Financial Crime Manager (Fintech/Payments)

Our client is a technology company solving payments problems for businesses. Their mission is to help businesses in Africa become profitable, envied, and loved. They provide a suite of products to help businesses accept payments online and offline, manage their operations, and grow their business. Our client is driven by a commitment to excellence, innovation, and customer satisfaction. Role Overview As the Financial Crime Manager, you will lead our client's fraud and AML detection operations from end-to-end. You will partner with product and engineering to evolve system capabilities while leading a high-performing team of specialists to deliver high-quality risk outcomes. By combining deep domain expertise with operational leadership, you will ensure our client remains a safe and trusted payments platform. You will be accountable for: Informing the product roadmap for our monitoring, alerting, and case management tools. The quality and effectiveness of fraud and AML monitoring logic and detection scenarios. The operating model and performance of the Financial Crime Monitoring teams. Translating risk, regulatory, and business requirements into robust, scalable detection systems Driving operational excellence by using data and metrics to manage team capacity and performance. Job Type: Full Time/Permanent Location: South Africa Requirements 7+ years in financial crime roles in payments, fintech, banking, or financial services. Proven experience designing, building, and tuning risk detection systems (fraud, AML, or similar). Experience measuring and optimising detection performance using quantitative metrics. Strong systems thinking: able to design scalable, maintainable monitoring frameworks rather than one-off rules. Deep understanding of financial crime typologies, fraud patterns, AML/CTF requirements, and regulatory obligations. Experience operating within fraud, AML, risk, or compliance functions in payments, fintech, or financial services. Proven experience leading and developing teams, including setting direction, coaching, and performance management. Excellent communication skills, with the ability to explain complex technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders. High ownership mindset and comfort operating in ambiguous, high-growth environments. Preferred Familiarity with monitoring platforms, alerting systems, transaction screening, and case management tools. Industry certifications such as ACAMS, ICA, CFE, CFCS, or similar. Responsibilities Financial Crime Oversight Own the end-to-end fraud and AML detection domain, ensuring alignment between prevention, detection, investigation, and remediation. Apply deep understanding of fraud typologies, AML/CTF risks, sanctions, and regulatory expectations to detection design. Manage the Fraud and AML operational teams (specialists and first-line managers) to ensure adequate coverage, capability and day-to-day execution. Translate regulatory, partner, and audit requirements into scalable technical and operational controls. Stay ahead of evolving financial crime patterns, market-specific risks, and regulatory developments across our client's footprint. Financial Crime Capabilities Design and optimise systems, logic, scenarios, and thresholds used to identify financial crime. Ensure adequate coverage and capability across the team to meet growing transaction volumes. Apply a deep understanding of fraud typologies, AML/CTF risks, and sanctions to the design of our controls. Establish feedback loops between investigation outcomes and detection strategies to improve signal quality. Maintain auditable documentation of detection logic, business assumptions, and strategy changes. Measure and manage detection performance using quantitative metrics (precision, recall, false positives, alert-to-case conversion, loss metrics). Team Leadership & Development Manage and mentor the Fraud and AML operational teams, including specialists and first-line managers. Set clear direction, provide coaching, and oversee performance management to ensure high-quality execution. Operational Excellence Build and improve SLAs, KPIs, and quality frameworks across all Financial Crime teams. Use performance metrics to manage team capacity and ensure efficient investigation outcomes. Balance speed, quality, and regulatory expectations with a focus on maintaining a positive customer experience. Cross-functional Collaboration Partner with Product and Engineering teams to define requirements for monitoring, alerting, and case management tools. Work closely with Legal, Compliance, and Risk to ensure alignment with regulatory obligations. Collaborate with Data team to optimise rule effectiveness and performance Support audits, partner reviews, and regulatory engagements as a subject matter expert. Provide clear updates to senior stakeholders on operational performance, risks, and emerging issues