Compliance Lead (Closed)

Location: Kenya (In-office)

Lemonade Payments is revolutionizing the fintech space with innovative solutions that empower businesses to scale globally. We are a passionate team dedicated to building secure, scalable, and efficient systems. Join us as we shape the future of payments and help businesses thrive in a fast-paced digital economy.

In just under 2 years, our growing team has introduced a steady cadence of innovation within the online & offline payments landscape, such as automated recurring payments, the ability for customers to pay directly from their wallets to multipole payment channels, automated security and notifications, and much more.

About the Compliance Lead role

We are looking for a forward thinking and innovative Compliance Lead to hire, lead and manage other members of the compliance team to build and manage our Regulatory and in-house compliance program, including AML/KYC/CFT, ABC and FC compliance program and operations with the primary aim of mitigating regulatory and compliance risk.

Your goal will be to ensure we operate in a legal and ethical manner while meeting our business objectives.

What you’ll do

• Develop and implement an effective regulatory compliance program
• Create sound internal controls and processes and monitor adherence to them
• Proactively audit processes, practices and documents to identify weaknesses and revise procedures, reports etc. periodically to identify hidden compliance risks or non-conformity issues
• Evaluate business activities to assess compliance risk and recommend changes to ensure compliance with relevant regulations and internal rules
• Developing, overseeing and understanding control systems to prevent or deal with violations of regulatory regimes in multiple African jurisdictions
• Master a deep understanding of the rules and regulations governing each market in which we operate, including monitoring any changes and developments
• Design and implement relevant compliance processes including know your customer (KYC), anti-money laundering (AML), sanctions and combatting the financing of terrorism (CFT) across multiple jurisdictions
• Design, execute, and manage enterprise-wide and product-specific AML/CTF policy, procedures, risk assessments, and country risk ratings across jurisdiction of operation
• Develop an effective and fully functional compliance operations team, including but not limited to KYC operations, quality assurance, STR monitoring and reporting
• Oversee the gathering of internal information to meet external regulatory reporting obligations
• Coordination of regulatory exams in different jurisdictions
• Ensure the fulfillment of all record keeping requirements
• Investigate irregularities and non-compliance issues
• Act as a point-of-contact for all employees on issues relating to money laundering, terrorist financing and receive reports on non-compliance with laws or company policies
• Serve as the compliance officer in Kenya and a key stakeholder of the Risk & Compliance team in the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing
• Work closely with other compliance officers or serve as a compliance officer in relevant jurisdictions
• Oversee the development and manage the AML CFT/ financial crimes compliance function
• Thoroughly embed the compliance culture across Lemonade including regular trainings on compliance matters such as: AML/CFT, Sanctions, ABC and rendering training reports to the relevant regulatory authorities and the board
• Monitor AML/CFT and fraud trends, intelligence, typologies, and regulatory developments; and make recommendations to innovative, implement or improve transaction controls and/or monitoring programs accordingly
• Collaborate with key stakeholders in the Legal, Regulator, Risk and Compliance teams as where required with the Lemonade’s growth to articulate concerns around compliance and AML/CTF issues and processes
• Centralise interaction and communication with country Financial Intelligence Units
• Design and manage the Global Anti-Money Laundering Questionnaires and Supplement Guides
• Design and oversee the Global Financial crime operations
• Review all CDD (Customer Due Diligence) reports or escalations provided by the KYC operations or quality assurance and check for completeness and probe for further information or follow up action as is required
• Coordinate the collection of management information and statistics
• Responsible for the coordination of compliance reports across the different jurisdictions

What it takes to succeed at this role:

• 4+ years in a compliance and risk role in a pan-African financial institution.
• Experience in payments/financial services
• Excellent sense of judgment — able to help steer the company to balance innovation and growth with regulatory compliance
• Critical problem-solving skills
• Ability to thrive, adapt and embrace change in rapidly changing regulatory environments
• In-depth knowledge of regulatory requirements and guidelines in Kenya and other African jurisdictions
• In-depth Knowledge of regulatory requirements and controls in Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism & Proliferation Financing (AML, CFT, CPF), Anti-Bribery and Corruption (ABC) etc.
• Familiar with AML/CFT monitoring systems and related investigation processes and able to recommend technology solutions that would facilitate a seamless process implementation.

The person we want to hire for this role will also be:

• A team player who is willing to pitch in where needed in a fast-paced, growing company.
• Decisive, and capable of making smart decisions in the face of ambiguity and imperfect information.
• An exceptionally hard/smart worker, capable of getting things done.
• Required to travel frequently to countries where Lemonade is active.
• Minimum Education: Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Technology, Economics, Finance, Business or similar;
• The ability to speak an additional language such as French or Arabic is an added advantage.

Nice to have’s

• Master’s Degree in either economics/business/law (preferred)
• Relevant course, done through ICA (International Compliance Association)
• Pan African Experience

Why Join Us?

At Lemonade Payments, you’ll join a dynamic team reshaping the future of global business operations. Here, innovation thrives, collaboration drives success, and every contribution makes a tangible impact in the ever-evolving world of fintech. Grow with us and be part of something extraordinary! to join us, please share your application letter and resume to people@mylemonade.io with the title, “Your Name — Compliance Lead”

Note: Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

Let’s shape the future of global payments together! 🚀