AML and Compliance Lead

Modveon; Palo Alto (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health coverage

Equinox fitness membership

Meals provided

In-person office days

Commuting support

Job summary

Modveon is seeking a Compliance & AML Lead to own and scale our financial crimes compliance function as we expand, ensuring licensing readiness across jurisdictions. You’ll stand up core compliance infrastructure for market expansion, including CIP/CDD, risk rating, sanctions screening, and monitoring, while partnering with regulators, legal, and product teams.

This hands-on role requires deep regulatory knowledge, strong collaboration across engineering and business teams, and the ability to

Qualifications

• 5+ years of progressively responsible experience in AML or regulatory compliance at financial services, fintech, payments, or related firms.
• Hands-on implementation of CIP/CDD, sanctions screening, transaction monitoring, investigations and regulatory reporting.
• Experience engaging regulators, auditors, and external stakeholders with strong judgment.

Responsibilities

• Design, implement, and maintain tiered CIP/CDD aligned to BSA/AML and local regs across jurisdictions.
• Build and calibrate a Customer Risk Rating model for onboarding and ongoing due diligence.
• Lead sanctions screening, OFAC coverage, PEP/adverse-media screening, and travel-rule programs.
• Oversee transaction monitoring across wallets, payments, remittance, funding, and withdrawal activity.
• Manage investigative lifecycle, case management, alert escalation, and SAR/STR filings.
• Develop and report key risk indicators with daily, monthly, and annual views.
• Own AML program execution and compliance tech stack, vendor performance, and testing.

Skills

AML program design

Regulatory compliance

Regulatory reporting

Sanctions screening

Transaction monitoring

Investigation lifecycle

Regulator engagement

Cross-functional collaboration

NMLS knowledge

Job description

About Us

We’re a venture-backed AI startup founded in 2025 headquartered in downtown Palo Alto, preparing for a public launch later in 2026. Backed by leading institutional investors and strategic angels, we’re building a verified operating system designed to run at national scale.

Our platform brings together digital identity, secure communication, modern money movement, and AI-enabled services in a single system. Built on modern financial rails and applied AI, it supports real-world use cases including payments, remittances, and digital services, designed for reliability, security, and scale.

We’re starting with deployments across markets where modern infrastructure meets real operational demand and expanding globally from there. Initial institutional deployments are underway, with commercial agreements in place and revenue already being realized.

If you’re mission-oriented and motivated by building durable systems and shaping the next generation of digital infrastructure, we’d love to build with you.

About the Role

We’re looking for a Compliance & AML Lead to own and scale our financial crimes compliance function as the platform grows, while supporting the application for, maintenance of, and ongoing compliance with Money Transmitter Licenses (MTLs).

This role is central to how we operate, ensuring that regulatory rigor and operational execution move in lockstep with product and market expansion.

You’ll immediately stand up and operate core compliance infrastructure for our market expansion, including customer due diligence, customer risk rating, sanctions screening, transaction monitoring, investigations, and regulatory reporting. You’ll partner closely with regulators and external stakeholders and design compliance programs that are practical, durable, and built to scale.

This is a hands‑on build-and-operate role for someone comfortable owning complex regulatory workstreams while collaborating deeply with legal, product, engineering, and business teams.

What You’ll Do

• Design and implement a tiered Customer Identification Program (CIP) and Customer Due Diligence (CDD) framework aligned with applicable BSA/AML, AML/CFT, sanctions, and local regulatory requirements across each operating jurisdiction.
• Build and operationalize a Customer Risk Rating model to determine the appropriate level of due diligence at onboarding and on an ongoing basis.
• Implement and maintain sanctions and screening programs covering OFAC and relevant jurisdiction‑specific sanctions lists, with risk‑based PEP and adverse‑media screening.
• Stand up and continuously calibrate transaction monitoring across wallet, payments, remittance, funding, and withdrawal activity using customer risk, transaction behavior, typologies, and jurisdiction‑specific requirements.
• Manage the investigative lifecycle, including case management, alert escalation, documentation, and SAR/STR filing in accordance with applicable regulatory timelines and requirements.
• Establish foundational compliance metrics covering customer volumes, transaction volumes and values, alert and case activity, and other key risk indicators, with daily, monthly, and annual reporting views.
• Implement and maintain Travel Rule compliance programs across operating jurisdictions as required.
• Own the compliance technology stack and key vendors across KYC/CDD, sanctions screening, transaction monitoring, and case management, including implementation, configuration, tuning, data quality, vendor performance, and effectiveness testing.

