About the Role

As Zai’s next Financial Crime & Fraud Manager (Level 3 - MLRO / AML Compliance Officer), you’ll be our in-house detective, data wrangler, and compliance crusader, all rolled into one. You'll keep us ahead of the curve by monitoring customer activity, identifying financial crime risks, and ensuring our AML/CTF program operates seamlessly and effectively.

Reporting directly to the Chief Risk Officer, you'll play a pivotal role in guiding Zai through the evolving regulatory landscape. Working closely with the CRO and wider Compliance squad, you'll be keeping Zai safe, compliant, and future-ready. This role is a solo mission, no direct reports, just a whole lot of impact.

Why Zai?

Zai is a leading payment platform provider, backed by a global banking powerhouse, Standard Chartered. Zai is a pioneer in real-time payments. We were the first non-bank to connect merchants to the NPP and have been powering large scale payment solutions for over a decade.

Processing billions of dollars in monthly payment volume, we're scaling fast and we’re just getting started. As we grow, we’re looking for sharp minds to join our Risk & Compliance team in a hybrid role based out of Melbourne HQ.

Learn more about our journey at hellozai.com

What You’ll Be Doing

Making a lasting Impact:

Be a data detective: Analyse transactions and user activity to detect suspicious patterns linked to money laundering, fraud or financial crime.
Be our compliance champion: Monitor customer activity, report suspicious activity, and ensure compliance with AML/CTF regulations.
Work like Sherlock: Investigate alerts, assess incidents, and determine if escalation is needed and dig deep to uncover the real story behind the risks.
Collaborate like a boss: Team up with Risk, Tech, and other business units to create a unified approach to managing financial crime risks.
Shape the future: Contribute to the launch of new products, features, and market expansions by making sure innovation stays compliant from day one.
Lead the framework: Maintain and evolve our AML/CTF compliance program, including ongoing merchant monitoring and onboarding reviews aligned with banking partner requirements.
Be the go-to: Act as the primary contact for compliance related queries, resolving issues collaboratively across the business.
Run the risk radar: Conduct risk assessments across first-line functions and recommend preventative and remedial actions to mitigate fraud and AML/CTF breaches.
Nail the audits: Prepare for and manage audits and regulatory reviews ensuring we stay sharp, transparent, and review ready.
Own the risk lens: Partner with the CRO to maintain and evolve Zai’s risk based approach for AML, covering customers, products, and services.

What We are Looking For?

The ideal candidate should have:

3+ years of experience in a Financial Crime role, ideally within a payments or fintech environment
Proven anti-fraud focus and strong understanding of AML/CTF frameworks
Solid command of SQL and Excel for data analysis and rule-building
Exceptional communication skills, you can translate risk into clear, actionable language
Able to execute and deliver to a high level of quality and within required timeframes
Exceptional communication skills with the ability to influence and engage others through clear, logical, and well reasoned arguments.
Experience with facilitating Fraud Prevention or Transformation projects would be highly regarded
Highly organised, with strong time and project management skills
Comfortable challenging the status quo and driving change

Bonus points if you:

Have experience working in a startup or scale-up
Are deeply familiar with AML/CTF regulations and best practices.
Know your way around Tableau, PowerBI, R, SAS, Python, or similar tools

Perks

💰 Competitive salary package and benefits
🏝️ 5 weeks of annual leave as standard
👶🏼 12 weeks paid parental leave
🏠 Once-off working from home allowance
💰 Salary sacrificing options
🌱 Work remotely from anywhere in the world for 4 weeks every year
🧠 An innovative, inclusive, and collaborative team culture
💼 A beautiful CBD office (opposite Southern Cross Station)
🤸‍♂️ A flexible, fun work environment where you’ll learn every day

We're looking for someone with a sharp mind, a keen eye for detail, and a passion for keeping things secure. If you're ready to join the fight against financial crime and make a real impact we want to hear from you.

Ready to join the mission? Apply now!

Equal Opportunity at Zai

Zai is an equal opportunity employer committed to building an inclusive workplace. All qualified applicants will receive consideration without bias to education, race, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, or age. If you need specific assistance or adjustments during the application process, please let us know, we’re here to help.