Head of Financial Crimes Compliance (FCC)

Skills

About the Role

You will architect, operationalize, and lead the compliance strategy across BSA/AML, sanctions, licensing, and financial crime-related risk, reporting to the General Counsel. You will design the program, set policy, manage regulatory engagement, and build processes and tooling as the company scales. You will serve as the firm's board-appointed BSA Officer and OFAC Sanctions Compliance Officer, taking full accountability for compliance with the Bank Secrecy Act and administering the Sanctions Compliance Program. You will factor fraud and payments-related risk into the broader financial crimes compliance control framework, own the relationship with regulators, auditors, and bank partners, and build and mentor a lean compliance team responsible for day-to-day program execution.

Requirements

• 8-10 years of progressive experience in BSA/AML and sanctions compliance with in-house leadership at a payments and/or crypto company
• Demonstrated expertise in cross-border payments including corridors, fiat/crypto touchpoints, correspondent banking, and remittance
• Proven track record in regulatory remediation and/or greenfield program development
• Experience managing bank/financial partner relationships
• Deep knowledge of applicable U.S. and international requirements such as BSA, OFAC, FATF, travel rule regimes, and licensing frameworks
• Hands-on building experience with ability to set strategy and execute in a high-speed start-up environment
• Exposure to blockchain analytics tools such as Chainalysis, TRM, or Elliptic and payment fraud risk platforms
• Experience with MSB/MTL licensing, e-money regulations, PSPs, VASP frameworks, and cross-jurisdictional compliance
• Experience with FCC model risk governance and data quality controls
• Prior board and regulatory reporting experience and comfort with external counsel coordination
• Enterprise Risk Management experience including risk taxonomy, RCSA, issue management, and KRI design

Responsibilities

• Design, implement, and continuously improve a risk-based BSA/AML and Sanctions Compliance Program
• Maintain an FCC program implementation plan to support timely program enablement
• Conduct the annual FCC-risk assessment covering BSA/AML and Sanctions
• Serve as the firm's board-appointed BSA and Sanctions Compliance Officer
• Establish FCC risk appetite standards and metrics aligned with enterprise risk management standards
• Define FCC KRIs and KPIs and reporting cadence for executive leadership and the Board
• Partner with Product, Engineering, and Operations teams on FCC-related tooling requirements
• Chair internal compliance committee and deliver board-level reporting
• Coordinate with Legal, Risk, InfoSec, and Finance on cross-functional matters
• Own KYC/KYB, CDD/EDD, transaction monitoring, case management, SAR/STR processes, OFAC screening, and list management
• Stand up cross-border controls including jurisdictional risk mapping and Travel Rule requirements
• Serve as primary contact for regulators, auditors, and bank partners on FCC-related matters
• Coordinate exams, audits, independent testing, compliance monitoring, and model validation
• Lead regulatory remediation and corrective action plans for FCC-related matters
• Structure and manage bank and non-bank financial institution FCC-related controls and partnerships
• Support licensing strategy including MSB registration and MTL roadmap
• Build and mentor a lean compliance team
• Select and administer vendor ecosystem for KYB/KYC/IDV, sanctions screening, blockchain analytics, and transaction monitoring
• Embed compliance-by-design across product, engineering, and go-to-market and run impact assessments for new features and geographies

Benefits

• Comprehensive medical, dental, vision, and life insurance with generous company contribution
• Meaningful equity in an early-stage, high-growth company
• 401(k) for retirement savings
• Unlimited PTO
• 10 federal holidays
• Flexible working model