Risk Strategist, Onboarding & Compliance

Stripe; Chicago (IL); Hybrid; USD 124,000 - 185,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

401(k)

Medical insurance

Wellness stipend

Job summary

Stripe is seeking a strategic Risk professional to build and scale risk foundations for Financial Account products, Capital, and Issuing within a fast-paced fintech environment.

You will collaborate with product, engineering, and cross-functional teams to create data-driven risk frameworks, expand to new regions, and translate regulatory requirements into actionable guidance for product teams.

Qualifications

• 5 years of experience in compliance, product risk, technical compliance, audit, or similar risk roles at a FinTech, payment provider, or bank.
• Proven experience designing and implementing risk-based KYC and KYB programs for onboarding.
• Proven experience working with product managers and engineers, designing solutions and writing technical requirements.
• Demonstrated success in managing complex projects with cross-functional stakeholders.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills with external partners.

Responsibilities

• Partner with Product, Engineering, and 2LOD to design data-driven, risk-based KYC/KYB frameworks across Financial Account, Capital, and Issuing products.
• Design risk-tiered onboarding standards and escalation pathways for edge cases and policy exceptions.
• Document compliant, scalable funds flow models for global payment networks and translate rules into technical requirements.
• Maintain technical compliance documentation translating regulatory requirements into actionable guidance.
• Manage cross-functional relationships with Legal, Customer Support, Partnerships, and 2LOD Compliance.
• Engage with external financial partners to present Stripe's controls and strategy.
• Extend expertise to new regions and payment schemes to enable international expansion.
• Use data to inform risk strategy and measure control effectiveness.

Skills

KYC/KYB design

Data analysis

Cross-functional collaboration

Regulatory knowledge

Communication skills

Problem solving

Tools

SQL

AI tools

Job description

About Stripe

Stripe is a financial infrastructure platform for businesses. Millions of companies—from the world’s largest enterprises to the most ambitious startups—use Stripe to accept payments, grow their revenue, and accelerate new business opportunities. Our mission is to increase the GDP of the internet, and we have a staggering amount of work ahead. That means you have an unprecedented opportunity to put the global economy within everyone’s reach while doing the most important work of your career.

Who we are

Stripe is a financial infrastructure platform for businesses. Millions of companies—from the world’s largest enterprises to the most ambitious startups—use Stripe to accept payments, grow their revenue, and accelerate new business opportunities. Our mission is to increase the GDP of the internet, and we have a staggering amount of work ahead. That means you have an unprecedented opportunity to put the global economy within everyone’s reach while doing the most important work of your career.

About The Team

The Onboarding and Compliance Risk Strategy team serves as a key risk management function that partners with product, engineering, and cross‑functional teams to bring products to market safely and responsibly. Our work spans money movement, money storage, lending, and emerging product areas including embedded finance, stablecoin settlement, and digital assets — requiring fluency in both traditional financial regulation and the compliance obligations unique to fintech‑native products. We are seeking a strategic‑minded and collaborative Risk professional to build and scale the risk management and compliance foundations for our Financial Account products, our new and existing credit products, and the global payment networks that power them.

What you’ll do

Stripe is building new products that expand the scope of problems we tackle beyond payments and into the rest of the financial stack. Right now this includes Capital, Financial Accounts, and Issuing - and there's more on the way. Stripe is a technology company that operates within the financial services industry, and you will need to be comfortable straddling both of those worlds every day. The right person for this role will thrive while working at the intersection of an emerging sector and a traditional industry, seek creative solutions to traditional problems, and enable the business responsibly while moving with urgency and focus. We are currently hiring for two roles, one with a focus on lending products and another with the focus on global payment networks. If you have experience with either and meet the below qualifications

Responsibilities

• Partner with Product, Engineering, and 2LOD teams to design and implement data‑driven, risk‑based KYC/KYB frameworks — including CIP, CDD, EDD, beneficial ownership, identity verification, and automated decisioning logic — that balance onboarding conversion, user friction, and compliance requirements across Financial Account, Capital, and Issuing products.


• Design risk‑tiered onboarding standards and progressive KYC/KYB frameworks that optimize conversion rates while maintaining appropriate controls; define risk acceptance criteria, gating logic, and escalation pathways for edge cases, manual review, and policy exceptions.


• Design and document compliant, scalable funds flow models for global payment networks (e.g., SEPA, FPS, ACH, RTP), translating complex network rules into technical requirements for engineering teams.


