Head of Banking and Expansion - North America

Description

People and businesses all over the world use TransferWise to avoid big bank fees and week-long international wires when they send, spend, and receive money abroad. We have over 7 million customers who move $4.9 billion every year with us. We help them save $3.7 million in bank fees every day.

We opened in the US in 2015, and we send more money in and out of the US than any other country. But compared to the size of the American market, it’s still just a drop in the bucket. With your help, we’ll fill that bucket up.

We’re looking for a Banking and Expansion Lead to join our team in the Flatiron District, New York City. Our banking relationships determine the quality of our product and a large part of its economics. And our relationships with regulators, governments and payment systems are crucial too. So, we're on the hunt for an executor with a brilliant mind and strong communication skills to help more customers save money with us.

Your mission:

• To define and lead our payment infrastructure in North America.
• Understand and help other teams understand in detail the existing and planned payments infrastructure in the U.S. and Canada, and how we should use it to provide the best cross-border payments services to our customers in North America. For example, have an in-depth knowledge about what are the different payment systems available in these countries and how we can achieve a direct connection to those.
• Frame our strategy of how we will improve our payments and regulatory infrastructure in the U.S. and Canada in order to achieve our mission of being instant, transparent and eventually free. 
• Lead and execute negotiations and regulatory projects for us to have the best and more reliable payment infrastructure in the U.S. and Canada.
• Understand existing and new regulations and figure out the best ways our product can comply with them. We see regulation as an opportunity!
• Working with the Product Leads, help define the opportunities and direction for our products in North America. Collaborate across teams and inspire others so that we deliver the best international banking solution. 
• Work closely with product teams (Product Managers and Product Engineers) to develop our vision and build better products and experiences for our customers. Your contribution will mainly be from the payments infrastructure, regulatory and operational banking partnerships point of view.
• Work with our Compliance and Government Relations teams in managing our relationships with regulators and other important non-commercial relationships, such as the government.
• Work with our global teams (Product, Finance, Treasury, etc.) to ensure our North American customers and products are at the centre of our mission.
• Take ownership of maintaining and improving existing relationships with banks and other financial institutions. This refers primarily to our transaction banking agreements, which let us build and expand our product, and you'll have a high level of autonomy in optimising these. You will:
• Lead commercial and relationship discussions with partners and monitor our economics on global routes to ensure we offer the most sustainable and competitive service in the market.
• Create new opportunities within existing relationships with North American financial institutions and other regions to ensure we continuously improve our product (i.e. increase speed, reduce costs, add more visibility to our transactions, etc.).
• To build new relationships with relevant financial institutions:
• Work with regional and product teams to open new relationships with relevant financial institutions (i.e. banks, payment processors, cards issuers, processors, etc.).
• Manage an end-to-end process: find the right potential partners, pitch TransferWise as a client, negotiate the commercial contracts, complete account opening forms, explain our compliance processes, pass due diligence, and do anything else needed to be ready for development.

A bit about you:

• Able to independently negotiate the most ideal terms with a clear product vision and understanding in mind and you can figure out the ideal operational and commercial process with every new partner.
• Feel comfortable making hard decisions and bringing others on board.
• Able to get stuff done, lead major projects and you aren’t afraid to get your hands dirty to deliver what’s needed. We work in autonomous teams, so you’ll need an entrepreneurial and collaborative mindset to thrive.
• Familiar with how corporate banks and financial institutions work and their decision makers. You’re excellent at managing those relationships and are constantly creating opportunities to improve them.
• Detailed understanding of payment and FX regulation in a changing environment and an interest in AML/KYC and risk controls.
• Understand how local and international payments work, with specific knowledge of North American payment systems , and how TransferWise can build our product around these.
• Happy to work independently, flexibly and take the initiative in a fast-moving environment.
• Passionate about our mission and transforming the financial industry for good.
• Flexibility for domestic and some international travel (around 20-30% of time).
• Already eligible to work in the USA. 

Some extra skills that would be awesome:

• Have experience building and leading a team.
• Have experience building business relationships with financial institutions and dealing with their risk and compliance teams.
• Have experience building business relationships with card issuers, card schemes like Visa and Mastercard, and processors; and dealing with their operational and compliance teams.
• Have worked directly with regulators.

Some of your benefits:

This is a full-time position with our growing North America team in New York City. All of our full-time employees are eligible for our great benefits, including:

• Salary range from 150k - 185k USD per annum plus stock options, and company matches to 401(k) plan contributions.
• Health and well-being benefits like strong medical, dental, and vision plans; a progressive 16-week parental leave policy; and a monthly gym stipend.
• Paid time off allowing 24 days leave, an annual all-expenses-paid company holiday in Europe, and a 6-week paid sabbatical after a certain period of time at the company.
• International travel to and collaboration across our offices around the world, plus local commuter benefits in New York City.

A social culture with weekly lunches, Swedish coffee time, and monthly team events.

Please Note: You must already be legally authorized to work in the US. We cannot support visas for this role. This is a full-time physical position in New York.

A bit about TransferWise:

Since 2011, we’ve had a clear mission: money without borders. Built by and for people who live global lives, we’re the fairest, easiest way to manage your money across borders.

We’re just at the beginning of our story and we’re growing at an incredible pace. We won’t stop until anyone, anywhere can send, spend and receive money wherever they are, whatever they’re doing. There’s still heaps to do and we can’t do it alone.

Our People:

At TransferWise, you’ll be joining a movement of people who believe in a better, fairer, more transparent way of moving money around the world. You’ll collaborate to do your best work and take on problems that no one has looked at before.

If you’re keen to learn, grow, try new things and aren’t afraid of a bold plan, you’ll fit right in.

How we work:

At TransferWise our strategy emerges from the collective brainpower of all our people, who are organised in dozens of independent, autonomous teams. Teams stay closest to our customers, so they choose what problems to solve and where to spend the most time.

You’ll experience radical levels of ownership and empowerment within your role. Plus the opportunity to see the direct impact of your work on our customers.