About the Role
This fully remote position reports directly to the CEO and leads a compliance function that includes the Group Paralegal and all compliance personnel embedded across the company. The role is situated in a dynamic environment where the company is at a pivotal moment, building a compliance architecture across six business lines and multiple jurisdictions simultaneously.
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As the Chief Compliance Officer (CCO), you will play a crucial role in managing the licensing pipelines, ensuring regulatory compliance, and integrating new entities without compliance exposure. The successful candidate will have experience operating across tier-one and emerging-market regulatory regimes and possess the credibility to engage directly with regulators.
Location
- Remote position (EU timezone preferred)
- Ensures effective collaboration with key offices across the company.
- Occasional travel is required for regulator meetings and visits to regional teams.
General Purpose
You will be responsible for overseeing a complex regulatory landscape and managing multiple parallel licensing processes, including:
- Norwegian crypto exchange structured for MiCA passporting.
- South African broker-dealer acquisition.
- VARA application in the UAE.
- Prospective acquisitions in LATAM and Southeast Asia.
Specific Objectives
- Build and deploy a group-wide compliance reporting framework within the first three months.
- Create an AI-enabled legal document database within six months.
- Establish and embed internal legal SLAs to ensure timely delivery of internal legal workflows within the first three months.
- Deploy legal and compliance risk monitoring tools across all business verticals within six months.
- Drive licensing and acquisition pipeline to active milestones by defined deadlines.
Key Activities
- Oversee group-wide legal and compliance communications to ensure consistency and clear audit trails.
- Monitor brand, regulatory, and compliance risk using dedicated tooling.
- Conduct structured research on new and existing jurisdictions to keep risk exposure visible and current.
- Build and maintain reporting infrastructure in collaboration with Operations and IT.
- Inventory, organize, and analyze all group legal agreements while maintaining the AI-enabled document repository.
- Manage regulatory relationships with an emphasis on effective communication and consistent engagement.
- Set and enforce contract throughput standards across the compliance and legal function.
Key Competences
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Non-negotiable:
- Multi-jurisdictional regulatory knowledge with command of tier-one regimes (CySEC, FCA, NFA, ASIC) and emerging-market frameworks (UAE, Mauritius, Seychelles, SVG, Cambodia).
- Regulator-facing credibility and comfort in direct engagement with regulators.
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Strong Advantage:
- M&A and licensing fluency with capabilities in assessing regulatory exposure and managing parallel licensing processes.
- Experience in deploying AI tooling in legal operations.
- Functional leadership skills with capacity to set standards and ensure accountability.
Likely Current Job
- Chief Compliance Officer at a multi-jurisdictional broker or crypto exchange.
- Head of Compliance at a tier-one regulated broker.
- Regulatory Affairs Director in fintech or crypto with emerging jurisdictional responsibilities.
- M&A Compliance Lead in financial services.
- Senior Legal Counsel / Head of Legal at a retail broker or crypto exchange.
Employer Value Proposition
- Opportunity for genuine architectural ownership across six asset classes and multiple jurisdictions with live licensing and M&A deals in motion.
- Direct line to the CEO, providing fast-tracked decision-making authority.
- Engage in real-time with active deal pipelines, including VARA in the UAE, and MiCA passporting.
- A unique chance to pioneer AI-enabled legal operations at a group level.
- Fully remote with no commute required; occasional travel only for necessary regulatory engagements.
Compensation
- Bespoke compensation tailored to the hire, competitive with the scope of the mandate, comprising base salary and bonuses tied to agreed KPIs.
Assessment Process
- Rigorous and purposeful multi-stage assessment focused on matching the mandate’s weight involving the Group Legal Counsel, CHRO, CEO, and select Board members.
- The full process is designed to run within one month to respect candidates’ time.