Head of Compliance Operations

Head of Compliance Operations Bangalore, India / Dubai, UAE / London, UK About Us OpenFX is on a mission to move money as freely as data, unrestricted by time zones, banking hours, or legacy systems. We are building the infrastructure that will power the next generation of cross-border payment systems for institutions. The team's execution has been exceptional, and we're scaling at a remarkable pace. Our stellar early team comes with experience in companies like J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs, FalconX, PayPal, Affirm, Polygon, Kraken, Nium & others. We’re backed by Accel, Lightspeed, NfX and other top-tier investors. Role Overview We are seeking an experienced Compliance Operations Lead to help build and scale the operating foundation for our Compliance Ops team. This person will lead members of the Compliance Ops team and own the operational execution model for key compliance workflows, including KYB, KYC, transaction monitoring, sanctions operations, blockchain analytics reviews, escalations, QA, and operational reporting. They will help design the standards, workflows, tools, review processes, and team rituals that allow OpenFX to scale safely across markets, products, and customer segments. This is a hands-on leadership role. The right person will be comfortable getting deep into reviews, understanding how alerts and cases are handled, improving how analysts work, and partnering closely with second line Compliance, Legal, Product, Engineering, Data, Trade Operations, Business Operations, and other members of the Compliance Ops team. This role will not own policy drafting, regulatory strategy, or legal interpretation. Those areas sit with second line Compliance and Legal. This role will work closely with those teams and others to review, operationalize, and implement policy and regulatory requirements into clear processes, controls, tooling, and execution standards. Key Responsibilities • Compliance Ops Leadership • Lead members of the Compliance Ops team across KYB, KYC, transaction monitoring, sanctions, blockchain analytics, customer risk review, and case review workflows. • Own the day-to-day operating model for analyst reviews, escalations, QA, backlog management, and case resolution. • Build a scalable team rhythm around productivity, quality, SLAs, escalations, and continuous improvement. • Set clear expectations for review quality, evidence standards, case notes, decisioning, and escalation discipline. • Coach, manage, and develop analysts and managers as the team scales. • Process, Standards & Controls • Work with second line Compliance, Legal, and other Compliance Ops team members to translate policy and regulatory expectations into practical operational workflows. • Help design and maintain review procedures, checklists, control processes, and operational playbooks for KYB, KYC, transaction monitoring, sanctions, wallet screening, and suspicious activity escalation. • Own the implementation and adoption of these workflows across the Compliance Ops team. • Build quality assurance processes to identify review gaps, improve consistency, and strengthen operational controls. • Partner with Compliance and Legal on edge cases, escalation criteria, remediation workflows, and review standards. • Ensure records, case notes, decisioning, and supporting evidence are complete, consistent, and audit ready. • Tooling & Automation • Own the Compliance Ops perspective on tooling, workflow design, case management, transaction monitoring, blockchain analytics, customer risk review, and operational dashboards. • Partner with Product, Engineering, Data, Compliance, Legal, and vendors to improve analyst workflows and reduce unnecessary manual work. • Help define operational requirements for rules, alerts, queues, dashboards, risk scoring, review flows, and QA tooling. • Identify opportunities to automate repetitive review steps while maintaining appropriate control and oversight. • Evaluate gaps in current systems and recommend practical improvements to support scale. • Monitoring, Escalation & Reporting • Oversee operational review of transaction monitoring alerts, sanctions alerts, blockchain analytics hits, customer risk events, and other Compliance Ops queues. • Ensure appropriate escalation of suspicious activity, unusual behavior, high risk customers, and control issues to Compliance and Legal. • Own operational reporting on volumes, backlogs, SLA performance, QA findings, escalations, trends, and operational risks. • Help leadership understand where the team is scaling well, where controls are strained, and where additional investment is needed. • Support audits, regulatory exams, partner diligence, and internal reviews by ensuring Compliance Ops evidence and reporting are well organized. • Cross-functional Partnership • Work closely with second line Compliance and Legal to operationalize policy and regulatory requirements without owning policy drafting. • Partner with Product and Engineering to improve control design, review workflows, automation, and system requirements. • Partner with Data to build reporting, rule performance analysis, alert tuning inputs, and operational dashboards. • Partner with Business Operations and Trade Operations to ensure customer and transaction reviews are handled quickly, clearly, and consistently. • Help create a practical bridge between regulatory expectations, operational reality, and product scale. What we are looking for Must-haves • 15+ years of experience in compliance operations, financial crime operations, AML, KYC, KYB, sanctions, transaction monitoring, or related areas. • Significant experience leading teams, managing managers, or scaling operational functions in fintech, payments, banking, crypto, trading, or financial services. • Strong understanding of AML, sanctions, KYC, KYB, transaction monitoring, customer risk review, and suspicious activity escalation workflows. • Experience building operational standards, review procedures, QA processes, control frameworks, and management reporting. • Ability to partner effectively with second line Compliance and Legal teams while owning operational execution. • Experience working with case management systems, transaction monitoring tools, KYC/KYB vendors, sanctions screening tools, or blockchain analytics platforms. • Strong judgment, attention to detail, and ability to identify operational risk quickly. • Strong people leadership skills, including coaching, performance management, hiring, and building team culture. • Comfortable operating in a fast-paced startup environment where processes need to be built, improved, and scaled quickly. What helps you stand out • Experience with crypto, stablecoins, blockchain analytics, wallets, exchanges, or on and off ramp products. • Experience with cross-border payments, FX, money movement, neobanking, or institutional fintech products. • Experience with tools such as Unit21, TRM Labs, Chainalysis, ComplyAdvantage, Persona, Sardine, Alloy, Sumsub, or similar systems. • Experience designing alert workflows, queue structures, QA programs, dashboards, or rule performance review processes. • Experience supporting audits, regulatory exams, partner diligence, banking partner reviews, or regulatory remediation work. • Experience working across multiple jurisdictions such as the US, UK, EU, UAE, India, Singapore, or Latin America. • Experience building or transforming a compliance operations function in a high growth environment. What We Offer • Competitive salary and benefits package. • Equity in a rapidly growing company. • Opportunity to work in a fast-paced startup at the forefront of fintech innovation. • Opportunity to make a significant impact on global financial infrastructure. • Collaborative work culture with emphasis on personal and professional growth. We are committed to building a diverse and inclusive workplace. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or veteran status.