Lead Customer Onboarding

Ready to Shape the Future of Customer Onboarding?

ROLE PURPOSE

To lead and scale Mukuru's end-to-end customer onboarding and identity operations, ensuring that customers are onboarded, verified and maintained through a digital-first, risk-based approach that meets AML/CFT obligations across multiple jurisdictions, protects the business from financial crime and fraud, and delivers a fast, low-friction customer experience that supports growth.

ROLE CONTEXT

Mukuru is a fintech and digital financial services provider that has grown from a cross-border remittance business into a broader neobanking and digital payments platform serving customers across multiple African markets and the UK. As the product range expands into accounts, wallets, cards and payments, customer onboarding has become both a critical financial crime control and a key driver of customer acquisition, conversion and trust.

The Lead: Customer Onboarding reports to the Head of Customer Operations and sits alongside the other Lead roles in Customer Operations. The role brings together Compliance Ops (sanctions, PEP and watchlist screening and due diligence), Number Change (account recovery and changes to customer credentials) and Verifications (identity and document verification) under a single accountable owner. The Team Leaders of these three teams report directly into this role.

The successful candidate will bring proven expertise from banking, fintech, payments or remittances in KYC/CDD operations, digital identity verification and financial crime controls at scale. They will be expected to modernise the onboarding operating model: increasing automation and straight-through processing, embedding a risk-based approach, strengthening fraud and account takeover controls, managing technology vendors, and using data to balance regulatory compliance, cost and customer experience.

Internal liaison takes place with the Head of Customer Operations, peer Leads, Compliance and the MLRO, Financial Crime and Forensics, Fraud Risk, Product, Engineering and Data, Risk and Internal Audit, Sales and Distribution, and People (HR). External liaison takes place with identity verification, screening and data vendors, external auditors, customers on escalated matters and, through Compliance, regulators.

KEY PERFORMANCE AREAS / ROLE OBJECTIVES

Define and execute the customer onboarding strategy and operating model

• Define and deliver the strategy and target operating model for onboarding, verification and account maintenance across all markets and products (remittance, wallets, accounts and cards)
• Build scalable, digital-first onboarding processes that support Mukuru's growth into neobanking and new markets
• Translate regulatory requirements and the company's risk appetite into clear, risk-based operating procedures, in partnership with Compliance
• Integrate Compliance Ops, Number Change and Verifications into one function with clear accountability, service levels and controls

Ensure robust, risk-based KYC, CDD and identity verification

• Ensure KYC, CDD and EDD are performed in line with a risk-based approach, FATF standards and the AML/CFT laws of each jurisdiction (e.g. the FIC Act in South Africa and the UK Money Laundering Regulations)
• Oversee identity and document verification across digital channels (eKYC, document authentication, biometrics, liveness and database checks) and assisted channels such as branches and agents
• Ensure customer risk rating, source of funds and income verification, and periodic KYC refresh are carried out accurately
• Own the quality assurance framework, including sampling, accuracy scoring, root cause analysis and remediation

Ensure effective sanctions, PEP and adverse media screening

• Ensure screening alerts at onboarding and on an ongoing basis are dispositioned accurately and within service levels
• Ensure true matches and suspicious activity are escalated to Financial Crime / AML for investigation and regulatory reporting, with audit-ready documentation
• Work with Compliance and vendors to tune screening rules and reduce false positives without increasing risk exposure

Prevent fraud and protect customer accounts

• Ensure strong controls over number changes, SIM and device changes, and PIN and credential resets to prevent account takeover and SIM-swap fraud
• Identify identity fraud, synthetic identity, document fraud and money mule patterns, and partner with Fraud Risk on detection rules and controls
• Design secure but low-friction account recovery journeys for genuine customers

Drive automation, technology and vendor performance

• Partner with Product and Engineering to increase automation and straight-through processing and reduce manual review
• Own business requirements and user acceptance testing for onboarding, case management and screening tools across app (iOS and Android) and web
• Implement, manage and expand identity verification, biometrics, screening and data vendors, including SLAs, performance.
• Evaluate emerging capabilities such as AI-assisted document review and reusable digital identity where they add value

