Head of Fintech Operations & Risk (LoD1)

Are you looking to have an impact on the daily life of millions of entrepreneurs in France (and tomorrow in Europe)?

Are you looking for a work environment that values trust, proactivity, and autonomy?

Then Pennylane is the right place for you !

Our vision

We aim to become the most beloved financial Operating System of French SMEs and Accounting Firms (and soon, European ones).

We help entrepreneurs rid themselves of time-consuming tasks related to accounting and finance while providing them with access to key financial information to assist in making the best decisions for their business.

About us

Pennylane is one of the fastest growing Fintechs in France (and soon to be in Europe!)

In 5 years of existence, we’ve managed to :

• Build a groundbreaking accounting and financial software for small businesses and their accountants
• Raise a total of €400 millions from investors
• Grow from 7 cofounders to 1000 Pennylaners with a strong rating on Glassdoor
• Build an international environment with more than 25 nationalities and a strong remote-friendly culture
• Earn the trust of thousands of customers and accounting firms with outstanding ratings

We serve more than 900,000 SMEs and over 6000 accounting firms in France.

Context

We are operating approximately 30k business accounts under a BaaS model. The role of Financial Services in Pennylane’s strategy is set to grow, both in terms of revenue and product contribution, to serve our 750k+ current customer base.

We are initiating a process to get licensed as Etablissement de paiement and Société de financement to meet our current scope. Our ambition is to start onboarding new customers by early 2027 before migrating existing customers.

To meet this ambition, we are hiring Tech, Product, Compliance and Ops leaders. Reporting directly to the COO, you will be responsible for applying LCB-FT and risk policies on payment and credit scopes, monitoring the first line of defense including onboarding, transaction monitoring, fraud and risk.

Your mission would be to :

• Build and lead three teams of analysts (KYB, Transaction monitoring, Risk & Fraud)
• Deploy LCB-FT policies and ensure proper application by your teams
• Contribute to KYB and TM tooling implementation and team training
• Optimize efficiency of teams and tools, leveraging AI and automation while protecting risk appetite
• Collaborate with Compliance & Fraud & Risk teams of the LoD2

This is a greenfield project with high autonomy and responsibility, direct exposure to regulators, and the opportunity to shape the operations of a fast-growing fintech with a robust customer base.

Responsibilities phasing

• Phase 1 (pre-licence & migration, )

  • Work closely with the COO & Strategic Project Manager to support licence application and customer migration from BaaS to EP
  • Focus 100% on payment operations (KYB, TM, Fraud) and building LoD1 infrastructure

• Phase 2 (post-licence, 2027+)

  • Progressively integrate credit operations (credit assessment & decisioning) as the Société de Financement scope ramps up
  • Scale LoD1 to support both payment and credit activities across a growing customer base

Missions & objectives

Operations program

• Build and scale LoD1 from 30k to 300k+ accounts within 24 months post-licence
• Recruit, onboard and train 3 operational teams: KYB/KYC L1 (target: 15-20 FTE), Transaction Monitoring L1 (target: 10-15 FTE), Fraud & Risk L1 (target: 5-8 FTE)
• Define team structures, roles, responsibilities, and career paths aligned with regulatory requirements
• Establish SLAs and performance frameworks for each team
• Define collaboration models with Pennylane SAS and with LoD2

Own the full operational lifecycle: onboarding → transaction monitoring → fraud detection → offboarding

Manage budget and forecasting for LoD1 operations (headcount, tools, training)

Norms, Policies & Procedures application

• Deploy and enforce LCB-FT policies by translating regulatory obligations into daily operations
• Ensure 100% compliance with KYB/KYC workflows: customer risk classification, high-risk escalations, PEP screening, sanctions checks
• Execute transaction monitoring rules as defined by Compliance, escalate L2 alerts to TM L2 within SLA
• Apply fraud detection policies and manage escalation to Fraud & Risk L2

Challenge policy applicability when operational friction is excessive; propose pragmatic adjustments to LoD2 while maintaining risk appetite

Apply credit and merchant risk policies as per our risk classification

Tools & process automation

• Own vendors relationship for LoD1 tooling (SLAs monitoring, escalations, improvements)
• Deploy AI-powered automation on repetitive tasks: document verification, anomaly detection, alert triage
• Own back-office access management for all LoD1 teams
• Contribute to design the back-office of your teams by collaborating with a dedicated Product squad

