Senior Compliance Associate - Automation & Systems

About the role

BUILDING THE FUTURE OF OPEN FINANCE

Payward - the parent company behind Kraken, NinjaTrader, Breakout, xStocks, Payward Services and CF Benchmarks - has spent the last 15 years building one of the most modern and globally accessible financial infrastructure platforms in the industry, built to advance an open, global financial system.

THE TEAM

Founded in 2011, Kraken is one of the world's longest-standing crypto platforms, trusted by over 10 million individuals and institutions across the globe. It offers spot trading, margin, futures, staking, and OTC services, with products built for both individual investors and institutional clients.

The Compliance team at Payward plays a critical role in enabling the company to grow responsibly while navigating a rapidly evolving regulatory environment. Our teams work across jurisdictions and product lines to design and maintain scalable compliance frameworks that support Payward’s mission while ensuring regulatory obligations are met.

The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) Scale Team is responsible for ensuring the FIU can scale, across new operating jurisdictions and new products, effectively and efficiently. The team leads AML transaction monitoring and blockchain monitoring to ensure thresholds are appropriately set, tested, and governed while reducing false positives and maintaining strong oversight. In addition, the team focuses on identifying efficiencies in process workflows and implementing automation across the FIU. Scale works closely with external vendor, Compliance, and internal technology teams.

THE OPPORTUNITY

- Lead transaction monitoring optimization, including rule testing, threshold tuning, and the design and rollout of new monitoring scenarios to improve detection quality and reduce false positives

- Identify and drive automation and workflow improvements across FIU processes to increase operational efficiency and effectiveness

- Evaluate and implement emerging technologies, including LLM and AI-enabled tools, to enhance alert triage, investigations, SAR filing and FIU operational capabilities

- Partner with Product, Engineering, and Operations to support vendor integrations, monitoring infrastructure improvements, and FIU tooling enhancements

- Collaborate with Compliance leadership, including RCOs and MLROs, to maintain well-governed transaction monitoring frameworks aligned with regulatory expectations

- Support FIU scalability by designing processes and monitoring strategies that enable expansion into new products, regions, and increased transaction volumes

WHAT YOU BRING

- 5+ years of experience in AML, financial crime compliance, or FIU operations, with deep knowledge of transaction monitoring frameworks, suspicious activity detection, and regulatory expectations under BSA/AML regimes

- 3+ years of experience designing, testing, and tuning transaction monitoring rules, including threshold optimization, scenario design, and alert reduction strategies

- 3+ years of experience working with transaction monitoring systems and compliance tooling, including case management platforms, monitoring infrastructure, and investigative workflows

- Experience working in a regulated financial institution, preferably one licensed to operate in the EU, UK, and/or United States

- Experience driving process optimization or automation initiatives within compliance or financial crime programs to improve operational efficiency and scalability

- Experience working cross-functionally with Product, Engineering, Data, or Operations teams to implement monitoring controls, vendor integrations, or compliance technology solutions

- Strong analytical and data interpretation skills, with experience using metrics, dashboards, and data analysis to evaluate monitoring effectiveness and improve detection quality

- Experience operating in fast-growing fintech, payments, or crypto environments, with the ability to design scalable compliance controls that support new product launches and geographic expansion

- Experience working with AI, machine learning, or LLM-enabled compliance tools, including investigative automation or alert triage technologies

- Familiarity with blockchain analytics tools such as Chainalysis, TRM Labs, Elliptic, or similar crypto investigative platforms

- Experience supporting vendor selection, implementation, or integration of regtech solutions

NICE TO HAVES

- ACAMS, CAMS-Audit, CFCS, or similar financial crime certifications

Unless a specific application deadline is stated in the job posting, applications are accepted on an ongoing basis.

Please note, applicants are permitted to redact or remove information on their resume that identifies age, date of birth, or dates of attendance at or graduation from an educational institution.

We consider qualified applicants with criminal histories for employment on our team, assessing candidates in a manner consistent with the requirements of the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance.

OUR COMMITMENT

Payward is powered by people from around the world and we celebrate the diverse talents, backgrounds, contributions, and unique perspectives that everyone brings to the table. We hire based on merit, seeking out people with the right abilities, knowledge, and skills for the job. We encourage you to apply for roles where you don't fully meet the listed requirements, especially if you're passionate or knowledgeable about crypto.

We may ask candidates to complete job-related skills or work-style assessments as part of our hiring process. These assessments evaluate competencies relevant to the role and are applied consistently across candidates for similar positions. Results are considered alongside experience and interviews, and are not the sole basis for any employment decision.

As an equal opportunity employer, we don't tolerate discrimination or harassment of any kind, whether based on race, ethnicity, age, gender identity, citizenship, religion, sexual orientation, disability, pregnancy, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic as outlined by federal, state, or local laws.

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