The opportunity

This is one of the most consequential operational leadership roles within Worldline Merchant Services Risk Management Operations (RMO). As Head of 1st Line Risk and Industrialization – GCC Poland, you will serve as the senior operational architect of Worldline's Global Competence Centre (GCC) in Warsaw, the flagship shared-services delivery hub at the heart of our dual-cluster RMO strategy. This role carries accountability for the full end-to-end AML lifecycle across six specialist operational teams, spanning merchant onboarding through ongoing due diligence, periodic review, remediation, and offboarding. Beyond day-to-day delivery, you will be a driving force in our multi-year Risk Industrialisation Programme owing the process transformation agenda, embedding automation, and building a scalable, high-performing service excellence centre capable of sustaining regulatory compliance and business growth in equal measure.

This position sits at the intersection of deep AML lifecycle expertise and organisational leadership at scale. We are looking for a leader who can diagnose operational complexity, design durable improvements, and bring large, diverse teams with them on the journey. The GCC Poland operation is not a support function — it is a strategic delivery engine, and this role is its most senior leader.

Day-to-day responsibilities

•   Dual Cluster Operational Leadership – Own the end-to-end delivery accountability across Worldline's dual-cluster RMO operating model, with Global Competence Centre (GCC) Poland as the primary delivery hub; ensure seamless coordination across clusters, consistent service standards, and an integrated approach to capacity, quality, and control.

•    AML Lifecycle Operations Leadership – Provide expert-level senior leadership across all six core RMO operational teams: Risk Onboarding, Continuous Monitoring, Periodic Review & ODD, Lifecycle Offboarding, ODD Risk Remediation, and Service Management & Quality; maintain full operational accountability for compliant, timely, and high-quality delivery across the complete merchant AML lifecycle.

•    Process Analysis & Sustainable Improvement – Systematically analyse end-to-end operational processes to identify improvement opportunities, inefficiencies, and control gaps; apply structured methodologies (process mapping, root cause analysis, lean principles) to design and implement changes that deliver durable, scalable improvement.

•     RMO Centralization & Strategic Vision – Define and execute the RMO centralization roadmap in alignment with global RMO strategy; shape the long-term target operating model, ensuring the GCC evolves as a benchmark shared-services function capable of absorbing new entities, products, and geographies without proportional headcount growth.

•    Scalability & Operating Model Design – Design and continuously refine scalable operating models that accommodate volume growth and portfolio change; ensure the GCC structure, team design, and tooling can flex to meet evolving regulatory expectations and business demands.

•    Robust operational effectiveness – Deliver sustainable operational quality and controls across all RMO streams and entities; ensure consistency, audit readiness, and regulatory compliance at scale; maintain a rigorous internal controls environment that withstands regulatory scrutiny and supports the RMO transformation objectives.

•     Service Delivery Excellence – Establish and govern a service excellence framework with clearly defined KPIs, SLAs, quality gates, and escalation paths; drive operational discipline and a performance culture across all six teams.

•     Performance Monitoring & Executive Reporting – Oversee operational performance across all RMO teams against strategic targets; deliver clear, quantified, executive-level reporting on delivery metrics, industrialisation progress, capacity planning, and risk exposure to senior management, ExCom, and SteerCo audiences; translate operational data into strategic insight.

•    People Leadership & Organisational Development – Build, lead, and develop a high-performing, multi-disciplinary organisation; drive strategic workforce planning, talent acquisition, leadership development, and succession planning across all six operational streams; create an environment where expertise is valued, accountability is clear, and people are motivated to perform.

•     Stakeholder Management & Transition Governance – Serve as the senior interface to global and regional stakeholders across Risk, Compliance, Business Lines, and IT; govern the pipeline of process transitions including migration planning, parallel runs, and go-live sign-offs; communicate with clarity from front-line team leads to ExCom and Board.

•    Innovation & Technology Partnership – Partner with IT, Data, and Product teams to co-define tooling requirements, including enhancements to the LUMA platform; evaluate emerging technologies; embed data-driven and AI-assisted.

Who are we looking for

• Deep, demonstrable expertise across the full AML lifecycle - from merchant onboarding and KYC/KYB through continuous monitoring, periodic review, ODD, and lifecycle offboarding, with strong command of regulatory obligations, risk typologies, and compliance frameworks relevant to payments and merchant services.

• Credible senior leadership experience managing large, complex, multi-disciplinary operational organisations; a track record of building high-performing teams, developing talent, and driving accountability across diverse functions and geographies.

• Proven process analysis capability - able to decompose complex end-to-end workflows, identify root causes of inefficiency or control weakness, and design targeted improvements that are both pragmatic and sustainable; familiarity with structured improvement methodologies (lean, six sigma, process mapping, or equivalent) is a distinct advantage.

• Evidenced track record of implementing sustainable operational change - not just designing improvements, but seeing them through to embedded, measurable outcomes; experience managing change in regulated, operationally intensive environments is essential.

• Industrialisation mindset - proven experience driving automation, standardisation, and operational efficiency at scale, with a genuine appetite for technology-enabled transformation and AI integration.

• Strong strategic thinking combined with hands-on execution capability - able to hold the long-term vision whilst remaining close enough to operations to identify problems early and course-correct with pace.

• Exceptional communication skills across all organisational tiers - equally comfortable presenting to ExCom and Board audiences, challenging peers constructively, and engaging and motivating front-line operational teams; able to translate complexity into clarity for any audience.

• Payments sector experience, preferably in acquiring, merchant services, or payment processing - candidates with direct experience in an equivalent role within the payments industry are strongly preferred.

• Proven stakeholder management skills - able to build trusted relationships with and influence senior leaders, regulators, international teams, and commercial partners.

• Change and transition management experience in complex, dynamic, fast-changing environments, including governance of large-scale operational migrations or programme delivery.

• Excellent business English (minimum C1); additional European languages are an advantage.

Perks & Benefits

At Worldline you’ll get the chance to be at the heart of the global payments technology industry and shape how the world pays and gets paid. On top of that, you will also:

• Private medical & life insurance
• MyBenefit Platform
• Holiday allowance
• Public transportation allowance
• Meal allowance
• Annual bonus.

Pursuant to the Article 24 sec. 6 of the Act of 14 June 2024 on the protection of whistleblowers, we inform you that Worldline Financial Services (Europe) S.A., a joint-stock company, Branch in Poland (hereinafter referred to as Worldline) is governed by the Regulations on the receipt of internal reports and taking follow-up actions (hereinafter referred to as the Regulations).