Head of Compliance & MLRO – IFSC

About Aspora

People on the move deserve a bank that moves with them. Since 2022, Aspora has been building a borderless financial operating system that makes money as mobile and transparent as its users.

Backed by influential venture capitalists like Sequoia Capital, Greylock Partners, Hummingbird Ventures, Y Combinator & Global Founders Capital. We're a team of 75+ across India, the UK, the UAE, EU and the US, working with extreme ownership, radical candour, and an obsession with customer impact.

We celebrate builders who question assumptions, ship fast, and turn regulatory complexity into elegant solutions. If you’re driven to redefine what global banking can be, we’d love to build the future with you.

About Aspora Group

Aspora Group is a global fintech platform enabling cross-border payments. The Group caters primarily to non-resident Indian (NRI) diaspora across multiple geographies and operates through regulated entities and strategic partnerships. Aspora’s mission is to build compliant, scalable, and resilient financial infrastructure tailored to evolving regulatory frameworks worldwide. As part of its growth strategy, Aspora has established a payment service provider entity in the International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) at GIFT City to support unique products to its NRI user base.

About the Role

Aspora is hiring a Head of Compliance & MLRO to set up and run the compliance function for its IFSC-regulated entity in GIFT City. This role will serve as the Principal Compliance Officer and MLRO, acting as the primary point of contact with the regulator and owning licensing readiness, ongoing supervisory engagement, and all regulatory obligations.

The role is responsible for building and operating the compliance framework across AML/CFT, KYC, sanctions, transaction monitoring governance, regulatory reporting, and core payments risk controls. Working closely with product, operations, risk, and leadership teams, you will ensure compliance is embedded into new products, corridors, and partnerships from day one.

In addition, the role provides governance oversight over chargebacks, disputes, and fraud-control frameworks—ensuring clear escalation pathways, defensible evidence trails, and metrics aligned with regulatory and partner expectations—without running frontline fraud operations.

This role is suited for a compliance leader who is comfortable operating close to the business, is confident engaging directly with regulators, and enjoys building durable, audit-ready systems in a fast-growing fintech environment.

What You Will Do

A) Regulatory engagement & licensing (IFSCA-first)

• Act as the principal compliance officer and primary point of contact with the IFSC regulator and other relevant authorities.

• Lead regulatory liaison including inspections, queries, filings, and ongoing supervisory engagement.

• Advise the Board and senior management on regulatory developments, compliance risks, governance, and control effectiveness.

B) Compliance framework ownership

• Design, implement, and maintain policies, procedures, controls, and monitoring plans for the IFSC entity.

• Embed compliance into product, operations, and partnership design, particularly for new corridors and new products.

C) Financial crime compliance

• Own AML/CFT, KYC, sanctions, transaction monitoring governance, and regulatory reporting obligations for the IFSC entity.

• Maintain risk-based frameworks, escalation pathways, suspicious activity handling, partner due diligence support, and audit-ready evidence packs.

D) Fraud controls governance

• Own the governance framework for chargebacks and disputes: reason code analysis, root-cause reviews, operational controls, and escalation to partners/card networks where applicable.

• Work with Operations and Fraud teams to ensure fraud controls and escalation processes exist, are tested, and produce defensible evidence trails.

• Provide oversight of fraud case trends and operational improvements, ensuring fraud-risk learnings are translated into control updates and reporting (without running day-to-day fraud ops).

E) Scalable compliance operations

• Perform KYB and DD reviews on key partners for launching new products and markets, and coordinate evidence requests efficiently.

• Support enterprise-wide initiatives outside the IFSC scope (EWRA, control mapping, compliance training oversight, data protection coordination where applicable).

• Collaborate with Data Insights, Operations, and KYC Ops to build compliance dashboards and performance metrics, including board reporting.

• Contribute to licensing and setup: regulatory submissions, approvals, readiness assessments, and ongoing compliance obligations in other operating geographies.

Who are we looking for / experience & expertise :

• 8-10 years in compliance / financial crime / payments risk within banking, payments, remittance, EMI/PI, or regulated fintech.

• Demonstrated regulator-facing experience (IFSCA preferred; RBI/SEBI/FCA/DFSA/MAS acceptable with strong payments relevance).

• Strong knowledge of AML/CFT, KYC, sanctions screening, transaction monitoring governance, and regulatory reporting.

• Proven experience building compliance frameworks and operating models from scratch in a regulated environment.

• Experience managing payments risk topics such as chargebacks/disputes, customer complaints, and fraud-risk governance (preferred).

• Strong communication skills, able to produce board packs, regulator responses, and partner due diligence materials.

• High integrity, sound judgment, and a strong sense of ownership and accountability.

• Comfortable operating in a scale-up environment with hands-on delivery.

• Willing and able to be physically present in GIFT City.

Why Aspora?

• Opportunity to build and lead the compliance function of a regulated IFSC entity from the ground up.

• Direct exposure to regulators and senior leadership, with meaningful impact on business strategy.

• Competitive salary aligned with seniority and experience.

• Equity participation aligned with long-term impact and leadership role.

• Professional development support in a fast-growing global fintech group.

Interview Process :

• Round 1 : Resume deep dive, Compliances & Regulatory expertise (45-60 mins)

• Round 2 : Compliance, Regulatory & Governance (60-75 mins)

• Round 3 : Compliance & Product + Finance + Business collaboration (45 mins)

• Round 4 : Bar Raiser & Culture Fitment