Risk and Compliance Officer

At Paymentology, we’re redefining what’s possible in the payments space. As the first truly global issuer-processor, we give banks and fintechs the technology and talent to launch and manage Mastercard and Visa cards at scale - across more than 60 countries.

Our advanced, multi-cloud platform delivers real-time data, unmatched scalability, and the flexibility of shared or dedicated processing instances. It's this global reach and innovation that sets us apart.

We are seeking a hands-on Risk & Compliance Officer with experience in South African regulatory requirements, AML/CFT controls, and practical risk management. This role is ideal for someone who enjoys working cross-functionally, translating complex regulatory and risk requirements into clear, actionable processes, and strengthening monitoring and control frameworks.

This dual-responsibility role will play a key part in strengthening local compliance execution while helping to build and embed a structured risk management approach across our South Africa business. You will work closely with the Legal & Compliance team and partner with stakeholders across the organisation, contributing to the continued growth of our South Africa operations.

South Africa Compliance Officer

• Act as the primary compliance contact for Sponsor banks, supporting day-to-day operation of Paymentology’s local compliance framework.
• Interpret and implement partner banks’ Risk Management and Compliance Programme (RMCP) requirements, ensuring alignment with applicable legislation and regulatory frameworks.

KYC, Screening & Due Diligence Oversight

• Conduct and oversee KYC and KYB processes for cardholders, corporate clients, and partners, including onboarding, beneficial ownership verification, sanctions, PEP, and adverse media screening.
• Lead onboarding risk assessments in line with global standards and risk appetite, including enhanced due diligence where required.

Compliance Monitoring & Reporting

• Perform periodic reviews (monitoring & testing) to assess compliance and risk programme effectiveness and identify improvements.
• Maintain accurate compliance records and prepare clear, structured reports for senior management, clients, and regulators.
• Support documentation requests to demonstrate the effectiveness of compliance controls.

Risk Identification, Assessment & Tracking

• Support the development and embedding of a structured risk management framework for South Africa.
• Identify, assess, document, and monitor key risks across compliance, operational, third-party, resilience, and regulatory domains.
• Contribute to the implementation of a proactive Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) framework.

Risk Register & Action Tracking

• Maintain risk registers, issue logs, and remediation trackers, ensuring clear ownership, timelines, and status updates.
• Track regulatory findings, internal actions, and control improvements.

Controls & Risk-Based Process Support

• Map risks to controls and assess control design and effectiveness.
• Partner with business teams to strengthen documentation and close control gaps, ensuring solutions are practical and aligned with the business model.

Operational Resilience & Risk Coordination

• Support risk activities related to business continuity, disaster recovery, incident management, and third-party dependencies.
• Coordinate remediation actions, evidence gathering, and documentation improvements aligned with ERM initiatives.
• Support implementation of agile compliance risk management systems aligned with Paymentology policies.

Training & Guidance

• Provide practical guidance and deliver training on compliance and risk requirements, ensuring teams understand and embed controls in daily operations.

Broader Initiatives

• Contribute to wider Legal & Compliance and business initiatives, including policy updates, framework enhancements, and cross-functional projects.
• Prepare and maintain audit-ready documentation across risk and compliance activities.

What it takes to succeed

• 4–6 years’ experience in compliance, financial crime, risk management, or related roles within banking, payments, fintech, or another regulated environment.
• Strong knowledge of South African regulatory frameworks (e.g. FIC Act, NPS Bill), particularly AML, CFT, KYC/KYB, and risk management.
• Practical experience in risk assessments, compliance monitoring, issue management, and remediation.
• Familiarity with international financial crime frameworks (FATF, EU AML Directives, OFAC) preferred.
• Experience with compliance tools (e.g. sanctions screening, AML monitoring, GRC systems) preferred.
• Proven experience implementing RMCPs and conducting due diligence and policy rollouts.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English.
• Strong proficiency in Microsoft Office (especially Excel and PowerPoint) and a willingness to leverage AI tools for efficiency.
• Strong stakeholder management and ability to operate effectively in complex, ambiguous environments.
• Ability to translate regulatory requirements into practical, operational controls.
• Strong organisational and project management skills.
• This is a hybrid role, x2 days in the Johannesburg office per week.

At Paymentology we value making a difference to the lives of the people who work for us and who live in the communities where we operate. You can look forward to working with a diverse, global team where Paymentologists at all levels play an important part in our global mission to advance the world through payments and make a difference on a global scale.

We are an equal opportunity employer committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace where everyone can thrive. We welcome applications from people of all backgrounds and do not discriminate on any unlawful ground, including race, colour, ethnicity, sex, gender, pregnancy, marital status, family responsibility, age, disability, sexual orientation, religion, belief, language or HIV status.

Paymentology will never request any form of payment from applicants at any stage of our recruitment process, including for applications, interviews, training or job placements. If anyone asks you for money while claiming to act on behalf of Paymentology, please treat this as fraudulent and do not make any payment. All legitimate Paymentology vacancies are advertised via our official careers page , and our recruitment emails are sent only from official Paymentology domains.