Director, Fincrime Operations Excellence (UK/US)

Join Zepz: Breaking Down Borders, Together
Our Meaningful Mission
At Zepz, we're all about breaking down barriers for our customers and our teammates. Our purpose is deeply personal, we provide a lifeline and deliver opportunities to cross-border communities that need it most through cutting edge finance and tech.
Zepz is the power behind WorldRemit and Sendwave,  driven by the mission to celebrate the incredible impact migrants have, both at home and abroad. We're not just moving money; we're building a world that truly recognizes and supports global connections.
Who You'll Be Joining
We look for mission-driven builders who thrive in a fast-paced environment connected to a true purpose. We’re an always developing team of experts that enjoy problem solving and bring clarity to tough challenges. At Zepz, we are Relentless Learners, always seeking feedback, and  Responsible Owners, treating company resources like your own. We depend on Transparent Communicators who keep the team aligned through open, honest talk.
Our Core Commitments — What We Live By
Our vibrant and truly diverse culture is built on three core commitments, that guide how we work and interact:
Integrity: We always do the right thing. It’s simple, but it’s the foundation of everything we build for our customers and each other.
Outcomes: We work for our customers. Their success and prosperity are the results we focus on delivering.
Velocity: We are fast! We maintain high energy levels and make smart decisions quickly, keeping us nimble and ahead of the curve.
Perks of Joining Our Team
We believe in empowering colleagues because we genuinely trust our team. Our culture is founded on this high trust, which naturally encourages the high ownership that drives us to meet our shared high expectations and deliver high performance. Our remote-first culture means you have the flexibility to work in your employing country wherever you feel the most focused and productive. This freedom comes with wonderful tailored, location-specific perks designed to support your whole life, not just your work. Think unlimited annual leave , great healthcare benefits, and employee discounts. We want you to thrive and focus entirely on making your biggest impact! In turn, we expect you to bring high ownership and commitment to your work. This is a place where we value trust and high performance, and we'll provide the environment and support needed for you to excel
About the role and team
The Director of Fincrime Operations Excellence is being hired to transform how Fincrime operations are run.  This is not a role for someone who maintains and iterates. This is a role for someone who walks into a gap, diagnoses what is missing, designs the solution, and drives it to completion, while simultaneously keeping the operation running. You will be accountable for queue health, analyst productivity, and the case management system that underpins all Fincrime control execution.
You will report directly to the Sr. Director of Fincrime Product, sit alongside Product Managers, and manage direct reports. You will work across a globally distributed team and are expected to operate flexibly across time zones. This may include early morning or late evening calls with APAC, to ensure the operation functions without gaps in coverage or leadership.
What you will focus on
Build the operational framework from scratch

• Conduct a rapid assessment of the current operational state: what processes exist, what is undocumented, where quality is inconsistent, and where there are no standards at all.
• Design and implement a complete set of standard operating procedures covering alert triage, to drafting investigation summary that can be used for regulatory reporting, and queue management
• Establish escalation paths, handoff protocols, and coverage models that work across a globally distributed team and multiple time zones.
• Create the governance cadence i.e.daily stand-ups, weekly queue reviews, monthly quality reviews  that keeps the operation running and productivity visible to leadership.
• Your mandate is to build an end-to-end operational infrastructure — queue management, productivity standards, quality frameworks, case management ownership, and standard operating procedures.

Stand up queue management and productivity standards

• Define what good queue health looks like: target SLAs, acceptable thresholds for triggering backlog review and prioritization. 
• Implement real-time queue monitoring dashboard to monitor productivity.
• Establish performance metrics.
• Design and own the capacity model to forecast staffing requirements
• Build a productivity improvement program: identify the top bottlenecks in operations workflow, prioritize fixes, and track improvement over time.

Own the case management system

• Take ownership of the case management platform used by Fincrime operations analysts.
• Work with the Product to define the product roadmap for the case management tool, based on operational pain points and efficiency opportunities you identify.
• Ensure the case management system produces a complete, auditable record of every analyst decision. Data quality of the system is your accountability.
• Define and enforce the data entry standards and workflow discipline that make the system reliable for QA sampling, regulatory reporting, and management information.

