Manager Risk & Compliance (E-Commerce)

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Role Purpose/Business Unit:

Are you passionate about digital innovation and ensuring robust governance in a fast-paced environment? Join our dynamic team as the Manager of Risk & Compliance for E-Commerce. This role offers a unique opportunity to shape the future of digital financial services while ensuring compliance, security, and operational excellence.

VodaPay is a digital super-app ecosystem that integrates Vodacom-owned and third-party mini-apps into a single platform, enabling customers to access payments, financial services, commerce, rewards, and lifestyle offerings through a seamless and interconnected digital marketplace.

The purpose of the role is to provide risk and compliance oversight and business partnering for VodaPay and its payments ecosystem, ensuring that payment products, customer journeys, partnerships and operational processes comply with applicable regulatory requirements, sponsor-bank obligations and internal risk standards. The role will proactively identify, assess, challenge and monitor regulatory, financial crime, fraud, conduct, operational, technology and third-party risks throughout the product and payment lifecycle.

Your responsibilities will include:

Regulatory and Legislative Compliance Monitoring

• Establishing a compliance and governance Fintech framework for E-Commerce (Vodapay Super App). 
• Supporting the business with commercial discussions, with local and international third-party suppliers/providers.  Ability to translate and embedding PASA, ICASA, NPS, POPIA and CPA requirements into business processes.

Customer Conduct & Consumer Protection

• Ensure payment products and customer journeys deliver fair, transparent and compliant customer outcomes by reviewing disclosures, fees and terms, monitoring complaints and customer-impact trends, identifying vulnerable-customer risks, and using customer feedback and data insights to strengthen controls and prevent customer harm.
• Collate and analyse information from various sources globally in order to assess the adequacy and effectiveness of the internal risk, governance and compliance controls. The information must be documented together with action items and control plans and communicated to relevant internal stakeholders both locally and across other OPCOs in order to leverage off the learning in SA.
• Develop risk management plans for relevant legislation and maintain a regulatory universe (CRMP).
• Develop appropriate policies to supplement and enforce the governance framework. Controls assessment and monitoring.

Risk and Compliance Management 

• Provide risk and compliance oversight across the full product lifecycle, from concept and design through approval, implementation and post-launch monitoring, ensuring that material risks and control gaps are identified, accepted or remediated through the appropriate governance process.

Payments Risk Management

• Proactively identify, assess and mitigate risks across the end-to-end payments ecosystem, including customer funds safeguarding, settlement and reconciliation processes, transaction processing, fraud and financial crime, partner and merchant relationships, data protection, customer conduct, third-party dependencies, payment scheme compliance and regulatory obligations, ensuring the resilience, integrity and compliance of VodaPay’s payment products, services and customer journeys.

Third-Party & Partner Risk Management

• Lead the risk-based assessment and ongoing oversight of payment partners, merchants and service providers by evaluating regulatory, financial crime, operational, technology and reputational risks, establishing appropriate contractual controls and monitoring frameworks, and ensuring material third-party and fourth-party risks are effectively managed throughout the relationship lifecycle.
• To ensure that all critical and high new business risks have been identified and mitigated before any product, service, promotion or campaign is launch within Vodacom South Africa (SA) across the Fintech landscape.

Financial Crime and AML Oversight

• Support the implementation of AML, KYC and sanctions controls across VodaPay by overseeing customer due diligence, transaction monitoring and financial crime risk management, while ensuring control gaps are remediated and material issues are escalated through the appropriate governance channels.

Reporting & Governance

• Develop and monitor key risk and compliance indicators, provide insightful management and governance reporting, analyse emerging risk trends across the payments ecosystem, support regulatory and assurance reviews, and ensure timely escalation of material risks, control failures and compliance breaches while maintaining robust governance records and audit trails.

Stakeholder management

• Operate as the dedicated Risk & Compliance business partner for VodaPay, supporting the business in embedding risk and compliance requirements while maintaining appropriate independent challenge, escalation and oversight in accordance with the approved lines-of-accountability model.
• Engagements with various internal key stakeholders such as Group Privacy, Group Cybersecurity, Technology, Group Risk and Compliance, Vodafone AML and Privacy and Mpesa OPCOs to create robust customized frameworks, policies and processes for VFS
• Liaise with External Regulatory Stakeholders such as PASA, SARB, FSCA, and IFWG were relevant.

Assist in the creation and implementation of the compliance training and awareness program

• Create a risk and compliance culture by identifying weaknesses in systems and processes and proactively embedding governance principles, values and sound business practice into existing systems, products, services and processes.

Financial Services regulation analysis and documentation 

• Monitor and assess developments in the South African payments regulatory framework and ensure that VodaPay’s operating model, products and partnerships remain aligned with applicable licensing, authorisation, registration and payment-system requirements.

Fraud Prevention

• Proactively identify, assess and mitigate fraud risks across VodaPay payment products, customer journeys and transaction flows by embedding preventative, detective and monitoring controls.
• Conduct fraud trend analysis and root-cause investigations into suspicious transactions, scams, account compromise, mule-account activity and emerging fraud typologies, and drive the enhancement of controls, processes and monitoring capabilities to reduce fraud exposure and customer harm.

The ideal candidate for this role will have:

• 3-year Degree or National Diploma essential in BCom, LLB, BA Law, or related and
• A minimum of 8 years relevant experience in risk and compliance within a fintech, banking or e-commerce environment.  
• Experience in payments.
• Experience in risk and compliance management.  
• A Postgraduate or Master’s Degree would be advantageous.

Core competencies, knowledge, and experience:

• Payments regulatory compliance and licence-to-operate - Interpret and embed applicable payment, financial-services, consumer-protection, privacy and financial-crime requirements across VodaPay.
• Product, change and customer-journey risk- Lead risk and compliance assessments for new products, partners, transaction flows and material changes from concept through post-launch monitoring.
• Risk, control and issue oversight - Maintain risk and control assessments, monitor key controls, identify emerging risks and track incidents, breaches and remediation to closure.
• Payments ecosystem and partner governance - Oversee risk and compliance obligations relating to sponsor banks, payment partners, merchants, processors and material third parties.
• Governance, reporting and stakeholder engagement - Produce decision-useful risk reporting, escalate material matters and engage relevant internal and external stakeholders on VodaPay payment risks and regulatory developments.
• Ability to influence change across the business and develop a culture of governance and compliance.
• Ability to challenge status quo in a mature manner.
• Skills to translate regulatory knowledge into sound business practices.
• Analytical and sound financial skills.
• Effective interpersonal and communication (verbal and written skills).
• Relationship management including influencing and persuasion skills.
• Presentation and facilitation skills.
• Extreme attention to detail and the ability to draft risk and compliance reports and packs.

We make an impact by offering:

• Enticing incentive programs and competitive benefit packages
• Retirement funds, risk benefits, and medical aid benefits
• Cell phone and data benefits, advantages fibre connection discounts, and exclusive staff discounts offered in collaboration with partner companies

Closing date for Applications: 19 October 2026. 

The base location for this role is Midrand, Vodacom Campus. 

The company's approved Employment Equity Plan and Targets will be considered as part of the recruitment process. As an Equal Opportunities employer, we actively encourage and welcome people with various disabilities to apply.
Vodacom is committed to an organisational culture that recognises, appreciates, and values diversity & inclusion.