Lead, Licensing

Context and rationaleThe Pôle Digibank & Fintech operates Mixx mobile money services in Madagascar, Tanzania, Senegal, Togo and the Comoros, and is developing the cluster's digital banking proposition. The 2030 strategy commits the cluster to revenue beyond the wallet and to the transition from mobile money towards financial services. Stablecoin settlement and digital asset services form part of that trajectory and are at present the only component of it with no dedicated structure, no licence and no team.A dedicated operating company is accordingly being established within the cluster to deliver three capabilities on a single infrastructure: settlement between the cluster's markets and the corridors serving them, regulated access to United States dollar holdings for customers in soft-currency markets, and payout, collection and treasury services for merchants, platforms and institutional partners. The entity will not operate a trading venue, issue a token or hold a proprietary position.Within this framework, the Lead, Licensing determines the jurisdiction in which the entity is authorised, secures that authorisation, maintains it thereafter, and establishes the legal basis on which each market may distribute the entity's services. The position carries the first constraint in the programme: the scope of the licence determines what the infrastructure may hold and what the commercial function may offer, and no other workstream can be settled before it.The position requires a high degree of autonomy in regulatory analysis, the capacity to construct a licence file in a framework in which the Group has not previously operated, and the rigour necessary to document assumptions, secure sources and guarantee the robustness of the submissions made. It further requires the judgement to distinguish between what a regulation permits and what a supervisor will accept in practice.The Lead, Licensing will be principally responsible for regulatory production: jurisdiction analysis, licence files, the compliance framework and market access positions. The position works in a group of three alongside the Lead, Engineering, responsible for custody, ledger and integrations, and the Lead, Business and Operations, responsible for corridors, counterparties, treasury and the commercial result.Examples of matters handled: comparative assessment of candidate jurisdictions, licence application to a virtual asset authority, anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing framework, implementation of the FATF travel rule, letters of no objection and sandbox admissions with operating-market central banks, client asset and reserve policy, outsourcing and intragroup agreements, responses to a regulator, preparation for first external audit.Principal missionsJurisdiction selection: comparative assessment of candidate regimes covering cost, timeline, capital requirement, permitted activities and the banking access that follows, concluding in a single recommendation submitted to the cluster and to Group.Licence applications: preparation and filing of the application, comprising business plan, policy suite, financial projections, fit and proper submissions and systems and controls documentation, together with all correspondence with the authority.Regulatory relations: named point of contact with the licensing authority and with the regulators of the operating markets, conduct of engagement meetings and maintenance of those relationships over time.Market access: determination, for Madagascar, Tanzania, Senegal, Togo and the Comoros, of the activities permitted under current regulation, those requiring a letter of no objection, admission to a sandbox or a local licence, and those not presently available, in liaison with legal and external counsel.Compliance framework: anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing policy, know your customer and know your business standards, sanctions screening, transaction monitoring, blockchain analytics, travel rule compliance, suspicious transaction reporting and the associated record keeping.Client asset policy: definition, jointly with engineering and with operations, of custody, reserve and client asset arrangements, the attestation regime and wind-down provisions.Governance: board and committee structure, regulated function holders, outsourcing and intragroup agreements, and preparation of the entity for its first external audit.Key deliverablesComparative jurisdiction assessment and licensing recommendation.Licence application file and supporting policy suite.Documented market access position for each country within the perimeter.Anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing framework and associated procedures.Client asset, custody and reserve policy.Governance documentation and audit readiness file.Education and experiencePostgraduate qualification (master's level or equivalent) in law, finance, economics or a related discipline.Confirmed experience (eight years or more) in financial services licensing, regulatory affairs or compliance, acquired within a regulator, a central bank, a law firm, a professional services regulatory practice, a bank or a fintech.Personal accountability for at least one licence application carried through to grant. Candidates will be asked to identify the licence, the authority and the duration of the process.Experience of virtual asset, electronic money, payment institution or banking licensing in a jurisdiction operating a virtual asset regime is a strong advantage, in particular VARA in Dubai, the FSRA in ADGM, the DIFC, the European MiCA regime or a comparable framework.Technical skillsAbility to translate regulatory requirements into operational checklists, documentary matrices and production plans, in liaison with the legal, finance, compliance, risk and OpCo teams.Design of an anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing framework capable of withstanding supervisory examination, including travel rule compliance and blockchain analytics.Understanding of regulated environments (banking, fintech, mobile money, financial services) and of licence files, including prudential requirements, governance arrangements and reporting obligations.Working knowledge of stablecoin mechanics sufficient to describe issuance, redemption, custody and reserve arrangements accurately to a supervisor.Drafting ability to a standard suitable for submission to a supervisory authority, in French and in English.Ease in multi-entity and multi-jurisdiction environments, and direct experience of engagement with an African central bank or financial sector regulator.Personal qualitiesIntellectual rigour, critical judgement and exacting standards as to the quality of the files produced.Curiosity, autonomy and the capacity to investigate matters that are new or imperfectly framed.Reliability, attention to detail and the capacity to carry several substantive files in parallel.Integrity and discretion appropriate to a regulated function holder.Working environmentA newly created entity within the Pôle Digibank & Fintech, with no existing team, licence or technology estate, and three founding positions to be filled.A multi-entity and multi-jurisdiction perimeter, principally Indian Ocean and Africa (Madagascar, Tanzania, Senegal, Togo, Comoros), with the licensing jurisdiction expected in the Gulf or in Pakistan.A close working relationship with the Lead, Engineering and the Lead, Business and Operations, under the Chief Operating Officer of the cluster and alongside the Head of Strategy, Mergers and Acquisitions and Fintech FutureA distributed team, with approximately one week of travel per month across the cluster's markets, the licensing jurisdiction and Group. The jobholder is expected to be based in the licensing jurisdiction once it has been determined.