Risk & Compliance Officer
Wave is a mobile money company reinventing financial services across Africa. It lets users deposit, withdraw, and pay bills for free, send money for a 1% fee, and buy airtime instantly, serving everyday consumers who need affordable, accessible banking.
Projects
About Wave
Wave offers mobile money services designed to make banking modern and affordable, primarily for underserved populations across Africa. Its core product allows users to deposit and withdraw money for free, pay bills for free, send money to anyone for only 1%, and buy airtime instantly, backed by toll-free customer support and strong security. Wave operates across numerous African markets including Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, DRC, Gambia, Malawi, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Uganda, with a global team building what it describes as 'the future of money, Africa-first.' The company emphasizes a distinct hiring philosophy and culture rooted in transparency, mission-driven work, honesty, and rapid iteration, serving individual consumers and agents who rely on Wave for everyday financial transactions.
Skills
About the Role
You will play a key role in maintaining operational integrity in a growing and dynamic environment. You will lead field audit efforts in Sierra Leone while supporting compliance, internal control, and, on occasion, fraud operations. You'll be the go-to person on the ground to coordinate local execution of global risk and compliance standards.
Requirements
- At least 4 years of experience in compliance, risk management, or audit
- Master's degree in Finance, Accounting, Risk Management, Business & Economics, or a related field
- Experience in mobile money operations or the financial services sector is an added advantage
- Proven experience in team management
- Experience in AML
- Work authorization in Sierra Leone is required
Responsibilities
- Supervise and coordinate field audit activities (agent audits, spot checks, reconciliations)
- Work with the field audit and agent ops teams to escalate and address deficiencies identified during audits
- Monitor implementation of control measures and escalate any breaches or gaps
- Support the rollout of internal control frameworks across business functions
- Monitor implementation of basic compliance requirements (e.g., KYC, agent onboarding controls)
- Participate in incident reviews and follow up on remediation actions
- Support documentation and reporting on internal risk or compliance issues
- Support AML and CFT investigations in Sierra Leone, including submission of Suspicious Transaction Reports (STRs) to the Financial Intelligence Authority (FIA)
- Contribute to the implementation of the compliance program
- Provide guidance, advice, and/or training and educational programs to improve business understanding of related laws and regulatory requirements
- Conduct and respond to due diligence requests from and to partners
- Prepare periodic and ad hoc compliance reports with regulatory agencies
- Assist with identifying and evaluating operational risks in coordination with functional teams
- Help coordinate fraud investigations or awareness efforts as needed
- Escalate fraud signals or trends to regional and global teams
Benefits
- Generous health insurance for yourself and your dependents
- Generous parental leave policies (26 weeks for mothers and 4 weeks for fathers)
- Subsidized child care when you return to work
- Subsidized gym memberships and fitness classes
- Airtime reimbursement
- Free food and a beautiful office space