Job Description

Head of Compliance Advisory - Lending and Payments

San Francisco, CA, New York, NY, Portland, OR, or Remote within United States

Mercury is revolutionizing finance for startups by building a complete, user-friendly financial stack. We prioritize creating a secure and seamless experience for entrepreneurs while upholding the highest standards of compliance and safety.

We are seeking a seasoned and strategic compliance leader to serve as Head of Compliance Advisory for our lending and payments products. The Lending and Payments Compliance Advisory team partners deeply with product, legal, risk, and operations counterparts to enable compliant innovation across our product suite. As a leader in Mercurys Compliance organization, you will be responsible for shaping team priorities, ensuring high-quality execution, and continuing to evolve our product governance approach in response to regulatory, partner, and business needs.

Your team plays a critical role in ensuring both new and existing products meet applicable financial partner and regulatory requirements. You will help drive strategy, set operational standards, and serve as a key advisor in scaling Mercurys lending and payments offerings responsibly.

*Mercury is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services provided through Choice Financial Group, Column N.A., and Evolve Bank & Trust, Members FDIC.

In this role, you will:

• Lead the Lending and Payments Compliance Advisory team, aligning compliance advisory efforts with Mercurys business goals and product roadmap
• Provide strategic direction and day-to-day oversight for a team responsible for a wide range of compliance advisory functions, including:
• New product advisory: Partner with product and legal to shape and support compliant design and launch of new features and offerings
• Ad hoc advisory: Act as a trusted compliance resource across the business for nuanced or novel questions
• Issue advisory and remediation support: Guide product and operations teams in managing compliance incidents and remediating root causes
• Policy development and refresh: Own and evolve compliance policies in collaboration with subject matter experts and regulatory stakeholders
• Training content SME: Inform training strategy by contributing compliance expertise to internal enablement efforts
• Product risk assessment support: Embed compliance perspectives in product risk assessments and launch readiness reviews
• Regulatory and partner change management: Interpret and operationalize regulatory and partner-driven requirements and changes
• Partner management and response: Serve as a compliance representative in partner meetings and responses, supporting relationship health and contractual alignment
• Marketing reviews: Review and advise on marketing campaigns and materials to ensure regulatory and reputational compliance
• Strengthen cross-functional collaboration with product, legal, engineering, and risk teams to deliver responsible innovation at scale
• Represent Compliance in external conversations with financial partners and regulators, offering thoughtful input that balances product opportunity with regulatory clarity
• Support the execution of Compliance department initiatives, including audit readiness, documentation improvements, and cross-cutting operational projects
• Reinforce and grow a culture of compliance across the organization by modeling Mercurys values and championing sound decision-making

You should have:

• 8+ years of experience in a compliance advisory role, ideally within financial institution, fintech, banking-as-a-service, or consumer finance industries
• A strong track record of leading and developing compliance teams, preferably in high-growth environments
• Deep subject matter expertise in applicable regulations related to lending, credit cards, and money movement (e.g. ECOA/Fair Lending, UDAP/UDAAP, TILA, FCRA, SCRA, card network rules, BSA/AML)
• Ability identify risk and compliance considerations around novel software products
• Proven experience working cross-functionally with product, engineering, legal, and risk on complex compliance challenges
• Strong communication and influencing skills, with the ability to tailor messaging across audiences and drive alignment across stakeholders
• A pragmatic and solution-oriented mindsetable to navigate ambiguity and make risk-based decisions quickly and thoughtfully
• Experience supporting compliance policy frameworks, regulatory examinations, audits, and partner due diligence processes
• Passion for innovation in financial services, and a desire to help Mercury redefine how financial products can enable businesses

The total rewards package at Mercury includes base salary, equity, and benefits.

Our salary and equity ranges are highly competitive within the SaaS and fintech industry and are updated regularly using the most reliable compensation survey data for our industry. New hire offers are made based on a candidates experience, expertise, geographic location, and internal pay equity relative to peers.

Our target new hire base salary ranges for this role are the following:

• US employees in New York City, Los Angeles, Seattle, or the San Francisco Bay Area: $252,500 - $315,600
• US employees outside of the New York City, Los Angeles, Seattle, or the San Francisco Bay Area: $227,300 - $284,000

Mercury values diversity & belonging and is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. All individuals seeking employment at Mercury are considered without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, marital status, ancestry, physical or mental disability, veteran status, gender identity, sexual orientation, or any other legally protected characteristic. We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations throughout the recruitment process for applicants with disabilities or special needs. If you need assistance, or an accommodation, please let your recruiter know once you are contacted about a role.

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