Ongoing Program Responsibilities

• Serve as a primary point of contact with regulators, auditors, legal counsel, and other third parties in connection with licensing, examinations, audits, reviews, and regulatory inquiries.
• Manage ongoing state money transmitter compliance, including license renewals, regulatory reporting, examinations, change‑of‑control and change‑management filings, permissible investment requirements, surety bonds, complaints, and regulator inquiries.
• Develop clear compliance reporting for senior management and the Board, including key risk indicators, program effectiveness, material issues, regulatory developments, and remediation status, and promptly elevate material compliance risks.
• Design, implement, and maintain key components of the compliance and risk management program, including policies, procedures, controls, risk assessments, and governance.
• Own AML program execution, including risk assessments, transaction monitoring oversight, investigations, alert escalation, and internal control evaluations, initially focused on our international market obligations with U.S. controls expanding as licensure progresses.
• Conduct ongoing monitoring and testing to assess the effectiveness of AML, sanctions, transaction monitoring, and operational compliance controls.
• Maintain and evolve compliance documentation as regulatory requirements, products, and markets change.
• Support internal and external audits, regulatory examinations, and supervisory inquiries, including remediation of identified issues.
• Develop and support compliance training and awareness programs to reinforce a compliance‑first culture.
• Partner closely with product and technology teams to embed compliance and licensing requirements into new products, features, and workflows.
• Participate in strategic initiatives that leverage regulatory licenses to enable new markets and product capabilities.

What You’ll Bring

• 5+ years of progressively responsible experience in AML, financial crimes, or regulatory compliance at a financial services company, fintech, payments company, digital asset business, or compliance advisory firm.
• Demonstrated experience designing and operationalizing AML programs, including CIP/CDD frameworks, customer risk rating models, sanctions screening, transaction monitoring, investigations, and regulatory reporting, ideally across multiple jurisdictions.
• Hands‑on experience managing, configuring, and optimizing compliance technology stacks, including tuning, calibration, data quality, and effectiveness testing of automated transaction monitoring and sanctions screening systems.
• Strong understanding of regulatory requirements applicable to money transmitters, payments companies, and/or digital asset businesses, including working knowledge of BSA/AML requirements and familiarity with international or emerging‑market regulatory frameworks.
• Experience managing the investigative lifecycle, including case management, escalation, drafting and filing SARs or STRs, and adherence to regulatory timelines.
• Understanding of Travel Rule requirements and implementation approaches across U.S. and international jurisdictions.
• Experience engaging directly with regulators, auditors, law firms, and other external stakeholders.
• Strong judgment and the ability to identify, elevate, and drive resolution of material compliance risks.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to explain complex regulatory concepts clearly and pragmatically to technical, business, executive, and Board audiences.
• Comfort operating in a fast‑paced environment with significant ownership, balancing independent judgment with close cross‑functional collaboration.

Nice to have:

• Hands‑on experience with the Nationwide Multistate Licensing System (NMLS).
• Experience with AML compliance in Latin America or other emerging‑market regulatory frameworks.
• Experience managing end‑to‑end state licensing processes, including application preparation, regulator engagement, regulatory reporting, examinations, and ongoing maintenance of U.S. MTLs.
• CAMS or other relevant financial crimes or compliance certification.

Why Join Us

• Work That Matters: You’ll help build critical financial and digital infrastructure that makes systems safer, faster, and more transparent at scale.
• Frontier Problems: We operate at the intersection of identity, communities, modern money movement, and agent‑driven services, complex and regulated domains that remain largely unsolved.
• Global from Day One: Built in Silicon Valley and deployed across borders. What we build is designed for national‑scale deployments.
• Real Ownership: You’ll own critical compliance and regulatory domains end to end, from program design through operational execution, regulatory engagement, and outcomes.
• High‑Agency Culture: High trust, low process, fast iteration. We value excellence, sound judgment, and people who take initiative and act with ownership.

What We Offer

• Compensation That Reflects Impact: Highly competitive salary plus meaningful equity, designed for people who want real ownership, not just upside.
• Comprehensive Health Coverage: Top‑tier medical, dental, and vision insurance for you and your dependents.
• In‑Person First: We work from the office four days a week to move fast and build together, with quarterly in‑person all‑hands.
• Wellness Covered: Company‑paid Equinox fitness membership to support wellbeing.
• Meals Provided: All meals and beverages are covered on in‑office days.
• Commute Supported: Bay Area commuting expenses covered, including FasTrak, Caltrain, and BART.
• Flexible Time Off: Flexible PTO with no preset cap, balanced by ownership, accountability, and outcomes.