Financial Crimes Operations Program Manager

Lightspark is building the open payment protocol for the Internet making money move like data: instantly, globally, and without friction. With enterprise tools like Grid, Node, and Spark, businesses can send and receive money instantly, securely, and at a fraction of the cost, anytime, anywhere. Lightspark is headquartered in Los Angeles, California, but serves the world.

This role will own the design and buildout of our Financial Crimes Operations function from the ground up — establishing the investigative framework, operational infrastructure, and team needed to support Lightspark's growth across a diverse and complex payments landscape. The compliance surface here is broad: multi-asset flows spanning fiat, stablecoins, and Bitcoin; high-volume cross-border corridors; crypto on- and off-ramps; and a fast-growing roster of institutional partners. Reporting to the Chief Compliance Officer, you will set the strategic direction for AML, sanctions, and fraud investigations while remaining hands-on during our early stage, and will be central to shaping how Lightspark scales its compliance operations responsibly.

Regular travel to Los Angeles is required to collaborate with your team and cross-functional stakeholders.

What you will be doing

• Build and lead the Financial Crimes Operations function — design the operating model, workflows, policies, and procedures for AML and fraud investigations from scratch, with an eye toward scalability

• Develop and own the investigations program — establish case management processes, escalation frameworks, and quality standards for investigations into money laundering, fraud, terrorist financing, elder abuse, and other illicit activity

• Drive strategic improvements to transaction monitoring — move beyond reactive rule-tuning to proactively identify gaps, propose new typologies specific to crypto and cross-border payment flows, and work cross-functionally with product and engineering to improve detection capabilities

• Ensure regulatory excellence — oversee the timely and thorough filing of Suspicious Activity Reports with FinCEN, and maintain accountability for the program's overall compliance posture across domestic and international jurisdictions

• Build a forward-looking vendor and tooling strategy — evaluate, select, and manage third-party fraud and AML vendors and actively explore how emerging AI and machine learning tools can augment detection, investigation, and reporting workflows; you're not just procuring software, you're designing a tech-forward financial crimes stack

• Operate efficiently at scale — find creative ways to punch above your weight with a lean team, using automation, AI-assisted triage, and smart process design to maximize coverage without sacrificing quality

• Hire and mentor investigators — as the function grows, recruit, onboard, and develop junior investigators and analysts, building a high-performing team

• Serve as a key cross-functional partner — work closely with Legal, Product, Engineering, and Customer Operations to embed financial crimes risk considerations into product decisions and operational processes

What we're looking for

• 8+ years of experience in AML compliance and/or fraud risk, with a demonstrated track record of building or significantly maturing an investigations function at a financial institution, crypto-native firm, or FinTech focused on cross-border payments

• Required: direct, hands-on experience investigating crypto-related financial crimes, including tracing funds on-chain, working with blockchain analytics platforms (e.g., Chainalysis, TRM Labs, Elliptic), and filing SARs for crypto-specific typologies such as mixer usage, chain-hopping, and DeFi-related activity

• Required: deep cross-border payments expertise, including familiarity with international AML frameworks (FATF, EU AMLD, FinCEN), correspondent banking risk, and the typologies unique to multi-jurisdictional payment flows

• Prior experience leading or managing a team, with the ability to balance strategic leadership with hands-on execution in an early-stage environment

• Deep knowledge of SAR filing requirements, AML transaction monitoring typologies, and fraud risk frameworks — particularly as they relate to payments, cross-border transactions, and cryptocurrency

• Strong program-building instincts — you can design a process, document it, and then improve it based on real-world results

• A genuine curiosity about AI and emerging tooling — you actively follow developments in AI-assisted investigations, anomaly detection, and compliance automation, and have ideally piloted or deployed tools in this space

• A lean-team mentality — you know how to prioritize ruthlessly, build for scale from day one, and use technology to extend the reach of a small team rather than defaulting to headcount as the solution

• Comfortable operating with ambiguity and taking initiative without a defined playbook

• Experience in a start-up or high-growth environment strongly preferred

• CAMS, CFCS, or CFE certification preferred

Lightspark is on a mission to build an open payment protocol for the Internet at scale and therefore we’re committed to creating a more inclusive and diverse workplace to reflect the customers we serve. We welcome interest from individuals of all backgrounds and levels of experience who share our mission. We do not discriminate based on race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability status, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. 

We will consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with the requirements of the State of California Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring.