Senior Risk & Compliance Officer

Barcelona, Spain

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🚀 We’re on a mission to make money work for everyone.

We’re waving goodbye to the complicated and confusing ways of traditional banking.

After starting as a prepaid card, our product offering has grown a lot in the last 10 years in the UK. As well as personal and business bank accounts, we offer joint accounts, accounts for 16-17 year olds, a free kids account and credit cards in the UK, with more exciting things to come beyond. Our UK customers can also save, invest and combine their pensions with us.

With our hot coral cards and get-paid-early feature, combined with financial education on social media and our award-winning customer service, we have a long history of creating magical moments for our customers!

We’re not about selling products - we want to solve problems and change lives through Monzo ❤️

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About the Position

We’re looking for a Senior Risk & Compliance Officer to oversee risk management and compliance activities for the Spanish Branch of Monzo Bank Europe. In this role, you will implement Monzo’s Risk Management Framework in Spain, monitor the Branch’s key material risks covering operational, conduct, and compliance risks, and support regulatory engagements particularly with Banco de España.

Acting as a trusted advisor to the Spain Branch Manager, you will provide independent oversight, challenge, and advice across a broad spectrum of risks including Credit, Operational, ICT/Security, Conduct, Compliance, and Business risks. You will maintain strict functional independence via your reporting lines into the EU Risk Directors.

This role sits within the Second Line of Defense (2LOD) and reports functionally to the EU Director of Operational Risk and the EU Director of Conduct & Compliance Risk, and operationally to the Spain Branch Manager.

This role includes acting as the Customer Service Representative of the Branch in accordance with article 5 of Order ECO/734/2004 and as the Deputy MLRO for Spain, supporting the MLRO in overseeing compliance with Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) regulations, and providing 2LOD coverage and backup when required.

The role you are applying for is a Controlled Function (CF-2) within the meaning of the Central Bank Reform Act, 2010. For this role, appointment will be conditional on Monzo being fully satisfied that the appointee meets the requirements as set out in the Fitness and Probity Standards issued by the Central Bank of Ireland. As a CF, the role holder will be subject to Conduct Standards under the Central Bank of Ireland Individual Accountability Framework (IAF) and will be required to take reasonable steps to ensure that the relevant conduct standards are met.

Responsibilities

Local Branch Risk & Compliance Oversight and Governance

• Acting as the primary 2LOD point of contact for the Spanish branch, establishing and embedding a robust risk and compliance culture.
• Monitoring and interpreting local regulatory updates from the Banco de España and other relevant authorities, ensuring changes are effectively integrated into local operating procedures.
• Coordinating and drafting regulatory risk and compliance reports for local authorities, the Spain Branch Management Committee, and EU-level Risk Committees as appropriate.
• Supporting the Spain Branch Manager in maintaining clear local governance, accountability structures, and regulatory horizon scanning and mapping.
• Developing, maintaining, and reporting against the Branch Risk Appetite Statement (RAS).
• Establishing and maintaining branch-level risk and compliance dashboards, metrics, and data analytics capabilities to support informed decision-making for Spanish operations.
• Attending and actively participating in relevant internal governance forums, presenting management information (MI) and risk dashboards to key stakeholders.
• Serving as a key leader within the wider Risk and Compliance team concerning all matters related to the Spanish business.
• Championing a strong risk and compliance culture across Monzo's Spanish operations by developing and delivering comprehensive training and awareness programs for employees.

Operational, ICT, Security, Data & Third-Party Risk Oversight

• Overseeing the branch’s operational risk profile, ensuring that internal incidents, errors, and near-misses are accurately captured, investigated, and mitigated.
• Contributing to the Risk and Control Self-Assessment (RCSA) process, ensuring branch-specific risks are accurately identified and assessed with appropriate controls in place.
• Providing targeted 2LOD oversight on ICT, Cybersecurity, and Data Privacy (GDPR/local data protection) risks, ensuring strict alignment with the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) and local technology frameworks.
• Overseeing Payment Services compliance (including PSD2/PSD3/PSR transitions), monitoring transaction resilience, instant payment performance, and operational uptime.
• Overseeing risk and control assessments for local Third-Party Providers (TPPs) and outsourced critical services, ensuring inter-company and external vendor SLAs are monitored in compliance with local outsourcing regulations.

