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WA
Wave

Head of Compliance and Risk

LocationDemocratic Republic of the Congo (CD), Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo
Work modeon-site
Typefull-time
DepartmentCompliance
Company size1,001–5,000 people
First seen1w ago
Last seen2d ago
Our mission
We’re making Africa the first cashless continent.
In 2017, over half the population in Sub-Saharan Africa had no bank account. That’s for good reason—the fees are too high, the closest branch can be miles away, and nobody takes cards. Without access to financial institutions, people are forced to keep their savings under the mattress. Small business owners rely on lenders who charge extortionate rates. Parents spend hours waiting in line to pay school fees in cash.
We’re solving this by building financial services that just work: no account fees, instantly available, and accepted everywhere. In places where electricity, water and roads don’t always work, you can still send money with Wave. In 2017, we launched a mobile app in Senegal for cash deposit, withdrawal, and peer-to-peer and business payments. Now, we have millions of users across 9 countries and are growing fast.
Our goal is to make Africa the first cashless continent and that’s where you come in…
How you’ll help us achieve it
We’re looking for a Head of Compliance and Risk who is hands-on, analytical, and excited about taking on several responsibilities at once in a fast-paced environment. You’ll be the most senior compliance and risk leader for the DRC market, responsible for leading our national compliance and risk efforts and overseeing regulatory alignment as we rapidly scale our business.
In this role you’ll build and maintain a best-in-class compliance framework, protect Wave from regulatory risk, champion a strong culture of integrity and accountability, and operate across departments by supporting compliance, risk, and on occasion, fraud operations. You’ll be the go-to person on the ground to coordinate local execution of our global risk and compliance standards, and you’ll play a key role in maintaining operational integrity in a growing and dynamic environment.
Reporting to the Global Head of Risk & Compliance, you’ll work cross-functionally with operations, legal, product, and engineering teams, and partner closely with banking partners and regulators.
In this role you’ll;
Compliance
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Define and drive the strategic direction of the compliance program in the DRC.
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Serve as the senior compliance point person in the country, advising leadership and the board and influencing decisions at the local country level, including country board-level reporting through one of its specialized committees.
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Own and maintain all compliance-related policies, procedures, and risk controls in the DRC.
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Monitor evolving regulatory frameworks (e.g. BCC, AML/CFT regulations) and ensure internal alignment.
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Support AML and CFT investigations in the DRC, including the submission of Suspicious Transaction Reports (STRs) to CENAREF.
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Monitor the implementation of basic compliance requirements (e.g. KYC, agent and merchant onboarding controls).
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Manage relationships with stakeholders involved in compliance-related areas, including the Central Bank (BCC), other local bodies (CENAREF), local regulators, and bank partners.
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Coordinate and respond to regulatory audits, inquiries, and filings, ensuring accurate and timely reporting.
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Collaborate with the central compliance team, and be creative in approaching a challenge from a fresh angle when needed.
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Develop crisis management and response plans for non-compliance incidents or regulatory challenges, participate in incident reviews, and follow up on remediation actions.
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Drive awareness of regulatory obligations by leading compliance training and education programs across teams.
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Document key learnings on the compliance program using relevant data, and align teams on the same understanding.
Risk
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Identify and evaluate operational risks in coordination with functional teams.
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Support documentation and reporting on risk issues to partners and regulatory bodies.
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Own Wave’s local risk mapping — identifying risks across all domains (product, operations, compliance, finance, and others) and ensuring mitigation strategies are in place for risks above threshold.
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Collaborate with function leads to assess new or evolving risks and implement appropriate mitigation measures.
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Partner with cross-functional teams on strategic risk reviews, including for new product launches, regulatory changes, and complex projects.
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Design and implement second-level internal controls, defining their frequency, methods, documentation, and execution approach.
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Support and mentor team members to carry out controls, executing some directly and reviewing others.
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Continuously improve internal controls and risk mitigation measures based on incidents, audits, or process changes.
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Own follow-up on gaps identified during internal control reviews, ensuring corrective actions are implemented and tracked.
Fraud support
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Coordinate local aspects of fraud investigations and awareness efforts as needed.
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Escalate fraud signals and trends to regional and global teams.
Perform other duties that may be assigned from time to time through your line manager.
Key details
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Location: You’ll work from our office in Kinshasa.
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Work authorization in the DRC is required.
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This is a permanent position.
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Our salaries are competitive and calculated using a transparent formula.
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We offer generous health insurance for yourself and your dependents.
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We support working parents - we offer generous parental leave policies (26 weeks for mothers and 4 weeks for fathers) and subsidized childcare when you return to work.
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We help you live your fullest life now! We subsidize gym memberships and fitness classes.
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Airtime reimbursement.
Requirements
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Professional or native fluency in French and English.
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Minimum of 7–10 years of experience in Compliance, Risk Management, or Regulatory Affairs, with at least 3 years in a senior leadership role.
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Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Law, Economics, Risk, or a related field. Advanced degrees or certifications (e.g. CAMS, ICA) are a plus.
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Proven success leading compliance for a regulated financial services company or fintech in the DRC, including extensive experience engaging with the BCC.
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Strong knowledge of mobile money, e-money, and digital financial services regulatory frameworks.
You might be a good fit if you
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Are hands-on, analytical, and flexible in assuming several responsibilities at once.
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Have a demonstrated ability to work collaboratively with cross-functional and multicultural teams.
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Champion a strong culture of integrity and accountability, and bring others along with you.
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Are intellectually curious, creative in the way you go about tackling problems, and embrace failure as a means to spark innovation and growth.
Our team
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We have a rapidly growing in-country team in Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, Burkina Faso, The Gambia, Uganda, Niger, Sierra Leone, and Cameroon plus remote team members spread across the world.
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We’re deeply passionate about our mission of bringing radically affordable financial services to the people who need them most.
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We foster autonomy for our employees. You’ll own your projects at every stage, from understanding the problem to monitoring your solution in production.
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We raised the largest Series A in Africa in 2021. Our world-class investors, include Founders Fund, Sequoia Heritage, Stripe, Ribbit Capital, Y Combinator, and Partech Africa.
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We are on Y Combinator’s top companies by revenue.
How to apply
Fill out the form below, and upload a resume in English and a cover letter describing your interest in Wave and the role.
We review applications frequently and recommend that you apply to the role that most closely aligns with your skills, experience and career goals.
Legal
Wave is an equal-opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.
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