• Develop and maintain technical compliance documentation, translating complex regulatory requirements (e.g., U.S. lending laws, payment network rules) into actionable guidance for product and engineering teams.


• Manage relationships and drive alignment across a wide range of cross‑functional stakeholders, including Legal, Customer Support, Partnerships, and 2LOD Compliance, ensuring all voices are heard and decisions are made effectively.


• Engage directly with external financial partners, presenting Stripe's compliance controls and strategy to build trust and confidence.


• Extend your expertise to new regions and payment schemes, quickly learning new regulatory and technical landscapes to enable Stripe's international expansion.


• Utilize data to inform risk strategy, compliance solutions, and decision‑making by sourcing and analyzing product and user data to measure control effectiveness.

Who you are

We’re looking for someone who meets the minimum requirements to be considered for the role. If you meet these requirements, you are encouraged to apply. The preferred qualifications are a bonus, not a requirement.

Minimum Requirements

• 5 years of professional experience in compliance, product risk, technical compliance, audit, or similar risk roles at a FinTech, payment provider, or bank.


• Proven experience designing and implementing risk‑based KYC and KYB programs for business or merchant onboarding.


• Proven experience working at a technical level with product managers and engineers, with an ability to design solutions and write technical requirements documentation.


• Demonstrated success in managing complex projects with numerous cross‑functional stakeholders, driving consensus, and managing expectations.


• Excellent communication and presentation skills, with experience engaging directly with external partners and instilling confidence.


• Experience sourcing and using data to analyze problems, inform strategic decisions, and measure control effectiveness.


• Ability to tackle ambiguous situations and operate efficiently and independently in a fast‑paced, high‑volume, and technology‑driven environment.


• Respect for and interest in financial rules and regulations, as well as an eagerness to innovate and drive the financial technology industry forward.

Preferred Qualifications

• Deep experience with U.S. financial regulations impacting lending compliance and/or financial crimes OR a strong technical and operational understanding of payment network funds flows and scheme rules for major rails such as SEPA, FPS (UK), ACH (US), and RTP (US), including cross‑border payments compliance and state money transmission requirements.


• Experience designing or advising on compliance frameworks for embedded finance, Banking as a Service (BaaS), or platform/Connect models where partners control downstream user experiences and Stripe must enforce standards at scale.


• Proficiency with SQL for sourcing and analyzing data.


• Proficiency using AI tools to automate document writing, assist in research and analysis and support recommendations.


• Familiarity with digital assets, cryptocurrency, and stablecoin‑based payment and settlement flows, and the associated compliance obligations — including virtual asset service provider (VASP) frameworks, on‑chain/off‑chain transaction risk, and emerging regulatory developments such as the GENIUS Act and MiCA.


• Experience applying regional compliance expertise to new markets.

Hybrid work at Stripe

This role is available either in an office or a remote location (35+ miles or 56+ km from a Stripe office).

In‑office expectations

Office‑assigned Stripes spend at least 50% of the time in a given month in their local office or with users. This hits a balance between bringing people together for in‑person collaboration and learning from each other, while supporting flexibility about how to do this in a way that makes sense for individuals and their teams.

Working remotely at Stripe

A remote location is defined as being 35 miles (56 kilometers) or more from one of our offices. While you would be welcome to come into the office for team/business meetings, on‑sites, meet‑ups, and events, our expectation is you would regularly work from home rather than a Stripe office. Stripe does not cover the cost of relocating to a remote location. We encourage you to apply for roles that match the location where you currently live or plan to live.

Pay and benefits

The annual US base salary range for this role is $123,600 - $185,400. For sales roles, the range provided is the role’s On Target Earnings ("OTE") range, meaning that the range includes both the sales commissions/sales bonuses target and annual base salary for the role. This salary range may be inclusive of several career levels at Stripe and will be narrowed during the interview process based on a number of factors, including the candidate’s experience, qualifications, and location. Applicants interested in this role and who are not located in the US may request the annual salary range for their location during the interview process.

• equity, company bonus or sales commissions/bonuses


• 401(k) plan


• medical, dental, and vision benefits


• wellness stipends

We look forward to hearing from you.

At Stripe, we’re looking for people with passion, grit, and integrity. Your skills and passion will stand out—and set you apart—especially if your career has taken some extraordinary twists and turns. At Stripe, we welcome diverse perspectives and people who think rigorously and aren't afraid to challenge assumptions.