AML Transaction Monitoring Specialist

About Paystack

Paystack’s mission is to power African ambition. Over 300K of some of the most renowned businesses in Nigeria, as well as a growing number of merchants in South Africa, Ghana, and Kenya use Paystack’s modern payments gateway. They include the likes of MTN, Burger King, UPS, AXA Mansard Insurance, FairMoney, PiggyVest, FilmHouse Cinemas, Smile Communications, Air Peace Airlines, Crocs, Under Armour, Richemont Lifestyle Group (RLG), and many others. 

In just over 9 years, our growing team has introduced a steady cadence of innovation within the online payments landscape, such as automated recurring payments, the ability for customers to pay directly from their bank accounts, automated chargebacks, and much more. We’ve been acquired by Stripe and are doubling down on the mission to help build out Africa’s payments infrastructure. 

At Paystack, we believe that we will win by recruiting talented people and giving them the space, resources, and support to do the best work of their lives. We hire the most capable people, treat them with genuine respect, and give them the means to succeed. And we’d love your help!

The AML Transaction Monitoring Specialist is a central figure in this mission. In this role, you will conduct thorough investigations into complex financial crime risks, prepare and render all required regulatory returns, and provide compliance advisory support to internal stakeholders. You will collaborate across Paystack to enhance our AML framework, contribute to company-wide risk assessments, and help maintain compliance in a dynamic fintech environment.

About the role

Paystack is seeking an innovative and forward-thinking AML Transaction Monitoring Specialist to join our Risk and Compliance teams. We are looking for a professional with a strong analytical mindset and a passion for fighting financial crime. If you are deeply curious about tracing illicit activity and have proven experience in a fast-paced environment, this role is for you.

As an AML Transaction Monitoring Specialist you will be responsible for developing monitoring rules, reviewing, analyzing, and investigating financial transactions to detect and report potentially suspicious activities in accordance with applicable Anti-Money Laundering (AML) laws, regulations, and internal policies. This role is critical in ensuring the organization’s compliance with our global AML/CTF/CPF regulations.

A key part of your role will be preparing management reports for leadership, maintaining a compliance dashboard to track the effectiveness of our controls, and assisting with the annual ML/TF risk assessment. You will be a subject matter expert, providing guidance to internal teams and ensuring Paystack remains at the forefront of compliance best practices.

This role is based in Nigeria.

We’ll trust you to

• Transaction Monitoring:
• Conduct AML related risk assessments and collaborate with cross functional teams to design and enhance AML transaction monitoring rules and develop effective monitoring systems alerts.
• Manage a queue of complex alerts, conducting comprehensive investigations into potentially suspicious activity by analysing transactional data and reviewing all related merchant information.
• Analyze transaction patterns, customer profiles, and historical activity to determine legitimacy.
  
  
• Investigation & Analysis:
• Conduct detailed investigations on flagged transactions.
• Identify trends, anomalies, and potential typologies associated with money laundering or other financial crimes.
• Leverage data tools like SQL and Excel to analyse transactional data, identify emerging money laundering typologies, and flag these trends for risk mitigation.

• Documentation & Reporting:
• Document findings clearly and concisely with supporting evidence.
• Prepare detailed investigation narratives and draft Suspicious Transaction Reports (STRs) and other required filings in line with financial intelligence units across our operational jurisdictions.
• Escalate cases as appropriate and assist in the filing of Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs).
• Accurately document all investigation findings, including the evidence gathered and the rationale for your conclusions, ensuring all case files are complete and ready for regulatory review.
• Prepare management and board reports on suspicious transactions activities providing insight to the current AML risk landscape

• Compliance & Risk Assessment:
• Collaborate with other compliance teams to ensure procedures are aligned with current AML laws and industry best practices.
• Participate in risk assessments related to products, customer behavior and transaction activity.
  
  
• System Support:
• Partner with Product and Engineering teams by providing direct feedback on financial crime trends and rule performance to help refine and strengthen our detection and monitoring systems.
• Provide feedback to improve alert quality and reduce false positives.
• Assist in tuning and testing transaction monitoring systems and rules.
  
  
• Training & Collaboration:
• Participate in ongoing training and stay up to date on AML regulations and typologies.
• Work closely with other Risk and Compliance teams such as Compliance Reviews, Fraud. And other cross functional team Legal, Product, Engineering as needed.
• Liaise with the financial intelligence units and law enforcement.

You’ll thrive if you

• Have 4+ years of experience in an AML/CFT compliance role focused on financial crime investigations and regulatory reporting.
• Demonstrate a strong working knowledge of AML/CFT regulations, including the reporting requirements and guidelines of the FIU and Regulators.
• Are proficient with data analysis tools, particularly SQL and Excel, and can leverage them to investigate complex financial data.
• Exhibit excellent investigative and problem-solving skills, with a high level of curiosity and meticulous attention to detail.
• Communicate complex ideas clearly and effectively, especially through precise and detailed written narratives for investigation files and regulatory reports.
• Are proactive and can manage a caseload independently, taking the initiative to see investigations through to completion.

Application Instructions (Read carefully)

1. Click the Apply Now button to go to the application form, and answer the application question.
2. In your cover letter, please take care to explain how your professional and personal experiences have set you up to thrive in this role. This is important. We find that while unsuccessful applicants tend to simply summarise their CV, successful applicants are able to clearly articulate how their background makes them uniquely suited for this role.

 

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Equal Opportunity Statement

Paystack is an Equal Opportunity Employer and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any kind. We’re committed to providing employees with a work environment that is progressive and open-minded. Our employment philosophy is to hire the best people and empower them to do the best work of their lives. Employment decisions are based on business needs and individual merit without regard to race, color, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, nationality, marital status, gender or age.