Director of Compliance

FS Vector; United States; Remote; USD 180,000 - 300,000; Full time

Job summary

FS Vector is partnering with a mature consumer fintech to appoint a Director of Compliance for embedded banking. The role is remote across the United States and focuses on building a scalable compliance program, governance framework, and bank-facing controls.

You will lead policy, risk management, and regulatory change, working with executives, auditors, and product teams. Ideal candidates have 10+ years in banking compliance, strong leadership, and deep experience with Reg E, Reg DD, UDAAP, and

Qualifications

• 10+ years in banking compliance or regulatory risk with leadership experience.
• Experience in BaaS, embedded finance, or sponsor bank programs.
• Direct experience with consumer deposit accounts, debit cards, or payments.
• Deep knowledge of Reg E, Reg DD, UDAAP and privacy requirements.
• Familiarity with bank oversight, audits, and remediation.

Responsibilities

• Build and lead the banking compliance function and CMS.
• Produce management information for the executive team and board.
• Staffing decisions and hiring for the compliance program as it scales.
• Serve as senior compliance contact for sponsor bank and partners.
• Define evidence standards and manage bank, processor, and program agreements.
• Own response to bank findings and drive remediation.
• Translate regulatory requirements into product and third-party risk specs.
• Keep the program exam-ready and lead reviews, testing, and audits.

Skills

Regulatory governance

Leadership

Banking compliance

Vendor management

Policy development

Education

CAMS/CFCS/CAFP

Job description

Director of Compliance, Embedded Banking

Remote (United States) | Full-Time

FS Vector’s Executive Search practice is partnered with a mature, profitable consumer fintech company on a foundational compliance leadership hire.

The Opportunity:

Our client has spent years earning the trust of a large, devoted customer base. The firm is now moving into regulated financial services, launching a deposit account and linked debit card through a bank partnership in 2027.

The Mandate:

Program Build and Governance

• Build and lead the banking compliance function and its compliance management system (CMS): policies, procedures, risk assessments, regulatory change management, training, monitoring and testing, issue management, complaints, and reporting.
• Produce management information for the executive team and board.
• Decide what is staffed in-house versus supported externally, and hire the team as the program scales.

Sponsor Bank Oversight

• Serve as the senior compliance point of contact for the sponsor bank and infrastructure partners.
• Define the responsibility allocation, escalation paths, and evidence standards for the partnership.
• Partner with Legal on compliance provisions in bank, processor, and program manager agreements, including audit rights, data obligations, and wind-down terms.
• Own the response to bank findings and drive remediation.

Consumer Compliance

• Own the consumer compliance framework for the deposit and debit products, including Reg E (error resolution and provisional credit), Reg DD, Reg CC, UDAAP, GLBA/Reg P, E-SIGN, FDIC advertising and disclosure rules, and Reg B, Reg Z, and FCRA where applicable.
• Review disclosures, account agreements, marketing, and product communications, with particular attention to claims about funds availability and transaction timing.
• Build complaint, dispute, and escalation processes alongside Customer Support.

BSA/AML, OFAC, and Financial Crime

• Establish CIP, CDD, sanctions, fraud, and transaction monitoring controls based on the bank-fintech allocation of responsibilities.
• Document thresholds, tuning rationale, and model governance where the company owns monitoring.
• Oversee KYC, screening, and fraud vendors, and build information-sharing protocols with the bank.

Product, Third-Party Risk, and Exam Readiness

• Translate regulatory and bank requirements into product requirements early in the build, not after it.
• Build the compliance component of the third-party risk program, aligned with interagency guidance, including vendor inventory, criticality ratings, and ongoing monitoring.
• Assess state money transmission licensing exposure as the program structure is finalized.
• Keep the program exam-ready and lead sponsor bank reviews, independent testing, and audits.

Requirements:

• 10+ years in banking compliance, regulatory risk, or related financial services roles, with meaningful leadership experience. More recent experience in a compliance leadership capacity at a growing fintech strongly preferred.
• Significant experience in BaaS, embedded finance, or sponsor bank programs, and a clear grasp of where the program manager’s obligations end and the bank’s begin.
• Direct experience with consumer deposit accounts, debit cards, or consumer payments.
• Deep knowledge of Reg E, Reg DD, UDAAP, and privacy requirements, plus working fluency in BSA/AML, OFAC, and fraud within a partner bank model.
• A track record of building or materially upgrading a CMS, and of working directly with sponsor bank oversight, audits, and remediation.
• A willingness to write the program yourself. Policies, procedures, risk assessments, and bank-facing materials will come from your keyboard, not a delegation chain.
• The judgment to distinguish a regulatory requirement from a bank expectation, from industry practice, from a business decision.
• The ability to explain regulatory risk to engineers, product leaders, and board members, and be understood by all three.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Prior CCO, Head of Compliance, Deputy CCO, or BSA Officer experience at a consumer fintech, neobank, payments company, or sponsor bank program.
• Experience launching a deposit or debit product and taking it through its first full exam or audit cycle.
• Deep familiarity with card network rules, Nacha rules, BaaS middleware, and processors.
• Experience working with multiple sponsor banks or supporting a bank partner selection.
• CRCM, CAMS, CFCS, CAFP, or similar.

Location:

Fully remote. Candidates must be permanently based in the United States and live in the Pacific, Mountain, Central, or Eastern time zones.

Work Authorization:

Candidates must be authorized to work in the U.S. without current or future sponsorship.

Travel:

Occasional domestic travel for team meetups, sponsor bank meetings, and/or examinations.