Brazil Banking Lead & Country Manager

Company Description

People and businesses all over the world use Wise to avoid big bank fees and week-long international wires when they send, spend, and receive money abroad. We have over 16 million customers who move £10 billion every month with us. We help them save £3 million in bank fees every day.

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.

More about our mission.

Job Description

We’re looking for a Brazil Banking Lead & Country Manager. This is a unique and exciting opportunity to play a pioneering role to grow Wise in Brazil, allowing millions more potential customers to save money by using our services. You will have full responsibility for overseeing our financial services partnerships, defining our market expansion and market entry strategies and executing on it, and managing critical relationships with government departments, regulators, industry bodies, etc.

Your mission:

• Define the opportunities and direction for our products in Brazil. Collaborate across teams and inspire others so that we deliver the best 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 global teams (Product, Finance, Treasury, etc.) to ensure our customers and products are at the centre of our mission.

• To deepen our regulatory infrastructure in Brazil:

  • Identify the most appropriate way to grow Wise in Brazil. If we need new licences, you will need to manage the entire process: understand the regulations, prepare, coordinate and submit the application, and get the regulatory buy-in as well as support the fulfillment of any other local requirements for the licence applications.

  • Identify opportunities to offer the best product in the market taking advantage of our existing and future authorizations including connection to PIX.

  • Manage and support the day to day requirements for our current licences, both from a Product and Compliance perspective.

  • Understand existing and new regulations and figure out the best ways our product can comply with them. You will be one of the product team’s go-to people for regulatory knowledge. We see regulation as an opportunity!

• Lead our Brazilian office and operation into its next stage of growth.

  • Enhance risk and governance framework in Brazil together with Risk, Compliance and Company Secretary teams. You will also be appointed as Brazil Country Manager and be one of the Directors of our Brazilian entities.

  • Manage the relationship with regulators and other important non-commercial relationships, such as with government departments. Represent Wise to the Central Bank of Brazil and be accountable for good governance.

  • Have oversight of Wise’s Brazil business operations. Help guide strategy, provide leadership and alignment amongst the various functions responsible for ensuring the good health of the entity. Providing de-facto leadership on the ground to local teams and functional leads to ensure smooth operations.

  • Participate in all relevant committees and Board meetings. 

  • Represent Wise in Brazil, working with Public Relations and Product Marketing teams to drive brand awareness and position Wise as a key industry player.

• Take ownership of maintaining and improving existing relationships with transaction banking partners and other financial institutions. 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 financial institutions in Brazil 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:

  • Open new relationships with relevant financial institutions (i.e. banks, payment processors, cards issuers, processors, etc.). You will manage the process end-to-end: find the right potential partners, pitch Wise as a client, negotiate the commercial agreements and contracts, complete account opening forms, explain our compliance processes, pass due diligence, and do anything else needed to be ready for development.

Qualifications

This role would suit someone who is:

• 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.

• Excellent at managing financial regulatory relationships, constantly creating opportunities to improve them.

• Able to get stuff done. Not afraid to get hands dirty to deliver what is needed - we’re a fast growing company and you will need an entrepreneurial mindset to thrive.

• Deep understanding of how financial, payments and FX regulators work and the different decision makers that need to be taken into account to make things happen. 

• Understand financial, payments and FX regulation in a changing regulatory environment and have an interest in AML/KYC and risk controls.

• Familiar with different financial licensing frameworks and requirements in Brazil, including payments institutions, FX brokers, and securities brokers.

• 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.

• You are business fluent in Portuguese.

• Happy to work independently and flexibly within a fast-moving environment.

• Passionate about transforming the financial industry for good.

Additional Information

• Please apply by submitting your resume in English. Applications in Portuguese will not be considered.
• This is a hybrid position located in Sao Paulo, and not fully remote. You must be able to commute to the office or open to relocation
• Click here to learn more about the benefits that we offer at Wise

For everyone, everywhere. We're people building money without borders — without judgement or prejudice, too. We believe teams are strongest when they are diverse, equitable and inclusive.

We're proud to have a truly international team, and we celebrate our differences.
Inclusive teams help us live our values and make sure every Wiser feels respected, empowered to contribute towards our mission and able to progress in their careers.

If you want to find out more about what it's like to work at Wise visit Wise.Jobs.

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