Financial Crime Investigator

👋 About Us

NALA is building Payments for the Next Billion. Faster, smarter, and fairer transfers for everyone. Since 2022, we've grown our business 120x, grown the team from 9 to 150+, raised $50M+ from top-tier investors, and were named to the Forbes Fintech 50 in 2025.

We operate two core products:

• NALA, our consumer app making cross-border payments cheaper, faster, and more reliable for the global diaspora.
• Rafiki, our B2B payments infrastructure, powering global payments.

Our team includes alumni from Wise, Stripe, Monzo, Revolut, and CashApp — operators who’ve scaled world-class products. We act with urgency, think deeply, and put our customers first always.

At NALA, this isn’t just a job. It’s ownership, impact, and the chance to change global payments forever.

Join us in building Payments for the Next Billion.

🙌 Your Mission

Your mission is to provide oversight and expert guidance on financial crime risk. You will lead complex investigations, support regulatory compliance, and train our 2LOD team to strengthen NALA’s defenses against financial crime.

🎯 Your Responsibilities in this Role

• Lead complex investigations into suspicious activity and high-risk customers across products and jurisdictions
• Respond to regulatory exams, internal audits, and partner reviews with timely and accurate documentation
• Oversee and complete escalated SARs, supporting officers in regulatory report submission
• Manage LEA requests and court order responses in line with local laws and data policies
• Train and mentor the 2LOD team and new hires on escalation frameworks and investigative techniques
• Conduct detailed transaction analysis to support risk rule refinement and typology development
• Draft and maintain clear, auditable desk procedures for 1LOD and 2LOD teams
• Support ad hoc projects and initiatives at the request of the Head of Compliance and the MLRO.

Requirements

🔥 Must-have requirements

• Proven experience in financial crime investigations, including SAR/STR handling and typology development
• Strong working knowledge of CDD, EDD, sanctions screening, and AML regulations in high-risk jurisdictions
• Experience managing LEA requests and handling confidential legal correspondence
• Ability to interpret complex transaction patterns and assess financial crime risk
• Confident decision-maker with clear documentation of rationale
• Experience working in an international money transfer business

💪 Nice to have requirements

• Prior experience training or mentoring junior investigators
• Experience with regulatory exams or internal audit preparation in fintech or financial institutions

✅ Success in the role looks like

3-Month Metrics

• Deliver training sessions to upskill remote 2LOD team on escalation and investigation standards
• Respond to all regulatory and partner queries with zero errors and within required timelines

6-Month Metrics

• Implement updated escalation/decision matrices with measurable improvements in investigation consistency
• Identify and document 3+ new suspicious activity typologies for internal use and partner reporting