Performance optimization

• Own monitoring and reporting KPIs: define metrics, develop performance dashboard and reporting
• Identify bottlenecks in workflows and tooling and implement corrective actions
• Implement QA framework
• Run continuous improvement cycles by implementing red-bin processes and collaborating with LoD2
• Benchmark performance against industry standards
• Leverage data analytics to predict operational load and adjust team capacity proactively
• Consider outsourcing to BPOs and own the integration and deployment of this strategy

Training & Advisory

• Train LoD1 teams on LCB-FT requirements, tooling, escalation procedures
• Translate complex compliance requirements into simple, actionable guidance for product, business and tech counterparts
• Act as operational advisor to Product on new features: assess feasibility, identify compliance risks, propose mitigations
• Develop training materials: playbooks, SOPs, decision trees for analysts

Governance & Reporting

• Participate in quarterly risk committees with LoD2 and Executive Committee
• Maintain audit trails for all operational decisions to ensure regulatory traceability
• Coordinate with LoD2 on controls testing: provide evidence, remediate gaps identified by internal audits
• Support LoD2 on regulatory reporting
• Define and execute operational crisis protocols, post-mortem analysis and remediation plans

Team Leadership

• Recruit and lead a multi-layer organization of ~80 FTEs across KYB L1, TM L1, Fraud & Risk L1 within 18 months
• Build your N-1 lines with dedicated performance framework and dedicated team cultures
• Foster a culture of rigor, accountability, and continuous learning
• Ensure work-life balance despite operational intensity; implement shift rotations, on-call schedules
• Develop talent internally: promote high performers, create senior analyst / team lead roles
• Collaborate cross-functionally with Tech, Product, Compliance, and Risk teams

Projects & expansion

• Accompany licence passporting to other European markets, starting with Germany: own organization evolution, localization and process adaptation
• Plan and accompany customers migration out of the BaaS model together with the Strategic Project Manager overseeing our licence project

Credit risk assessment & decisioning

• Deploy credit risk policies defined by LoD2 across all credit products
• Manage credit origination workflows
• Monitor active credit portfolio by tracking repayment schedules
• Challenge risk policies when operational friction blocks growth
• Oversee credit risk performance and implement credit decisioning tools

Profile & Must‑Have Experience

Experience

• 8+ years in financial services operations, ideally in a regulated fintech, bank, or payment institution
• 3+ years managing LoD1 operations (KYB/KYC, transaction monitoring, fraud & risk) in a regulated environment
• Direct experience with ACPR or similar EU regulator: licence application, audits, reporting
• Track record in scaling environment
• Hands-on experience implementing and optimizing LCB-FT tooling
• Experience working under dual reporting (operational + compliance) in a 3 Lines of Defense model
• Bonus: experience in credit operations or BaaS partnerships

Technical Skills

• Deep knowledge of French AML/CTF regulations
• Operational expertise in KYB/KYC workflows, transaction monitoring rules, fraud typologies
• Data-driven approach with analytics tools (SQL, BI dashboards)
• Tooling evaluation and implementation: assess vendors, lead integrations with Tech teams
• Process automation and AI: ML-based fraud detection, RPA for document processing
• Risk appetite calibration: balance compliance with operational efficiency

Soft Skills

• Strong leadership and ability to influence
• Excellent communication skills across all levels
• Rigorous, principled, and accountable
• Pragmatic, impact-driven approach under regulatory constraints without blocking innovation
• Comfortable operating in a dual posture of operations and advisory
• Strong pedagogy: explain complex operations to product, engineers and founders
• Challenging yet constructive: question senior leaders while staying solution-focused

Languages, Presence & Location

• Languages: Fluent French and English are mandatory
• Location: Based in France, strong preference for Paris; regular on-site presence expected; partial remote possible but not fully remote

Why Join Us?

• Greenfield regulatory project: be the architect of a new regulated entity
• Massive impact: shape financial services for hundreds of thousands of French SMEs
• High autonomy & influence: direct interaction with the COO and central role in scaling with risk classification
• Fast-growing fintech environment: work with top product and engineering teams
• Competitive compensation package, including equity

Hiring process

• HR interview with Simon (Senior Recruiter)
• Interview with Stanislas de Villoutreys and Maxime Leclercq
• Case interview with Stanislas and Eric Scaramozzino
• Fit interview with Felix Blossier and Guillaume Nicolle

What do we do to make your work life easier

We offer 25 paid vacation days, a competitive compensation package, company shares, home-office budget and coworking allowance, wellness benefits, latest Apple equipment, and a European remote-friendly policy depending on time zones.

We are committed to diversity, equity and inclusion and provide equal employment opportunity regardless of gender, sexual orientation, origin or disabilities.