Full-Time
Head of Financial Crime Operations
Updated on 8/1/2026
Pennylane
1,001-5,000 employees
Real-time accounting platform for SMBs
No salary listed
Île-de-France, France
Hybrid
Based in France, with regular on-site presence in Paris; partial remote is possible. Remote work is limited to Europe within two hours of Central European Time.
 Operations & Logistics (1) |
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- At least 8 years of experience in financial services operations, ideally in a regulated fintech, bank, or payment institution.
- At least 3 years of experience managing first-line-of-defense operations covering KYB/KYC, transaction monitoring, fraud, and risk in a regulated environment.
- Direct experience with ACPR or a similar European Union regulator, including licence applications, audits, and reporting.
- Experience scaling operations in a high-growth environment.
- Hands-on experience implementing and optimizing LCB-FT tooling.
- Experience working under dual operational and compliance reporting in a Three Lines of Defense model.
- Deep knowledge of French anti-money-laundering and counter-terrorist-financing regulations, ACPR requirements, TRACFIN obligations, and Financial Action Task Force standards.
- Operational expertise in KYB/KYC workflows, transaction-monitoring rules including scenario design and thresholds, and fraud typologies.
- Proficiency in analytics tools such as SQL and business-intelligence dashboards, with the ability to interpret operational metrics and drive decisions.
- Ability to evaluate tooling, assess vendors, negotiate contracts, and lead integrations with technology teams.
- Understanding of machine-learning-based fraud detection, robotic process automation for document processing, and chatbots for first-line support.
- Ability to calibrate risk appetite while balancing compliance rigor with operational efficiency.
- Fluent French and English are mandatory.
- Based in France, with a strong preference for Paris, and able to maintain regular on-site presence in Paris.
- Build and lead three analyst teams covering KYB, transaction monitoring, and risk and fraud.
- Deploy LCB-FT policies and control their proper application by the teams.
- Contribute to KYB and transaction-monitoring tooling implementation and team training.
- Optimize team and tool efficiency by leveraging artificial intelligence and automating processes while protecting the risk appetite.
- Collaborate closely with Compliance and Fraud and Risk teams in the second line of defense.
- Support the licence application and customer migration from the banking-as-a-service model to an establishment of payment during the pre-licence and migration phase.
- Focus on payment operations and build first-line-of-defense infrastructure before licensing.
- Progressively integrate credit operations, including credit assessment and decisioning, as the financing-company scope expands.
- Scale first-line-of-defense operations to support payment and credit activities.
- Recruit, onboard, and train three operational teams covering KYB/KYC, transaction monitoring, and fraud and risk.
- Define team structures, roles, responsibilities, and career paths aligned with regulatory requirements.
- Establish service-level agreements and performance frameworks for each team.
- Define collaboration models with Pennylane SAS and the second line of defense.
- Own the operational lifecycle from onboarding through transaction monitoring, fraud detection, and offboarding.
- Manage budgets and forecasting for first-line-of-defense operations, including headcount, tools, and training.
- Deploy and enforce LCB-FT policies by translating regulatory obligations into daily operations.
- Ensure compliance with KYB/KYC workflows, including customer risk classification, high-risk escalations, politically exposed person screening, and sanctions checks.
- Execute transaction-monitoring rules, and escalate second-level alerts to transaction-monitoring second-line teams within service-level agreements.
- Apply fraud-detection policies and manage escalation to second-line Fraud and Risk teams.
- Challenge policy applicability when operational friction is excessive and propose pragmatic adjustments while maintaining risk appetite.
- Apply credit and merchant-risk policies according to risk classification.
- Own vendor relationships for first-line-of-defense tooling, including service-level monitoring, escalations, and improvements.
- Deploy artificial-intelligence-powered automation for document verification, anomaly detection, and alert triage.
- Own back-office access management for first-line-of-defense teams, including suspensions, blocks, and temporary wallets.
- Design the teams' back office in collaboration with a dedicated Product squad.
- Define operational metrics, develop performance dashboards, and own monitoring and reporting.
- Identify workflow and tooling bottlenecks and implement corrective actions.
- Implement a quality-assurance framework including random sampling, calibration sessions, and peer reviews.
- Run continuous-improvement cycles through red-bin processes and collaboration with the second line of defense.
- Benchmark performance against other establishments of payment and fintechs.
- Use data analytics to predict operational load and adjust team capacity proactively.
- Evaluate outsourcing to business-process outsourcing providers and own the integration and deployment strategy.
- Train first-line-of-defense teams on LCB-FT requirements, tooling, and escalation procedures.
- Translate complex compliance requirements into actionable guidance for product, business, and technology counterparts.
- Advise Product on new features by assessing feasibility, identifying compliance risks, and proposing mitigations.
- Develop training materials including playbooks, standard operating procedures, and decision trees for analysts.
- Participate in quarterly risk committees with the second line of defense and Executive Committee.
- Maintain audit trails for operational decisions to ensure regulatory traceability.
- Coordinate with the second line of defense on control testing, provide evidence, and remediate internal-audit gaps.
