Head of Compliance & MLRO – Crypto Derivatives Licensing

 

A fast-growing crypto trading platform is seeking a Head of Compliance & MLRO. The company holds a licence from a leading virtual asset regulator to operate a regulated Spot exchange and is part of a larger international trading group with a presence across several markets in Asia and the Middle East, combining the rigour of institutional finance with the speed of a startup that ships product fast.

The Opportunity

This is a rare dual mandate. The successful candidate will own and run the Compliance and MLRO function of a live, regulated Spot business — and, in parallel, lead the company's application for a Derivatives licence, a highly coveted authorisation in digital assets held by only a small number of firms globally. This role will drive the application process end-to-end, build the derivatives compliance framework from a blank page, and position the business to become one of the first regulated venues offering crypto and stock perpetual futures. For a compliance leader who is both a safe pair of hands on a live regulated business and a builder who thrives on greenfield licensing work, there are few mandates like this anywhere in the market.

Role & Responsibilities

Run the licensed Spot business

• Lead the Compliance and MLRO function, managing and developing a team of AML analysts.
• Keep all policies continuously updated and aligned with evolving local regulatory rulebooks and federal-level regulation.
• Translate regulation into operations: convert every applicable regulatory requirement into concrete internal processes, steps and checks embedded in the business's systems and procedures — with clearly defined roles, thresholds, timelines and SLAs, escalation points, quality controls, complete audit trails and regulatory reporting capabilities.
• Discharge all MLRO duties, including oversight of transaction monitoring, sanctions screening, suspicious activity reporting and regulatory filings.
• Act as the primary point of contact with the regulator for ongoing supervision: prepare submissions, respond to regulator queries clearly and articulately, and manage inspections and periodic reporting.

Drive the Derivatives licence application

• Lead and project-manage the full Derivatives licence application process, from gap analysis and application preparation through to regulator engagement, approval and go-live.
• Draft the new policies required for derivatives activity and amend existing policies to incorporate derivatives requirements (market conduct, risk disclosures, margin and liquidation, client suitability, and related areas).
• Cascade the derivatives framework down to process and procedure level, ensuring every new requirement is operationalised to the same audit-ready standard as the Spot business.
• Work hand-in-hand with the regulator and the company's product, legal and engineering teams to secure approval and launch new business lines, including crypto and stock perpetual futures.

Required Experience

• 15+ years of experience in compliance, risk and/or internal audit within regulated financial services.
• Approximately 10 years in banking, brokerage or asset management, in internal audit, risk or compliance functions.
• Most recent 2+ years in crypto/virtual assets as Head of Compliance and/or MLRO.
• Non-negotiable: deep, hands-on derivatives expertise — direct experience with the compliance and risk dimensions of derivatives trading (options, futures, CFDs, swaps/IRS or similar) in highly regulated environments.
• Experience with licence applications, authorisations or new product approvals with a financial regulator is a strong advantage.
• Career built predominantly in tier-1 regulated jurisdictions: EU (MiCA/MiFID regimes), US, UK, UAE, Switzerland, Japan, South Korea, Singapore or comparable.

Profile & Soft Skills

• Extremely methodical, structured and detail-oriented: thrives on building processes, audit trails and quality controls, and holds themselves to a zero-error standard — no room for mistakes or typos, least of all in a licence application.
• Outstanding communicator: able to present and explain complex regulatory and product concepts in simple, straightforward terms, and to answer a regulator's questions clearly, articulately and with common sense.
• A builder's mindset: equally comfortable running a live regulated business day-to-day and creating a new licensing framework from scratch in a fast-moving environment.