Build and own the quality framework

• Design and own the quality control and quality assurance framework — defining the standards, scoring rubric, sampling methodology, CAPA process, and reporting cadence that govern how Fincrime control execution is assessed. This framework is yours to create; the QC/QA Manager is accountable for executing it once built.
• Stand up an independent QA programme: sampling methodology, scoring rubric, reporting cadence, and CAPA process.
• Establish error rate baselines across all control types, set improvement targets, and track progress monthly.
• Ensure the quality framework is recognised by the compliance function as credible evidence of control execution standards.

Global coverage and timezone management

• Ensure the operation has leadership coverage across all active time zones — designing shift structures, handoff protocols, and async communication norms for a globally distributed team.
• Be personally available for escalations and critical decisions outside standard business hours when required, and model the timezone flexibility you expect from the team.
• Build an operation that does not depend on any single timezone's working hours to function.

Ongoing operational accountability

• Own queue health across all Fincrime control types — TM alerts, screening hits, CRR reviews, SAR pipeline — ensuring SLAs are met consistently.
• Report operational performance monthly to the Sr. Director and compliance stakeholders, with clear narrative on variances and remediation plans.
• Act as the primary operational voice in the fortnightly Fincrime Product Review and serve as the senior escalation point for operational issues.
• Interface with the compliance function on quality findings, regulatory examination readiness, and control attestation.

What you bring to the table

• 5+ years in operations management, specifically within a high-growth fintech or regulated financial environment.
• A history of architecting operational foundations, including establishing quality control framework and SOPs, from the ground up. 
• Proven track record of identifying gaps/improvements and driving implementation.
• Direct involvement in influencing internal tools to drive efficiency. 
• Experience managing globally distributed teams, working flexibly  across multiple timezones,
• Strong knowledge of AML controls across customer risk rating, sanctions screening, transaction monitoring, and fraud detection.
• You are motivated by the challenge of establishing order and clarity in an unstructured environment.
• Strong analytical and diagnostic skills to evaluate operational health rapidly and prioritize high-impact solutions for critical gaps.
• Clear and structured communicator, capable of building alignment between product teams, operations, and compliance leadership.
• Data proficiency, with the ability to establish key metrics and derive actionable insights from complex quality and operational datasets.

Nice to have / Bonus Points if you have

• Proven background within a large-scale fintech operation.
• Familiarity with the financial crime tech landscape, including screening vendors, transaction monitoring rules, and case management systems.
• Direct experience managing complex operations across the Americas, APAC, and EMEA regions concurrently.

AI Literacy & Tools
As Zepz continues to build AI into how we work, we expect everyone to engage with it as a core part of their role. For this position we are looking for:

• A genuine curiosity about AI and how it can be applied in your area of work — from accelerating analysis and insight generation, to improving how we design and deliver processes and communications.
• Practical experience using AI tools in a professional context — whether to connect information, draft content, build frameworks, or create insights from data. We want people who actively use AI to increase productivity, not those who are waiting to be told to.
• Strong AI literacy — an understanding of what AI assistants can and cannot do, how to prompt effectively, and how to critically evaluate AI-generated output before using it.
• Awareness of the ethical considerations and responsible use of AI in the workplace, particularly in the context of sensitive data, customer experience, and compliance.
• Prior experience using Claude (Anthropic) is a nice-to-have but not essential — what matters most is that you are genuinely engaged with AI as a tool, comfortable experimenting, and eager to share what works with your wider team

If you want to join us in our journey to help break barriers in financial access and improve lives globally, there's no better place or time to join.
Our global team of 800+ people is spread across six continents. We aspire to hire the best mix of people from former Olympians to YouTube influencers and we speak over twenty languages. This incredible diversity isn't a bonus; it's the engine that lets us serve the world.
Ready to Apply? Let’s Go.