Affiliate Services - Safeguarding Audit Lead

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.

We are looking for a Safeguarding Audit Lead to join our Affiliates Services Team within the Financial Crimes Compliance and Risk Oversight (FinCRO) organization.  As a regulated business, our second line of defence team plays a critical role in assuring the risk and compliance health of Stripe within the broader financial ecosystem.  You will be responsible for working with a global team managing audits and exams related to Stripe’s Safeguarding requirements.

Safeguarding is not merely a regulatory checkbox for Stripe; it is a fundamental pillar of our business integrity, customer trust, and license to operate globally. This function ensures meticulous management of processes to identify, segregate, and reconcile user funds. Effective safeguarding fosters trust among users, from individual merchants to large enterprises, and safeguards against reputation damage due to regulatory failures. As Stripe expands globally and introduces new products, a robust safeguarding framework is essential for sustainable growth and innovation. Ultimately, effective safeguarding mitigates financial and operational risks, reinforcing our license to operate.

This role will be instrumental in driving Stripe’s global compliance and risk management efforts, with direct impact across the Stripe group of legal entities, and will provide an excellent opportunity for a talented candidate to enhance compliance and risk advisory and expertise, deploy cross-functional project management skills, learn about digital assets, and carve out opportunities to grow and develop. The ideal candidate will be a self-starter who is exceptionally organized, thorough and detail-oriented, with a background in financial services, payments, digital assets, or other regulated sectors. Stripe is both a technology company and a financial services company, and you will need to be comfortable in both worlds. 

In this role you will act as the central coordinator across multiple cross-functional teams within the Safeguarding Program to manage and oversee Safeguarding audits and exams. This entails contracting with an external auditor on an annual basis and managing all aspects of the external auditor appointment and engagement process — including identifying and selecting firms (RFPs), onboarding and system setup, coordinating scope and timelines, managing invoicing and payments, and serving as the primary point of contact throughout the engagement. You will coordinate document and information requests from auditors, ensuring timely delivery of all required materials, testing evidence and responses to follow-up queries, as well as collaborate cross-functionally to finalize Stripe’s responses to the findings, including agreed remediation timelines, once the report is finalized.

• Understand Safeguarding requirements and regulations and the impact to Stripe and its relevant Legal Entities.
• Lead onsites and business meeting with Stripe’s auditors and relevant regulators to present Stripe’s Safeguarding program and controls.
• Project manage multiple cross-functional information requests and work with cross-functional stakeholders within the Safeguarding Program.
• Identify impacted teams, sharing relevant information with impacted stakeholders in a timely manner, setting clear milestones for responses and due dates to drive end-to-end accountability and to ensure adherence to agreed timelines.  
• Act as the central coordinator across teams to track progress, resolve blockers, and maintain audit readiness.  
• Work with relevant cross-functional stakeholders to review the audit draft report and engage with auditors to discuss and address any concerns about the findings (e.g., providing documentation that evidences the closure of findings, sharing evidence of compensating controls, etc.). 
• Project manage the closure of resulting findings in coordination with Issues Management.
• Schedule and lead debrief sessions with key stakeholders to review audit findings, agreed actions, and next steps. 
• Ensure consistency and governance across compliance-related responses that Stripe is providing externally.
• Provide project management support for other compliance-related regulatory exams and audits, as needed.

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.

• 5+ years of Regulatory and Financial Crime compliance experience
• Understanding of Safeguarding requirements in EMEA
• Project management experience
• Strong research, writing, and analytical skills
• Ability to plan, oversee and lead projects from ideation through to completion
• Ability to identify gaps and make risk mitigation recommendations
• Ability to synthesize large amounts of information and identify key trends
• Ability to work efficiently and independently in a fast-paced environment
• Ability to work cross-functionally with internal and external stakeholders
• Ability to proactively and independently learn.
• A growth mind-set to help scale operational risk initiatives for the future of Stripe.
• Strong critical thinking, analytical, and data-driven skills, with keen attention to detail.