Conduct Risk, Compliance & Consumer Protection

• Acting as the Customer Service Representative of the Branch in accordance with article 5 of Order ECO/734/2004.
• Reviewing and overseeing the conduct risk profile within the branch, ensuring that product design, marketing materials, and customer interactions result in positive outcomes and comply with the Spanish Consumer and Conduct rules.
• Monitoring and challenging local compliance processes, including complaints handling data, trend analysis, product governance, and Go-To-Market (GTM) strategies.
• Preparing and presenting the annual Customer Service report to Branch Management, leveraging operational insights to provide actionable recommendations for improving processes and customer outcomes.
• Leading local Compliance Assurance reviews to validate the operational effectiveness of key internal controls.
• Partnering and coordinating with the centralised EU compliance team to ensure local Spanish nuances are addressed and that Monzo adheres to all applicable regional supervisory expectations and guidelines.
• Providing 2LOD compliance review and formal sign-off for all advertising and marketing materials destined for the Spanish market.
• Contributing actively to the branch’s ongoing regulatory horizon scanning and change management processes.

Credit & Business Risk Oversight

• Monitoring and providing independent 2LOD challenge on local credit portfolio performance, highlighting trends in non-performing loans (NPLs), credit concentrations, or underwriting deviations.
• Assessing the suitability of the credit risk framework and policies for the Spanish market, challenging credit risk strategies as appropriate.
• Monitoring business and strategic risks affecting the branch, ensuring that market-entry or product diversification activities align with the approved local Risk Appetite Statement (RAS).

Deputy MLRO & FinCrime Oversight

• Acting as the designated Deputy MLRO for the Spain Branch, providing operational and governance coverage for the MLRO as required.
• Assisting in overseeing AML/CFT compliance frameworks and supporting internal reporting and regulatory interactions with relevant authorities (e.g., SEPBLAC).

Requirements

• Minimum of 7 years of experience in Risk Management, Compliance, or Internal Audit within a regulated retail bank, digital bank, or top-tier fintech operating in Spain.
• Deep understanding of Banco de España regulations and broader EBA/ECB regulatory requirements (CRD V, PSD2/3, GDPR, DORA, AML/CFT).
• Proven experience in working with regulatory authorities and managing compliance-related audits.
• Demonstrated experience managing or overseeing multiple risk types, with specific expertise in Operational Risk, ICT/Security Risk, Conduct risk, Compliance Risk, and basic Credit Portfolio Quality reviews.
• Native or completely bilingual Spanish speaker with excellent professional proficiency in English (written and spoken), capable of translating complex local regulations into corporate/Group updates.
• Self-starter mentality comfortable with a matrix reporting structure. Ability to challenge senior executives constructively while maintaining a collaborative, solution-oriented approach to scaling a business.
• Passionate about financial technology and motivated by the opportunity to be at the forefront of banking transformation in the EU.

We Offer

• Salary: €75,000 - €95,000 + Incentive Awards tied to your performance.
• Location: Hybrid working model, based in our Barcelona office 2 - 3 days a week, with occasional travel to Monzo’s head offices in Dublin and/or London.
• Flexible Working Hours: Trust to work enough hours to do your job well, at times that suit you and your team.
• Annual Leave: 38 days including public holidays.
• Learning Budget: €1,200 each year to use on books, training courses, and conferences.
• Private Healthcare Scheme.
• Wellbeing Benefits: Financial education, women’s and men’s health support, mental health benefits, including coaching and counselling.

About the Company

At Monzo, we’re on a mission to make money work for everyone. We’re waving goodbye to the complicated and confusing ways of traditional banking. Our product offering has grown a lot in the last 10 years in the UK, and we’re excited to bring more innovative financial solutions to our customers. We’re passionate about financial technology and motivated by the opportunity to be at the forefront of banking transformation in the EU.

Diversity and Inclusion

Diversity and inclusion are a priority for us, and we’re making sure we have lots of support for all of our people to grow at Monzo. At Monzo, we’re embracing diversity by fostering an inclusive environment for all people to do the best work of their lives with us. This is integral to our mission of making money work for everyone.

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