Lead Compliance Manager

gomotive; United States; On-site; USD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Motive is hiring a Lead Compliance Manager to design, own, and scale our AML/BSA, sanctions, and KYC/KYB compliance program across the US, Canada, and future markets. You will partner with Legal, Risk, and Product to embed compliant lending and spend solutions, manage regulator interactions, and drive audit readiness.

You will lead policy development and hands‑on controls, ensuring compliance requirements are translated into practical, auditable processes across multiple geographies and partners.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in compliance, audit, or risk management within lending, payments, or financial services.
• Hands-on experience managing compliance relationships with issuing banks, card networks, or other regulated financial partners.
• Multi‑jurisdiction compliance program experience including Canada and UK/EU; international experience is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Own and maintain AML/BSA, Sanctions, and KYC/KYB policies across all markets Motive operates.
• Design, implement, and monitor sanctions and PEP screening, transaction monitoring, and escalation processes.
• Serve as primary compliance contact for banks and card networks, including audits and remediation.
• Partner with Risk, Legal, Underwriting, Product, and Engineering to embed lending‑compliance requirements into new products and markets.
• Lead internal and third‑party compliance audits and exams with audit-ready documentation.
• Monitor regulatory developments and translate them into actionable policy updates.
• Build governance structures and playbooks for compliance as the program scales.
• Build out the compliance function, including hiring and team scaling.

Skills

AML/BSA knowledge

Regulatory compliance

Cross-functional collaboration

Policy writing

Job description

Who we are:

Motive empowers the people who run physical operations with tools to make their work safer, more productive, and more profitable. For the first time ever, safety, operations and finance teams can manage their drivers, vehicles, equipment, and fleet related spend in a single system. Combined with industry leading AI, the Motive platform gives you complete visibility and control, and significantly reduces manual workloads by automating and simplifying tasks.

Motive serves nearly 100,000 customers - from Fortune 500 enterprises to small businesses - across a wide range of industries, including transportation and logistics, construction, energy, field service, manufacturing, agriculture, food and beverage, retail, and the public sector.

Visit gomotive.com to learn more.

About the Role:

Motive's Financial Products team operates a fast-growing commercial lending and spend management program (Motive Card) built on partnerships with issuing banks and card networks. The program already spans the US & Canada with further international expansion planned. We're hiring a Lead Compliance Manager to build and own the compliance function for this business end-to-end - from policy development through hands‑on execution - as it scales into new products, segments, and markets.

Reporting to the Head of Risk, Financial Products, you will be the senior-most dedicated owner of AML/BSA, sanctions, KYC/KYB, and lending‑compliance programs that today are stitched together across Product, Legal, Risk Ops, and Engineering. You will manage the compliance relationship with our issuing bank and network partners across every market we operate in, translate regulatory requirements into policy and control design, and ensure those controls actually operate - not just exist on paper - across a multi-geography, multi‑partner program. As Motive enters new markets, you will define what compliance needs to look like there before launch, not after.

What You'll Do:

• Own and maintain Motive's AML/BSA, Sanctions, and KYC/KYB policies and procedures across all markets where Motive operates - today the US & Canada, with more markets on the roadmap - keeping them current with local regulatory requirements and issuing bank/network requirements


• Design, implement, and monitor controls for sanctions and PEP screening, transaction monitoring, and suspicious activity escalation, including named Compliance Officer/Designee responsibilities where required by regulation or bank partners


• Serve as the primary compliance point of contact and relationship owner for issuing bank and card network partners in each market, including compliance reviews, exams, audits, and remediation commitments


• Partner with Risk, Legal, Underwriting, Product, and Engineering to embed lending‑compliance requirements into new products and markets before launch


• Lead internal and third‑party compliance audits and exams, driving findings to closure and maintaining audit‑ready documentation and evidence across all jurisdictions


• Monitor regulatory developments across commercial lending, AML/sanctions, and payments in each market Motive operates or plans to enter, and translate them into actionable policy and control updates


• Build and run the governance structure for the compliance program - reporting, escalation paths, risk committees - giving leadership clear visibility into program health, and establish the playbook for evaluating compliance requirements ahead of entry into any new market


• Build out the compliance function as it scales, including hiring and managing future team members as scope grows

What We're Looking For:

• 8+ years of experience in compliance, audit, or risk management within lending, payments, or financial services, including direct ownership of AML/BSA, KYC/KYB, sanctions, and PEP programs


• Hands‑on experience managing compliance relationships with issuing banks, card networks, or other regulated financial partners, including audits and remediation


• Multi‑jurisdiction compliance program experience, including Canada and UK/EU required; additional international experience (e.g., Mexico or other Latin American markets) a strong plus


• Working knowledge of the regulatory frameworks governing commercial lending, AML/sanctions, and payments across North America and Europe (e.g., BSA, FinCEN, FINTRAC/PCMLTFA, OFAC sanctions, UK/EU AML and data protection regimes)


• Proven ability to both write policy and operationalize it - building controls, procedures, and monitoring that hold up under audit, not just documentation


• Experience partnering cross‑functionally with Legal, Risk, Product, and Engineering to launch compliant products in new markets


• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to represent Motive credibly to external regulators, auditors, and bank partners and to advise senior leadership on compliance risk

Pay Transparency

Your compensation may be based on several factors, including education, work experience, and certif