ABOUT VARO

Varo is on a mission to empower hard-working Americans to achieve greater financial resilience; arming them with the products and support they need to create healthy financial habits and reduce financial stress. Through its mobile app, Varo offers customers premium bank accounts that have no minimum balance requirement or monthly account fees, high-interest savings accounts, and solutions to build, repair, and access credit. Varo’s state of the art technology provides tech-first features to help people achieve their financial goals and manage their money more easily. 

Varo is distinct from other fintechs: Varo is the first fintech to be granted preliminary approval for a de novo national bank charter by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the first to receive approval from the FDIC for federal deposit insurance, and is weeks away from opening the first mobile-centric national bank in U.S. history. Our unique team combines the best of tech and banking, and we’re wildly passionate about keeping our customers happy by helping them manage and grow their money. Our teams are based in San Francisco and Salt Lake City. Privately held Varo has raised over $400M to date, from leading institutional investors and strategic partners including Warburg Pincus, The Rise Fund / TPG Growth, Gallatin Point Capital, Harbourvest Partners, Progressive Insurance, and iHeartMedia.

ABOUT THE FINANCIAL CRIMES TEAM AT VARO

Varo’s Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), Anti-Money Laundering (AML), and Sanctions programs is made up of forward-thinking creative and enthusiastic individuals. We are looking for a new colleague to help us manage our Global Watchlist and Sanctions Program including various aspects of our Governance program including maintaining compliance with economic sanctions administered by the U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Controls (OFAC). This is an opportunity to get in on the ground floor and help build the risk framework for Varo, the bank of the future. 

This position will balance two responsibilities. The first is to maintain Varo’s Sanctions governance program as well as oversee the Watchlist Monitoring Team which has day to day responsibilities for reviewing all Watchlist matches for the company. This role will work closely with counterparts in the risk organization, Product, and Engineering teams. If you are looking for an opportunity to make processes better and look at data as the solution this role will provide you an opportunity to build a program at the first all-digital national bank in the United States. Because of its unique digital platform and the delivery of its services from the cloud, we are breaking new ground on the compliance and risk framework that we will use as we build the bank. If you are not afraid of new challenges, passionate about safeguarding the financial sector, and protect Varo and its customers, then we want to hear from you!

WE'RE LOOKING FOR AN INDIVIDUAL WHO WILL

• Enjoy working in an entrepreneurial environment and who are self-starters who can grab responsibility and run with it;
• Like doing analytical work; and working in fast-paced, dynamic and innovative environments
• Bring consistency and structure to a newly developed organization while leveraging data to innovate and reduce Financial Crimes and Operational risks

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES AND OBJECTIVES

• Oversee the Watchlist Screening program for Varo Bank
• Oversee a remote team responsible for the day to day watchlist screening operations
• Design and monitor Key Risk and Key Performance Indicators related to Watchlist Screening performance
• Maintain an integrated Financial Crimes and Sanctions Risk Assessment, Sanctions Policies and Procedure reviews
• Review Monitoring Strategies and work with the head of Financial Crime Analytics on alerting strategies as well as monitoring performance and effectiveness rates
• Develop and oversee a QA and QC program over the watchlist screening function
• Serve as the escalation point for OFAC and Sanctions related issues and reporting if needed
• Gather feedback and recommendations and translate them into requirements working directly with product and engineering teams to maintain Varo’s screening program

PREVIOUS EXPERIENCES AND SKILLS THAT'LL HELP YOU BE GREAT

• Worked in other FinTech’s or innovative Financial Institutions
• Direct experience in sanctions compliance program management or operations and management of sanctions investigations
• A minimum of 5-7 years in banking
• Significant experience in Economic Sanctions and Enforcement Guidelines including reporting
• Knowledge of Sanctions Screening solutions, tuning and industry best practices
• Collaboration with analytics teams or using large amounts of data to drive business decisions
• Previous experience working with banking regulators and knowledge of Financial Crimes regulations
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, interpersonal and collaborative skills

THE THREE SKILLS THAT MATTER MOST

Nobody can be great at everything, but we’re looking for candidates who are extraordinary at: 

• Experience in managing OFAC and Watchlist reviews and maintaining a high level of effectiveness
• Solid understanding of Economic Sanctions, underlying regulations, and reporting requirements
• Ability to think of creative solutions while balancing managing risk

OTHER NICE TO HAVES

• Proficiency with G-Suite
• Ability to communicate with all levels of management and staff;
• A passion for and dedication to mastering the details of any project;
• Experience managing multiple projects in a fast-paced, high volume environment;
• Scrappy and game for any task, able to adapt to quick changes in direction;
• Demonstrates a strong sense of ownership and thought-leadership; and
• A very high level of intellectual curiosity and a growth mindset

At Varo, we are committed to living our values. We hope these resonate with you.

Customers First: Understand the problems our customers are trying to solve. Respond with a sense of urgency. Build relationships that result in loyalty. Be data and insights-driven. Test everything. Achieve results through strong execution. Build a product people love. Assess new initiatives with the customers’ interest in mind. Act with empathy. 

Take Ownership: Bias towards action. Have high standards. Be accountable for the results of your work, our product, our company. Trust others to own it.

Respect: Bias towards action. Have high standards. Be accountable for the results of your work, our product, our company. Trust others to own it.

Stay Curious: Ask why. Dare to make things better. Learn something new each day (even from mistakes). Be open to growth. Develop creative solutions.

Make it Better: Think big. Set high goals. Work towards long term value rather than short term wins. Create change. Be resilient.

Varo is an equal opportunity employer. Varo embraces diversity and we are committed to building teams that represent a variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and skills. All applicants will be considered for employment without attention to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran or disability status.

Learn more about Varo by following us:

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/varomoney/

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/varomoney/

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/varo-money-inc./

Twitter - https://twitter.com/varomoney

Engineering Blog - https://medium.com/engineering-varo

Beware of fraudulent job postings!

Varo will never ask for payment to process documents, refer you to a third party to process applications or visas, or ask you to pay costs. Never send money to anyone suggesting they can provide work with Varo. If you suspect you have received a phony offer, please e-mail [email protected] with the pertinent information and contact information. Varo takes this matter seriously, and is working closely with the appropriate authorities to effectively address the issue.

Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

We hope to hear you say, "I'm in!"