Sanctions Policy, Governance and Change Manager - Global Payment

duct launches.

Responsibilities

Sanctions policy development and maintenance

• Develop, update, and maintain sanctions policies, standards, and procedures across product lines (payments, onboarding, KYC/IDV, ad services, developer APIs, and social features) aligned with OFAC, U.S., E.U., UK, and MAS requirements. Own the annual review of the Global Sanctions Policy and related standards.
• Translate regulatory developments (e.g., Executive Orders, EU Regulations) into actionable internal requirements and training materials for product, operations, and customer-facing teams.
• Maintain a sanctions playbook covering ownership, escalation paths, governance, and product lifecycle integration.
• Partner with regional compliance teams to adapt global policies to local requirements without diluting global standards.
• Conduct regular gap analyses to ensure policy design effectiveness aligns with operational execution.

Governance and oversight

• Define and implement a global sanctions governance structure with clear roles, responsibilities, and accountability.
• Collaborate with Compliance Advisory, Legal, Strategy & Operations, Product, and Internal Audit to ensure effective controls across platform, marketplace, and payment flows.
• Prepare senior management and Board reporting on sanctions risk, policy changes, program effectiveness, and regulatory readiness.
• Maintain a centralized repository of audit findings, regulatory exam items, and self-identified issues; track remediation and validate closure.
• Support the Enterprise-Wide Sanctions Risk Assessment (SRA), ensuring outputs inform policy and control updates.
• Establish KRIs and KPIs to monitor sanctions program health.
• Align global governance with regional offices to reflect local regulatory regimes and product usage patterns.

Regulatory change management

• Monitor global regulatory developments and enforcement trends across sanctions regimes; lead impact assessments on systems, controls, and processes.
• Lead end-to-end change management for sanctions updates, including impact assessment, risk ranking, approvals, implementation, and post-implementation review. Act as the sanctions representative in New Product Approval forums.
• Maintain a formal change control process with versioning, documentation, audit trails, and release notes aligned with agile delivery.
• Partner with Operations and Engineering to ensure technical implementation of policy changes (e.g., screening logic and country blocklists).
• Draft Compliance Bulletins and support related training content.

Controls design and testing

• Design and oversee sanctions controls across onboarding, payments, monetization, advertising, and external integrations.
• Partner with Compliance Strategy and Product teams to configure, test, and tune sanctions screening systems and list integrations, managing false-positive and false-negative rates.
• Lead annual sanctions risk assessments and control testing, including issue management and remediation monitoring.

Training and awareness

• Develop and deliver sanctions training with the Compliance Training team for product, engineering, operations, customer support, and leadership.
• Drive ongoing awareness initiatives tailored to platform features.

Data governance and metrics

• Define and track sanctions KPIs with leadership dashboards.
• Promote data-driven, risk-based prioritization across regions and product teams.

Qualifications

Minimum qualifications:

• 5+ years of U.S. financial regulatory and sanctions compliance experience, with a strong emphasis on OFAC programs, fintech, and regulatory change management.
• Deep knowledge of OFAC, EU, UN and MAS sanctions regulations, BSA/AML, FinCEN guidance, and related enforcement trends. Familiarity with OFAC, FinCEN, OCC, FDIC, Federal Reserve, and international sanctions authorities; understanding of cross-border payment flows and digital platforms.
• Demonstrated expertise in policy development, governance frameworks, risk assessment, and change management methodologies, preferably in an agile, product-driven environment.
• Strong background in designing, implementing, and testing sanctions screening, due diligence, onboarding, and escalation workflows for digital platforms.

Preferred qualifications:

• Advanced degree or professional certifications in compliance, law, risk management, or related field preferred (e.g., Certified Sanctions Specialist, CAMS, FRM, CCEP, CLP).
• Prior experience in platforms with payments, digital identity, and social features is highly desirable. Fintech, digital wallet, payments, identity, or social media platforms with global user bases and monetization programs.
• Proven ability to influence senior leadership and coordinate across Legal, Compliance, Risk, Product, Engineering, Security, Marketing, Data, and Regional teams.
• Outstanding written and verbal communication skills; experience delivering training and executive-level briefings; ability to explain complex topics to non-experts.
• Familiarity with sanctions screening platforms and data governance; comfort with APIs, product analytics, and risk data reporting. Experience with platforms common in fintech (e.g., identity verification, payment rails, ad tech) is a plus.
• Experience with advertising product governance, influencer/affiliate networks, and user-generated content monetization in a regulated context.
• Proactive in identifying sanctions risks across product features and geographies; strong escalation discipline.
• Balance regulatory precision with scalable, user-centric product impact.