Analysis Skills, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Banking Operations, Banking Services, Benchmarking, Communication Skills, Computer Security, Consulting, Data Quality, Establish Priorities, Financial Risk, Financial Risk Management, Financial Services, Operations Management, Project/Program Management, Regulations, Regulatory Compliance, Reliability Engineering, Research Laboratory, Risk, Risk Analysis, Risk Management, Writing Skills
About the job
Mercor connects elite creative and technical talent with leading AI research labs. Headquartered in San Francisco, our investors include Benchmark, General Catalyst, Peter Thiel, Adam D'Angelo, Larry Summers, and Jack Dorsey.
Position: Payments Risk & Controls Expert
Type:Contract
Compensation:$80–$180/hour
Location:Remote
Role Responsibilities
- Review and author payments risk and control assessments across payment capture, validation, authorization, tracking, funds control, smart routing, FX conversion, netting, prioritization, returns, and tokenization.
- Evaluate inherent risk, residual risk, and control effectiveness using standard impact-and-likelihood frameworks.
- Map risks to controls and identify control gaps or elevated vulnerabilities.
- Identify failure modes in payments capabilities such as system failures, stale data, bypassed authorization, missed cut-offs, and misconfigured routing/netting/funds controls.
- Provide structured evaluations with clear written justifications grounded in operational risk and RCSA standards.
- Work independently and asynchronously to improve the reliability of frontier AI systems.
Qualifications
Must-Have
- 5+ years of experience in payments risk assessment, bank operational risk, risk and control self-assessment (RCSA), issue management, risk and controls, compliance risk assessment, or banking risk advisory.
- Experience in titles such as VP / AVP Operational Risk Management, RCSA Program Manager / Lead, Business Risk & Control Officer, Payments Risk & Controls Manager, Payments Operations / Treasury Services Risk Manager, or Compliance Risk Assessment Manager.
- Comfort with standard payments risk lenses: execution and accuracy, authorization and fraud, data integrity, timeliness and cut-offs, client impact, and regulatory/compliance impact.
- Strong command of inherent risk scoring drivers — transaction value and volume, time sensitivity, geographic footprint, client harm, regulatory and operational impact, reputational impact, and historical signals (operational risk events, KRIs, issues, limits, external events).
- Excellent analytical and written communication skills.
- Comfortable working independently with digital tools.
Preferred
- Background at a top-tier bank strongly preferred (e.g., JPMorgan Chase, Citi, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, BNY, Barclays, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley).
- Risk-control advisory experience at a leading consulting firm also considered (e.g., KPMG, Deloitte, PwC, EY, Accenture financial-services risk advisory).
Application Process (Takes 20–30 mins to complete)
- Upload resume
- AI interview based on your resume
- Submit form
Resources & Support
- For details about the interview process and platform information, please check: https://talent.docs.mercor.com/welcome
- For any help or support, reach out to: support@mercor.com
PS: Our team reviews applications daily. Please complete your AI interview and application steps to be considered for this opportunity.