Head of Trust

Who we are

Yoco was founded in 2015, and we've been breaking down barriers, unlocking economic opportunities and opening commerce for people to thrive ever since.

We're the payments provider for over 200,000 self-employed, and process over US$3 billion annually.

We have ±350 team members globally, all with a bias for boldness and a passion for simple, progressive solutions. We believe in uniting different people to solve hard problems, together.

Our mission of making society more equal requires a variety of people, with different backgrounds and points of view, to keep building solutions that make life easier for emerging businesses.

We're growing fast. With growth comes compelling challenges. If you're an ambitious problem-solver, with big ideas, a passion for doing good, bright, grounded and courageous; you're likely to thrive at Yoco.

We don't stop pushing. We break things to rebuild. We challenge ourselves and each other. We're constantly evolving - and we're doing it fast.

Grow With Us.

About the Customer Operations Group

Customer Operations is where Yoco meets the real world - the engine behind every merchant's success story. We help merchants grow stronger, move faster, and stay longer by turning complexity into clarity, friction into flow, and ambition into progress.

Our teams work across the full merchant lifecycle - from onboarding and payouts to risk, support and recoveries - driving the trust, reliability, and growth that power Yoco's ecosystem.

At the heart of this is Trust & Risk Operations: protecting the platform while enabling merchants to grow confidently, combining smart controls with seamless experiences so that trust becomes a shared advantage across Yoco.

About the role

We're looking for a seasoned leader to head up Trust & Risk Operations - the team that protects and scales trust within Yoco's ecosystem.

You'll lead first-line operational controls for merchant onboarding, usage, payouts, disputes, and fraud investigations - turning risk appetite and policies into fast, accurate, and low-friction systems that scale with Yoco's growth.

Operating as the first line of defence, you'll ensure control effectiveness, evidence assurance, and operational excellence in close partnership with Risk, Compliance and Product.

You'll build systems and teams that keep merchants safe and successful - reducing losses without blocking growth, and ensuring trust scales alongside merchant confidence.

What you will be doing

• Lead and scale Trust & Risk Operations across KYC, AML, fraud, disputes, and risk escalations
• Build and empower high-performing teams with deep investigative skills and controls capability
• Translate risk appetite and policies into evidenced, first-line systems and playbooks
• Design & run merchant lifecycle controls: onboarding, payouts, collections, complaints-risk
• Oversee investigations and incident response, ensuring root-cause analysis, and upstream fixes across the ecosystem
• Partner closely with second-line teams on control assurance and governance
• Own risk signal intelligence and drive control improvements across Product, and Ops
• Champion automation, tooling, and process design that makes trust scalable
• Represent Trust & Risk Ops in governance forums and with external partners (e.g. regulators)

About you

• 8-12 years' experience in Risk, Trust, or AML operations, including 4-5 years in senior leadership roles
• Proven ability to build and scale systems, teams, and controls in high-complexity environments
• Deep operational expertise in fraud, CDD, AML, chargebacks, and dispute management
• Experienced in operating as the first line of defence, ensuring effective controls and credible assurance outcomes
• Skilled in working across Risk, Product, Engineering, Compliance, and Customer Operations to balance growth and integrity
• Data-driven and automation-minded - you use insight and systems to strengthen control effectiveness and efficiency
• Calm under pressure, structured in ambiguity, and trusted by senior stakeholders, regulators, and partners
• Purpose-driven and commercially minded, you see trust & risk ops as an enabler of sustainable growth

The people we're looking for

We're looking for people who want to grow and have a thirst for learning. And as Yoco grows, we hope they stay with us for the long-term.

Building solutions for a more equal society is a daunting task - and it's not for everyone. We never stop pushing, we break things to rebuild, and we challenge ourselves and our teammates. We start over, we constantly evolve - and we do it fast. We know that it's just the right kind of meaningful madness for our kind of visionary human.

So, who are you? You're someone who resonates with our mission and our values, and you're relentlessly effective in your execution.

You're a curious problem-solver with a passion for doing good. You're bright, grounded, experimental and bold. You play open cards and get stuck in. You're not afraid of change. You close the loop.

At Yoco, we laugh, embrace each other's quirks, and support one another's growth, all while staying authentic.

If this sounds like your kind of challenge, apply below and come grow with us.

We encourage applicants from diverse backgrounds to apply and ask that you please send your application in English and help us reduce unconscious bias by leaving out your picture, age, address, and other unnecessary information in your CV.

Department Customer Operations Role AFC Operations Locations Cape Town (South Africa) Employment type Full-time

---