About Pleo
Messy spend management is tricky business. And tedious processes are a lose-lose situation for all involved, not just finance. At Pleo, we're changing that. We build spend solutions that make managing money seamless, empowering, and surprisingly effective for finance teams and employees alike - with a vision to help all businesses ‘go beyond’.
The word ‘Pleo’ actually means ‘more than you’d expect’, and living by that mantra has been the secret to our success over the last 10 years.
Now, we’re at a pivotal moment in our journey; every move we make has a direct impact on our 40,000+ customers, our business, and our collective success. We need people who take pride in uncovering customer needs, who turn complex problems into simple solutions, challenge the way things are done (respectfully), and always aim high. With great ambitions driving us forward, we can’t say we’ve got this whole thing figured out. And frankly, that’s half the fun! What we can say is that we’re a driven, progressive, and, importantly, a kind bunch of 850+ people from over 100 nationalities, all committed to delivering the future of business spending, together.
About the role
We're looking for a Financial Crime Quality Assurance Manager to join our Voice of the Customer team at Pleo. In this role, you'll lead our quality assurance function across Customer Due Diligence (CDD), Ongoing Due Diligence (ODD), and Enhanced Due Diligence (EDD), ensuring we maintain strong, consistent controls that protect both Pleo and our customers, and support the delivery of a robust AML/CTF control framework across the customer lifecycle.
This is a leadership role that sits at the intersection of operational control, people management, and AI-driven transformation. You'll be responsible for owning and evolving the QA framework that underpins how we review, assess, and improve financial crime decisions, ensuring alignment with Pleo’s Financial Crime Risk Appetite and regulatory expectations.
At the same time, you'll play a key role in transforming QA into a more intelligent, AI-enabled function — using automation and data-driven insights to improve consistency, reduce risk, and continuously enhance quality at scale.
While the initial focus will be on CDD, ODD, and EDD, the scope of the role could also expand into broader financial crime QA and control areas over time.
Who you'll be working with and reporting to
You'll report to the Voice of the Customer team Manager and work closely with leaders across KYC Knowledge, Operational teams, Product, Financial Crime teams, 2 line of defense, and Data.
You'll lead a team of Quality Assurance Specialists who are responsible for reviewing financial crime cases and ensuring decisions meet internal standards, regulatory expectations, and customer protection requirements.
This role operates as a key first-line control assurance function, working closely with second-line Fincrime Compliance and the MLRO to ensure effective oversight, escalation, and governance of financial crime risks.
What you'll be doing
As a Financial Crime Quality Assurance Manager, you will:
Own the Financial Crime QA Framework – Define, maintain, and evolve the end-to-end QA framework across CDD, ODD, and EDD, ensuring robust controls that protect Pleo and our customers, and support AML/CTF compliance obligations in line with regulatory expectations.
Lead Case Review and Control Assurance Activities – Oversee the structured review of financial crime cases, ensuring consistency, quality, and compliance across all due diligence processes, with clear audit trails and defensible decisioning standards.
Build and Lead a High-Performing Team – Manage, coach, and develop a team of QA specialists, creating clarity, accountability, and high standards in how quality reviews are performed.
Strengthen Operational Controls – Ensure QA acts as a key control function by identifying process weaknesses, escalating risks, and reinforcing robust decision-making standards, including escalation of potential suspicious activity trends or systemic control issues.
Drive AI-Enabled QA Transformation – Introduce and scale AI-driven capabilities to improve how quality is assessed, including automated sampling, anomaly detection, decision consistency analysis, and intelligent quality insights, ensuring all AI outputs are explainable, auditable, and governed with appropriate oversight and human accountability.
Turn QA Insights into Continuous Improvement – Use QA findings and AI-generated insights to identify root causes of issues and drive meaningful, sustainable improvements across operations, training, and tooling.
Ensure Consistent and Defensible Decisions – Safeguard the integrity of financial crime decision-making by ensuring QA outputs are consistent, auditable, and aligned with regulatory expectations, supporting regulatory engagement, internal audit readiness, and ongoing control assurance reviews.
Own QA Management Information (MI) and Governance Reporting – Develop and maintain QA MI, including key metrics, trend analysis, and risk indicators, and produce monthly governance reports for Financial Crime forums, supporting MLRO-level oversight and risk-based decision-making.
Partner Across the Business – Work closely with Product, Engineering, Data, and Financial Crime Operations to improve systems, embed controls, and ensure QA insights directly shape how we operate.
To put things into context, we're evolving our QA function from a largely manual review-based model into a modern control and intelligence system — combining strong operational governance with AI-driven insight and automation.
What you bring
You'll thrive in this role if you have:
Financial Crime Experience – Strong background in CDD, ODD, and EDD, with a solid understanding of financial crime risk and regulatory expectations.
Quality Assurance or Control Function Experience – Proven experience leading QA, audit, compliance monitoring, or control functions in a regulated environment.
People Leadership Skills – Experience managing and developing teams, with a focus on performance, accountability, and continuous improvement.
Strong Control Mindset – Deep understanding of operational risk, control frameworks, and the importance of consistent, defensible decision-making.
AI and Data Curiosity – A strong interest in how AI and data can improve control functions, with the ability to translate ideas into practical operational improvements.
Analytical Thinking – Ability to interpret QA data, identify trends, and translate findings into actionable improvements.
Stakeholder Management – Strong communication skills and ability to influence across operational, technical, and compliance stakeholders.
Nice-to-have:
Experience implementing or scaling QA or control frameworks in fast-growing organisations.
Exposure to AI/automation in operational or compliance environments.
FinTech or regulated financial services experience.
Why is this role a good fit for you
This role is a good fit for you if:
You want to own a critical control function that directly protects both customers and the business.
You enjoy leading people and building high-performing operational teams.
You are excited by the opportunity to modernise QA through AI and automation.
You want to improve not just processes, but the quality and integrity of decision-making itself.
This role is not a good fit for you if:
You prefer purely technical AI work without operational or people leadership responsibility.
You are uncomfortable owning control frameworks or making accountability-driven decisions.
You prefer static environments where QA processes are already fully mature and unchanging.
How you'll develop in this role
In your first few months at Pleo, you'll:
Take ownership of the existing QA framework across CDD, ODD, and EDD.
Build strong oversight of case review processes and quality standards across the team.
Identify gaps in current controls and strengthen c