Scheme Compliance Function Lead

About the Position

We are looking for a Scheme Compliance Function Lead to join our Spend & Card Issuance Team in London.

This role will focus on leading issuer-side scheme compliance and card disputes frameworks across Visa and Mastercard programs. It's a unique opportunity to build on your regulatory and commercial expertise, help deliver Wise’s mission of money without borders, and grow within a global, fast-paced environment while ensuring our card issuance operations remain compliant, secure, and built to scale.

Wise is a fast-growing business, so we expect that the right candidate will be able to clearly demonstrate exceptional behaviors and risk leadership that have resulted in scalable, compliant outcomes and material risk reduction in prior organizations.

Responsibilities

• Develop and execute a 1–3 year Spend Scheme Compliance strategy that aligns with Wise's business objectives and translates into clear quarterly priorities.
• Act as the accountable leader and key stakeholder for all issuer-side scheme topics across Visa and Mastercard programs, including BIN management, thresholds, and rule interpretations.
• Manage and develop a team of Compliance Product Specialists, helping them navigate complex scheme environments through effective coaching, performance management, and clear role definitions.
• Own Card Disputes Compliance end-to-end across fraud and non-fraud disputes, ensuring rules are operationalised, risks are governed, and recovery rates are optimised.
• Lead launch integrity for new issuance initiatives (BINs, chip profiles, market expansions), ensuring correct-first-time scheme submissions and go/no-go readiness.
• Oversee scheme compliance across the issuer supply chain, including processors, 3DS/authentication providers, tokenisation partners, and card personalisation vendors.
• Establish early-warning monitoring programs for scheme KPIs (fraud, disputes, thresholds) to prevent fee escalation or enforcement actions.
• Lead high-stakes negotiations and external relationship management with Visa and Mastercard, setting the tone for Wise advocacy and commitment tracking.
• Design and maintain a robust control framework, leading audit readiness and managing executive responses for scheme, external, and internal queries.
• Drive continuous improvement by establishing scalable mechanisms, including automated dashboards, standardised templates, and playbooks that reduce manual tasks and single points of failure.

Requirements

• Extensive experience in leading issuer-side scheme compliance and disputes operations (Visa and Mastercard) within fintech, banking, or payments.
• Proven track record of operationalizing scheme rules, managing threshold monitoring programs, and delivering audit-ready control frameworks.
• Excellent communication and negotiation skills, with a track record of successfully influencing senior internal leaders and external scheme executives.
• Deep knowledge of the card issuance supply chain, including processors, tokenization, 3DS authentication, and dispute tooling.
• Demonstrable ability to evaluate complex scheme rules and incident scenarios, translating them into pragmatic product and operational requirements.
• Strong leadership and team development skills, with experience coaching specialists to drive cross-functional outcomes under ambiguity.
• A get-it-done, collaborative approach to problem-solving with a focus on building scalable systems.

We Offer

• Competitive salary: GBP 83000 - GBP 110000 yearly
• Full-time position
• Opportunity to be part of a mission to make money without borders the new normal

About the Company

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 Location

London, United Kingdom