Compliance Engineer - Trade Compliance (Remote)

Certivo; Seattle (WA); Hybrid; USD 140,000 - 200,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary & equity

Healthcare (medical, dental, vision)

Job summary

Certivo is seeking a Compliance Engineer, Trade Compliance, in Seattle on a hybrid or US-remote basis. You will encode regulatory frameworks into CORA, define evidence requirements, and own the data model for origin and classification.

The role blends regulatory expertise with engineering collaboration to automate compliance work across suppliers. Responsibilities include translating statutes into product logic, validating outputs against documents, and staying ahead of evolving regulations.

Qualifications

• 4+ years in trade compliance, customs, export controls, or global trade operations.
• Reading regulations or tariff schedules and turning into clear decision logic.
• Fluent with spreadsheets and structured data formats (JSON/XML).
• Strong written communication.

Responsibilities

• Translate regulation into product logic with structured rule sets.
• Own the trade data model for origin, HTS, ECCN, and screening results.
• Write requirements, test cases, and edge cases for engineering.
• Support customers and drive roadmap with regulatory feedback.

Skills

Regulatory interpretation

Structured data fluency

Written communication

Trade compliance

Tools

JSON/XML

Job description

Location: Seattle, WA (hybrid) or Remote (US). Team: Compliance Engineering. Reports to: Compliance Lead.

About Certivo

Certivo is an AI-native compliance platform for regulated supply chains. Manufacturers face a growing wall of regulatory requirements across materials, trade, cybersecurity, and sustainability, and the way most companies handle it has not changed in twenty years: spreadsheets, email chases, and a scramble when an auditor or a customs officer asks for proof.

Our AI engine, CORA, automates the work underneath compliance. It collects evidence from suppliers, validates documents against regulatory frameworks, and generates audit-ready packages on demand. We are backed by Suffolk Technologies, Pioneer Square Labs, Mayfield, and Ralliant, and we work with global manufacturers across aerospace and defense, automotive, industrial equipment, electronics, and medical devices.

The Role

Trade and customs is one of the highest-stakes categories we support, and it is accelerating. CBP detained more shipments under UFLPA in the first half of 2025 than in all of 2024. EU CBAM entered its definitive phase in January 2026. Tariff and origin exposure has become a board-level concern for every manufacturer that imports.

As Compliance Engineer, Trade Compliance, you own the regulatory logic that makes our trade and customs capability work. You translate statutes, tariff schedules, entity lists, and rules of origin into structured rules that CORA can apply at the component level, across thousands of suppliers, without a human reading each document.

This is a hybrid role. It sits between deep regulatory expertise and engineering execution. You will not be filing entries or classifying shipments for a single importer. You will be encoding how trade compliance works so it can run automatically for many.

What You Will Do

Translate regulation into product logic

• Build and maintain structured rule sets for trade frameworks: UFLPA and forced labor authorities, EAR and ITAR export controls, OFAC and denied party screening, Section 232 and Section 301 tariffs, Section 889, TAA and Buy American / BABA, USMCA and free trade agreement rules of origin, and CBAM
• Define the evidence each framework actually requires, including origin declarations, supplier attestations, production records, mill certificates, and material flow documentation
• Specify validation logic that determines whether a supplier document satisfies a requirement, and what makes it fail

Own the trade data model

• Define how country of origin, HTS and ECCN classification, and entity screening results flow through multi-tier bills of material
• Build inheritance logic so component-level origin and classification data aggregates into defensible product-level determinations
• Design the substantial transformation and rules-of-origin logic that drives FTA qualification and duty exposure

Work with engineering to ship

• Write the requirements, test cases, and edge cases that engineering builds against
• Validate CORA's extraction and classification output against real supplier documents, and drive accuracy improvements
• Partner with the team on how regulatory changes propagate through the platform when an entity list expands or a tariff action lands

Stay ahead of change

• Monitor FLETF entity list additions, CBP guidance, BIS and OFAC actions, USTR tariff proceedings, and CBAM implementing acts
• Assess what changes mean for customers and how quickly the platform must reflect them
• Maintain the trade portion of our compliance calendar and regulatory intelligence

Support customers and revenue

• Serve as the trade compliance expert in customer conversations, technical evaluations, and audits
• Help customers structure their evidence collection so they can respond to a detention or an audit in days rather than weeks
• Feed real customer requirements back into the roadmap

What You Bring

Required

• 4+ years in trade compliance, customs, export controls, or global trade operations, at a manufacturer, importer, customs brokerage, law firm, or consultancy
• Working depth in several of: UFLPA and forced labor due diligence, EAR/ITAR export classification, OFAC and restricted party screening, HTS classification, country of origin and substantial transformation analysis, FTA qualification, or CBAM
• Demonstrated ability to read a regulation, a tariff schedule, or a guidance document and reduce it to clear, testable decision logic
• Comfort working in structured data. You do not need to write production code, but you should be fluent with spreadsheets, structured formats such as JSON or XML, and reasoning about data models
• Strong written communication. Much of this role is documenting rules precisely enough that an engineer or an AI system can execute them

Helpful

• Experience with multi-tier supply chain tracing or supplier evidence programs
• Familiarity with PLM or ERP systems and how BOM and supplier data is structured
• Exposure to trade compliance software, denied party screening tools, or classification platforms
• Licensed Customs Broker, CCS, CES, or comparable credential
• Experience in aerospace and defense, automotive, semiconductors, or industrial manufacturing
• Prior work at a software company, or on the customer side of a software implementation

What Success Looks Like

• First 90 days. You know our trade framework coverage in detail, including what is strong and where the gaps are. You have shipped rule improvements for at least one major framework and validated CORA's output against real supplier documents.
• First 6 months. You own the trade and customs category end to end. Engineering builds against your specifications. Customers in active evaluations get you in the room, and it moves deals.
• First 12 months. Trade compliance is a category customers choose Certivo for. When an entity list expands or a tariff action lands, the platform reflects it quickly and customers hear about their exposure from us first.

Why This Role

Most trade compliance work is repetitive by necessity. The same classification analysis, the same origin determination, the same screening, over and over, because there has been no way to encode the reasoning. This role is the chance to encode it once and have it run at scale.

You will work directly with our Compliance Lead and engineering team, with real ownership of a category and a short path from a decision you make to something customers use.

Compensation and Benefits

• Competitive salary and meaningful equity
• Medical, dental, and vision coverage
• Flexible PTO
• Hybrid or remote, with the team based in Seattle

Certivo is an equal opportunity employer. We evaluate applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic.