ðŸ‡ðŸ‡°Member of Specialist Staff (Compliance Officer & MLRO, Hong Kong) @ Zuba
Compliance / Regulatory · Full-time, Part-time
Posted on Nov 13, 2026
ðŸ‡ðŸ‡°
Member of Specialist Staff (Compliance Officer & MLRO, Hong Kong) @ Zuba
ðŸ‡ðŸ‡° Hong Kong
💰 Part-time retainer during application, full-time on licence grant (incl. equity)
About Zuba
About the role
Zuba is applying for a Money Service Operator (MSO) licence in Hong Kong. We're looking for the Compliance Officer and MLRO who will be named on that application, and who will also help build Zuba's Hong Kong presence from nothing: the entity, the office and the local team.
You'll be the named Compliance Officer and MLRO on our MSO application with the Customs and Excise Department (C&ED), with a VA OTC licence to follow. Licensing drafting is handled by external counsel, so your job is not to write the application. It is to be the accountable person the regulator sees, and to make sure the compliance function behind the application is real.
This is not a compliance seat in an office that already exists. You'll be one of our first people on the ground in Hong Kong, so the job is as much founding the office as running compliance in it: getting the entity set up, finding and opening the office, and hiring the first local team. We want someone entrepreneurial who sees that as the appeal, not the overhead.
The role comes in two phases. During the application you'll work part-time on a retainer. Once the licence is granted the role becomes full-time, and you'll own Hong Kong compliance as it scales: onboarding anchor clients and settlement banks, running day-to-day AML/CFT, and growing the local team.
What you'll do
Be the named Compliance Officer and MLRO. Stand on the MSO application with C&ED, and on the VA OTC application that follows, as the accountable individual for Zuba's Hong Kong entity.
Own the regulator relationship. Act as primary contact with C&ED through the application and after licence grant.
Set up the Hong Kong entity. Work with the founders and external counsel to get the local entity fully stood up and operational: corporate set-up, governance, local service providers and whatever else the business needs to trade from Hong Kong.
Find and open the office. Scope the options, recommend where we should be, and get the office secured, fitted out and running.
Localise group policy to Hong Kong. Adapt Zuba's group AML/CFT policies and procedures to the requirements of the AMLO, working with external counsel and the group compliance team.
Run suspicious transaction reporting. Own the escalation, investigation and filing of STRs to the JFIU.
Onboard anchor clients. Lead KYB and risk assessment on the first clients of the Hong Kong entity, so the business can go live as soon as the licence allows.
Onboard settlement banks. Take Zuba through due diligence with our settlement banks, including DBS and Standard Chartered, and manage those compliance relationships once live.
Build the local team. Help hire Zuba's first people in Hong Kong, in compliance and beyond, and lead the compliance team as volumes grow.
Be Zuba's person on the ground. Until the team is built, you're the one who gets things done locally, whether or not it sits in a compliance job description.