- Support second-line regulatory reporting, including incident escalations, statistics, and potential support for suspicious activity report analysts.
- Define and execute operational crisis protocols, post-mortem analyses, and remediation plans.
- Recruit and lead a multi-layer organization of approximately 80 full-time employees across KYB first line, transaction-monitoring first line, and Fraud and Risk first line within 18 months.
- Build N-1 management layers with performance frameworks and team cultures.
- Implement shift rotations and on-call schedules to support operational coverage.
- Develop internal talent by promoting high performers and creating senior analyst and team-lead roles.
- Collaborate cross-functionally with Technology, Product, Compliance, and Risk teams.
- Accompany licence passporting to other European markets, starting with Germany, including organizational evolution, localization, and process adaptation.
- Plan and accompany customer migration out of the banking-as-a-service model with the Strategic Project Manager.
- Deploy credit-risk policies across credit products including wallet financing, invoice financing, and buy-now-pay-later.
- Manage credit-origination workflows.
- Monitor the active credit portfolio by tracking repayment schedules and low signals.
- Challenge risk policies when operational friction blocks growth.
- Oversee credit-risk performance and implement credit-decisioning tools.
- Experience in credit operations within a financing-company scope or with banking-as-a-service partnerships.
Pennylane is a financial and accounting platform for SMBs and their accountants that centralizes all financial data in real time. It lets managers manage invoicing, payments, cash flow, and reporting while giving accountants a single production tool. The service is subscription-based and designed to be used by both the company and its external accountant, with real-time visibility and a single source of truth. It targets France and Europe, offering features like sales/purchase management, cash flow forecasting, dashboards, and is a certified Partner Dematerialization Platform (PDP) for upcoming e-invoicing rules.
Company Size
1,001-5,000
Company Stage
Series E
Total Funding
$443.9M
Headquarters
Paris, France
Founded
2020
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Simplify's Take
What believers are saying
- Pennylane’s $200M 2025 raise accelerates AI development and European expansion to reach €100M ARR and profitability by year-end.
- AI-driven automation for bookkeeping and real-time insights positions Pennylane to lead Europe’s AI accounting race serving 800K companies.
- Mandatory e-invoicing reform in France by 2026 drives massive SMB adoption as Pennylane enables seamless B2B transactions via PDP certification.
What critics are saying
- Qonto’s 2026 PDP gateway directly displaces Pennylane’s e-invoicing advantage, forcing SMBs to switch tools for compliance within 6–12 months.
- Cegid’s acquisition of Shine creates a unified AI co-pilot replicating Pennylane’s dual-accountant-client model, undercutting its core value proposition in 12–18 months.
- Major French accounting networks like FIDAC may shift to Cegid or Xero post-2026 e-invoicing reform, severing Pennylane’s primary 90% customer acquisition channel.
What makes Pennylane unique
- Pennylane’s accountant-first model with AI copilot for complex edge cases fosters deep European accounting firm partnerships.
- Pennylane is the only certified PDP Partner in France, ensuring compliance with mandatory e-invoicing reform by September 2026.
- Pennylane’s unified all-in-one platform eliminates data exchange between SMEs and accountants, unlike Xero or QuickBooks.
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Benefits
Remote Work Options
Company Equity
Home Office Stipend
Wellness Program
Paid Vacation
Health Insurance
Lunch Credits
Flexible Work Hours
Gym Membership
401(k) Company Match
Growth & Insights and Company News
6 month growth
↑ 2%1 year growth
↑ 0%2 year growth
↑ 0%The funding round values Pennylane at $4.25bn, according to a report.
Pennylane, a French accounting software startup, has raised $200 million in a funding round led by TCV, with participation from Blackstone Growth and existing investors Sequoia, DST, CapitalG and Meritech. Founded in 2020 by Arthur Waller, Pennylane offers an all-in-one platform combining accounting production, financial management and payments, designed for seamless collaboration between accountants and their clients. The company differentiates itself from competitors like Xero and QuickBooks through its European regulatory focus and partnership approach with accounting firms. The platform features AI-driven automation, real-time financial insights and integrated payment tools. Pennylane now supports 6,000 accounting firms and 800,000 companies, employing 1,000 people. The funding will accelerate AI development and European expansion as the company approaches profitability.
French company Pennylane is negotiating a fresh investment of around $200 million at a $4.25 billion valuation.
Pennylane, a French fintech, has secured a €75 million funding round, doubling its valuation to €2 billion. The company plans to leverage new invoicing regulations and AI to expand, focusing on France before targeting continental Europe. With 4,500 accounting firms and 350,000 SMEs as clients, Pennylane aims to capitalize on France's mandatory e-invoicing reform by 2026. CEO Arthur Waller projects $100 million ARR this year, emphasizing AI's role in enhancing accountant services.
French startups raised €163 million this week, with AI-focused companies securing €119 million. Notable funding includes Pennylane, which raised €75 million, Roof with €20 million, and Qevlar AI with €9.3 million. Other startups like PyannoteAI, Parallel, Ed AI, and Feedae also contributed to the total.