Manage performance through data, KPIs and reporting

• Define and track KPIs including onboarding conversion and drop-off, auto-approval rates, turnaround time, backlog, QA accuracy, false positive rates, fraud losses and cost per verification
• Use data analysis to identify bottlenecks, drop-off points and emerging risk trends
• Provide monthly management information and insight to the Head of Customer Operations, Compliance and executive forums

Maintain a strong control environment and regulatory readiness

• Own the operational risk register for onboarding, assessing inherent and residual risk and ensuring controls are effective
• Lead preparation for internal audits, external audits and regulatory inspections, and remediate findings within agreed timelines
• Ensure customer identity data is handled in line with data protection laws (e.g. POPIA and UK GDPR)
• Track regulatory change across markets and implement it operationally

Deliver an inclusive, customer-centric onboarding experience

• Design clear, inclusive onboarding journeys that support financial inclusion, including for customers with limited documentation, within regulatory limits
• Partner with Product, Marketing, Sales and Distribution and the Contact Centre to improve conversion and resolve escalations
• Ensure onboarding-related complaints and escalations are resolved fairly and timeously

Lead, develop and grow a high-performing team

• Lead, coach and develop the Team Leaders and build a culture of accountability, quality and continuous improvement
• Own workforce planning, capacity modelling and rostering across sites, including weekend coverage
• Build team capability in financial crime typologies, document fraud and regulatory change, and enable cross-skilling across the three teams
• Manage recruitment, performance management and HR processes in line with company policy

Manage own professional and self-development

• Maintain up-to-date knowledge of regulatory, financial crime and identity verification developments, including CPD for professional certifications
• Prepare for and attend bi-annual performance reviews and monthly performance meetings with the Head of Customer Operations

ESSENTIAL ATTAINMENT REQUIREMENTS

Formal Level of Education

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Commerce, Law, Risk Management, Compliance, Business or a related field (Essential)
• Postgraduate qualification in compliance, financial crime or risk management (Desirable)

License, Certificate, Registration Required (Relevant certifications & Professional memberships)

• Recognised AML/financial crime certification, e.g. CAMS (ACAMS), ICA Diploma in AML or Financial Crime Compliance, or Compliance Institute Southern Africa (Desirable)
• Process improvement certification, e.g. Lean Six Sigma Green Belt (Desirable)

EXPERIENCE

• KYC/CDD, customer onboarding or financial crime operations within banking, fintech, payments or remittances (Essential)
• Leading multi-team operations through Team Leaders or managers in a high-volume, regulated environment (Essential)
• Running digital or remote onboarding and identity verification at scale, including vendor-based eKYC and biometrics (Essential)
• Sanctions/PEP screening, fraud prevention or account takeover controls (Essential)
• Leading process automation, system implementations or operating model change (Essential)
• Operating across multiple jurisdictions, ideally African markets and/or the UK (Desirable)
• Managing regulatory inspections, audits and remediation programmes (Desirable)

JOB RELATED KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS

Expert

• AML/CFT frameworks: FATF standards, FIC Act (South Africa), UK Money Laundering Regulations
• Risk-based KYC, CDD and EDD, and customer risk rating
• Digital identity verification: document authentication, biometrics, liveness and database checks
• Sanctions, PEP and adverse media screening and alert disposition

Advanced

• Fraud typologies: identity and document fraud, synthetic identities, SIM-swap, account takeover, money mules
• Identity documents and KYC requirements across African markets and the UK
• Cross-border payments, remittances, mobile money and digital banking products
• Data protection and privacy (POPIA, UK GDPR)
• Operational risk management and control frameworks (inherent vs residual risk, control testing)
• Process design, Lean/Six Sigma and automation (straight-through processing)
• Data analysis and MI: Excel and BI tools (e.g. Power BI, Tableau); SQL desirable
• Onboarding, case management and screening platforms, and vendor management
• Working with Product and Engineering: business requirements, agile delivery and UAT
• Workforce management and operational metrics (SLAs, capacity, productivity)
• People leadership, performance management and labour relations

JOB COMPETENCIES

• Strategic and commercial thinking
• Leading through change
• Data-driven decision making
• Sound risk judgement and integrity
• Customer-centricity and a financial inclusion mindset
• Stakeholder influence and collaboration
• Execution and accountability in a fast-paced environment
• Innovation and digital mindset
• Coaching and developing leaders
• Clear, concise written and verbal communication