Team Lead – Financial Crime Operations Reporting

Company Description Wise is a global technology company, building the best way to move and manage the world’s money. Min fees. Max ease. Full speed. Whether people and businesses are sending money to another country, spending abroad, or making and receiving international payments, Wise is on a mission to make their lives easier and save them money. As part of our team, you will be helping us create an entirely new network for the world's money. For everyone, everywhere. More about our mission and what we offer. Job Description Are you a decisive, hands-on leader ready to make a real impact? Wise is seeking a dynamic and experienced Team Lead to establish and lead our Financial Crime Operations team (focused on suspicious activity reporting) in Hyderabad, India – a key addition to our global operational network. As one of our founding operational leaders at this site, you'll have the opportunity to build our local presence while working within an international framework spanning US, Malaysia, Estonia, and beyond. We're looking for an ambitious leader who thrives in a fast-paced, global fintech environment and has a proven track record of building and driving high-performing operational teams. This is not a "floor manager" role; we need a leader who takes charge independently, makes tough decisions, coaches effectively, and champions a culture of excellence and accountability across borders. Your mission: Lead, develop, and inspire a team of specialists dedicated to protecting the integrity of our global platform by identifying and reporting suspicious activities to financial intelligence units worldwide. You will establish an efficient, compliant, and high-quality operation in Hyderabad that operates to the same exacting standards as our global teams. This involves making data-driven decisions, proactively managing performance, mitigating operational risks, and ensuring adherence to global processes. You will be the driving force ensuring your team is not just managed, but truly led: setting the foundation for operational excellence and contributing directly to Wise's mission of making money move seamlessly across the world What you’ll get to do: Lead and develop a high-performing team: lead, coach, mentor, and develop a team of specialists, fostering a culture of excellence, accountability, and continuous improvement. Drive performance and quality: own, monitor and action your team's KPI outcomes, service delivery goals, and quality standards by implementing strategies to consistently meet and exceed targets. Decisive performance management: proactively manage individual and team performance, providing clear, constructive feedback, and taking swift, decisive action to address underperformance or behavioral concerns. Champion operational excellence: oversee operational processes and task allocation, focusing on tactical execution to ensure timely, accurate, and efficient case resolution. Uphold rigorous standards: be accountable for the quality of your team's output, ensuring strict adherence to internal policies, procedures, and regulatory requirements. Capacity planning and resource management: contribute to effective capacity management to ensure the team can meet fluctuating demands and SLAs. Role model leadership: set the highest standards for performance, diligence, and professional conduct, acting as a role model for your team and peers. Stakeholder engagement and representation: analyse and represent the team's results, deliverables and challenges to different stakeholders upon need. Complex case and escalation management: serve as the primary escalation point specialists, collaborating with other functions to ensure effective resolution while maintaining strong customer empathy and clear communication. Risk identification and mitigation: proactively identify operational delivery risks and vulnerabilities, contributing to the design and implementation of effective mitigation strategies.​​​​​​​ Qualifications What we’re looking for: Proven leadership experience (mandatory): 5+ years leading operational teams in high-pressure, regulated environments with proven success in performance management, meeting strict deadlines, and strategic team scaling. Financial services/fintech background strongly preferred. Queue management expertise (mandatory): demonstrated experience managing live operational queues, including real-time workload balancing, SLA adherence, and capacity planning. Experience working in 24/7 operations or supporting global time zones. Exceptional performance management skills (mandatory): proven ability to set clear expectations, manage performance rigorously, coach for improvement, and address underperformance effectively and decisively. Problem-solving and prioritization (mandatory): proven ability to triage and prioritize competing demands independently, resolve operational issues at source without unnecessary escalation, and take complete ownership of outcomes in high-pressure situations. Decisive and action-oriented: a proactive, results-driven leader who takes charge independently, makes tough decisions without excessive escalation, and holds themselves and their team accountable. Must be comfortable making judgment calls in ambiguous situations. Workforce management proficiency: strong understanding of WFM principles including forecasting, scheduling, adherence monitoring, and productivity optimization. Confident and articulate communicator: excellent verbal and written English communication skills. Ability to articulate complex issues clearly, present confidently to senior stakeholders, speak persuasively, and build strong working relationships across diverse, international teams. Financial crime expertise (preferred): knowledge or experience in AML, fraud detection, internal controls, or financial crime reviews will be highly beneficial. Analytical and data-driven: strong understanding of operational metrics with the ability to analyze data, identify trends, and make informed decisions to drive team performance. Entrepreneurial mindset and independence: as one of our first operational leaders at the Hyderabad site, you'll be establishing our local presence within our global operating model. While you'll leverage existing best practices and frameworks, you must demonstrate strong independent judgment, adapt and implement processes locally, solve problems autonomously, and take full ownership from day one with minimal supervision. If you are a results-oriented leader with a passion for fighting financial crime and a proven ability to build and inspire high-performing teams, we want to hear from you! Additional Information Company offers We’re people without borders — without judgement or prejudice, too. We want to work with the best people, no matter their background. So if you’re passionate about learning new things and keen to join our mission, you’ll fit right in. Also, where and what you studied isn't important to us. If you’ve got great experience, the right skills for the role and you’re great at articulating your thinking, we’d like to hear from you. And because we believe that diverse teams build better products, we’d especially love to hear from you if you’re from an under-represented demographic. For everyone, everywhere. We're people building money without borders — without judgement or prejudice, too. We believe teams are strongest when they are diverse, equitable and inclusive. We're proud to have a truly international team, and we celebrate our differences. Inclusive teams help us live our values and make sure every Wiser feels respected, empowered to contribute towards our mission and able to progress in their careers. If you want to find out more about what it's like to work at Wise visit Wise.Jobs. Keep up to date with life at Wise by following us on LinkedIn and Instagram.