Travel Rule implementation, and transaction monitoring across multi-corridor stablecoin and fiat flows.
You will work closely with Product, Engineering, Legal, and our licensed partners to ensure the compliance programme is both operationally executable and regulatory defensible.
This role is right for you if
You have operated in a regulated financial services environment dealing in virtual assets.
You are comfortable building, writing SOPs, designing monitoring frameworks, and configuring tools.
You understand how stablecoins, virtual assets, and cross-border payment rails interact with AML/CFT obligations.
You can engage credibly with regulators, licensed partners, and auditors
What You Will Own
Merchant Onboarding Compliance and KYB/KYC Operations:
Own the YB/KYC programme for business merchants across the different tiers including Enhanced Due Diligence.
Manage and continuously refine the merchant onboarding workflow across our different jurisdictions and licensed entities
Conduct and sign off on KYB reviews, periodic client reviews, risk and EDD assessments including assessment of multi-jurisdiction merchants, complex ownership structures, and offshore holding arrangements
Develop and maintain the operational SOPs, checklists, and decision frameworks that the compliance team uses daily
Own the relationship with tooling for screening and verification, manage configuration, escalation paths, and quality assurance
Define and track compliance SLAs.
FSCA CASP Compliance, South Africa:
Own the operational implementation of the SA CASP entity's FICA compliance programme
Design and document the CASP's FICA CDD process: how KYB data is ingested, what independent CASP-level validation is required, and how FICA sign-off is recorded
Ensure the CASP operates as an independently defensible accountable institution under FICA
Maintain POPIA-compliant data handling procedures for all SA merchant KYB data flowing between the CASP and GS platform systems
Manage the CASP's FIC reporting obligations: suspicious activity reports, cash threshold reports, and other regulatory submissions as required
Prepare the CASP for FSCA supervisory engagement, maintain records, respond to regulatory queries, and ensure the programme is always audit-ready
Travel Rule Implementation:
Own the end-to-end implementation of Travel Rule compliance for Global Stack's VASP-to-VASP transfers, assessing applicable thresholds, counterparty identification, and data transmission requirements per jurisdiction
Evaluate and implement a Travel Rule solution (e.g. Notabene, Sygna, or equivalent) including vendor selection, technical integration with Product/Engineering, and operational workflow design
Define the operational playbook for Travel Rule: what data is collected, when it is transmitted, how counterparty VASPs are verified, and how exceptions and unhosted wallet transactions are handled
Monitor regulatory developments across markets and international frameworks (FATF, EU TFR) to ensure the Travel Rule programme remains current
Coordinate with licensed partners on Travel Rule data sharing obligations and ensure the programme satisfies their requirements as well as GS's own
Develop a framework for Counterparty Risk Assessment to manage the Sunrise issue and to ensure data privacy during PII transmission.
Transaction Monitoring:
Design and operate the transaction monitoring framework for Global Stack's multi-corridor stablecoin and fiat payment flows covering onramp, FX conversion, USD/USDC custody, and offramp payouts
Configure and manage monitoring rules: volume-based triggers (corridor anomalies, structuring patterns, geographic drift, nested account behaviour), alert thresholds, and escalation workflows
Ability to reconcile KYC data with on-chain transactions to identify nested activities or illegal flows.
Conduct daily alert triage, investigate flagged transactions, and make or escalate SAR filing decisions; ensuring timely, documented, and defensible responses to every alert
Develop the operational playbook for monitoring across heterogeneous rails, understanding the compliance implications of stablecoin settlement, USDC custody flows, and fiat offramp disbursements simultaneously
Manage the ongoing calibration of monitoring rules to reduce false positives without compromising detection and producing regular performance reports for senior leadership
Coordinate with partners on shared client monitoring obligations, ensuring alignment on suspicious activity reporting where both platforms carry obligations
Compliance Programme Management:
Own the Global Stack KYB/AML Programme document and Operational Playbook as living documents; updating them as regulation, product, and partner requirements evolve
Build and maintain the regulatory matrix: tracking the compliance status of GS activities in each market and flagging changes requiring legal review or programme updates
Support legal counsel in obtaining and acting on jurisdiction-specific engagements
Support in the preparation for internal audits, external regulatory reviews, and partner compliance assessments
Support in the design and running of the governance cadence: quarterly KYB programme reviews, annual partner compliance audits, FATF plenary updates to restricted jurisdiction list.
Payments & Financial Crime Controls (Paystack Group):
Complex Onboarding (KYB/EDD): Manage the workflow for high-risk merchant onboarding, including the assessment of complex ownership and offshore holding structures.
Transaction Monitoring & SARs: Centralize communication with Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs) and oversee the triage and filing of Suspicious Transaction Reports (STRs).
Audit & Exam Coordination: Proactively audit processes and coordinate regulatory exams across different jurisdictions to identify and mitigate hidden risks.
What We Are Looking For
Required:
7+ years of compliance operations experience in a regulated financial services environment; payments, fintech, crypto/VASP, or banking
Direct, hands-on experience with AML/CFT programme implementation. You have written SOPs, configured monitoring tools, and filed SARs
Working knowledge of FSCA CASP regulation and FICA compliance obligations or demonstrable experience with an equivalent VASP/crypto regulatory regime (EU MiCA, UK FCA, US FinCEN, Canada FINTRAC) with the ability to apply that knowledge to the SA context.
Experience with transaction monitoring in a crypto, stablecoin, or cross-border payments context, understanding how blockchain transactions, USDC flows, and fiat rails present different monitoring challenges
Familiarity with Travel Rule requirements, FATF Recommendation 16, VASP-to-VASP transfer obligations, and at least one Travel Rule solution
Experience conducting KYB/EDD reviews on business clients including complex structures: multi-jurisdiction operations, offshore holding companies, fintech clients with end-user distribution
Strong written communication as you will own compliance documentation that regulators, partners, and auditors will read.
Strongly Preferred:
Experience in a multi-jurisdiction African compliance environment - Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, or Ghana preferred
Practical experience with Sumsub, Chainalysis, Elliptic, or equivalent KYC/blockchain analytics tooling
Exposure to stablecoin infrastructure, understanding how USDC settlement, USD custody, and stablecoin-to-fiat conversion interact with AML obligations
Experience building compliance programmes in an early-stage or scaling fintech, comfortable with ambiguity and the need to build before you can refine
CAMS, ICA, or equivalent professional compliance qualification.
What This Role Is Not:
This role is not primarily focused on card network compliance, chargeback management, or consumer dispute resolution. It is not primarily a policy-writing role and it is not a role for someone who needs a mature team and established processes to be effective.
You are joining at a stage where the framework exists and needs to be made real.
The person who succeeds here will have a builder's mindset, deep compliance expertise, and the credibility to engage with all the relevant regulators and cross functional stakeholders in the same week.
Why This Role:
You will be the first dedicated compliance operations hire for a product that sits at the frontier of stablecoin-powered global payments
Direct access to senior leadership and real influence over how the compliance programme is designed and resourced
The opportunity to build a FSCA CASP compliance programme and a global portfolio; rare hands-on experience in one of the most active VASP regulatory environments in Africa
Work closely with licensed partners at the infrastructure level and local payout providers across multiple markets
Competitive compensation and the ability to grow.
Benefits
Competitive compensation package and benefits
13th month bonus
TSG Equity compensation
Full medical coverage
Wellbeing stipend
Generous leave and sabbatical policies
Hybrid working environment
Smart, kind colleagues who are invested in your growth.