Head of Risk

Remote | Europe (CET/EET ±2h) | B2B Contract | Reports to the CEO

About the company

Our client is an established, profitable fintech operating at the intersection of crypto and traditional payments. It runs a consumer on/off-ramp platform and a fast-growing B2B infrastructure business: APIs and white-label solutions that let exchanges, neobanks, PSPs, wallets and other platforms embed regulated crypto and fiat services. The company is authorised under MiCA and PSD2 in the EU and is actively expanding its licence footprint, including e-money authorisations in Europe and the UK. The culture is owner-led, high-ownership and low-bureaucracy: decisions are made quickly and close to the founders.

About the role

This is a senior, hands-on leadership role. You will be the company’s Head of Risk, a member of the leadership team reporting directly to the CEO. The function starts as a one-person department and may grow as it matures. A foundation already exists: a risk register, risk appetite statement, DORA vendor risk work, and governance drafts. Your mission is to turn it into a proactive, decision-oriented risk function. That means bringing risk to leadership before it becomes a problem, and being a fast, credible partner to the commercial and product teams rather than a bottleneck.

What you will own

Enterprise risk framework: risk taxonomy, risk appetite and tolerances, risk register, escalation policy and the three-lines-of-defence model.

Risk reporting: regular risk dashboards for the CEO and leadership, board/committee reporting, and risk-related regulatory reporting.

DORA: ICT risk management, incident classification and reporting, third-party ICT risk and the Register of Information, with a hard regulatory deadline ahead.

Licensing: operational risk, capital adequacy, liquidity and safeguarding frameworks for new e-money authorisations in parallel jurisdictions.

B2B partner and counterparty risk: onboarding risk scoring, risk-tiered monitoring, risk sign-off on material partnerships, and concentration risk.

Financial and market risk, jointly with Finance: crypto price exposure, settlement and liquidity risk, counterparty exposure to liquidity providers and banking partners, and capital adequacy monitoring.

Operational resilience: business continuity, disaster recovery, vendor risk and major incident reporting.

Fraud risk appetite: acceptable loss rates by channel, product and geography, unified across the teams that currently share it.

Product risk: risk assessment and launch gating for new products and markets, involved early rather than at the finish line.

Risk governance and culture: running the risk committee and building risk ownership across business units.

What we are looking for

8-10+ years in financial services or fintech risk, including at least 3–4 years at a senior risk leadership level (Head of Risk, VP Risk, or equivalent). A CRO title is not required, but ownership at that level is.

Direct experience in a regulated fintech, payment institution, EMI, PSP, or crypto business. Comfort with pace and lean structures is essential.

Hands-on experience with at least one of: DORA ICT risk, MiCA (CASP) risk requirements, or PSD2 payment institution operational and security risk. UK FCA operational resilience experience is a strong equivalent.

A clear track record of owning risk outcomes, not only advising on them.

The ability to give a clear risk position and recommendation under incomplete information, and to hold that position under pressure from senior stakeholders.

The ability to communicate risk in business language, in terms of impact, cost and options.

Fluent professional English and Russian language.

Nice to have

Previous Head of Risk / CRO role at a regulated fintech, EMI, PSP or crypto company.

Experience building a risk function from scratch in a scaling business.

Experience with crypto custody risk, MiCA capital requirements, or Travel Rule implementation.

Third-party / vendor risk management at scale, especially in B2B or embedded-finance models.