Head of Compliance Operations and Financial Crimes

Sphere Labs
The infrastructure moving the world's money today was built for another era: slow rails, walls between markets, and compliance layered in over time creating friction. Sphere Labs is building what comes next: modern, compliance-native infrastructure for cross-border payments and settlement, designed from the ground up to work for the businesses and regulated institutions it actually runs through. We work in active partnership with banks, licensed entities, and the regulators and jurisdictions shaping how global money moves, because the infrastructure that earns institutional trust has to be built alongside it.
Backed by Coinbase, Kraken, The Chernin Group, Jump Trading, Hudson River Trading, and some of the world's largest sovereign affiliates, we're a fully remote, global team building at the moment stablecoins are crossing into mainstream finance and regulated institutions are ready for modern rails. We hire self-starters: strong communicators and systematic thinkers who can look at a blank page and build something real. If you want a meaningful role in how global money movement evolves, and the upside that comes with getting in early, we'd like to meet you.
About the Role

We are seeking an experienced Head of Compliance to build, mature, and lead our compliance program in a fast-paced, crypto-native environment. This role will partner closely with the product and engineering teams in order to automate the existing program into a scalable, highly embedded into the day-to-day operations of the business. This is a hands-on leadership role: the ideal candidate is a decisive operator who can write SOPs, work cross-functionally with Product and Ops to design guardrails for new business lines, manage a compliance program at scale (including nested onboarding flows with integrator/partner relationships), and mentor others — all while combining deep AML/KYC/KYB expertise with a strong international regulatory background.

Key Responsibilities

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Program Build-Out & Maturity: Evaluate the existing compliance program, identify gaps in adoption and execution, and scale it into a program that is well-used, well-understood, and embedded across the business. This includes evaluating the risks associated with new geographic areas, and enhancing the existing program to account for those findings.

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SOP Development: Write clear, actionable Standard Operating Procedures that translate policy into repeatable, auditable day-to-day practice.

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Product & Ops Partnership on New Business Lines: Partner with Product and Operations to identify compliance requirements for new initiatives before they launch.

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Day-to-Day Compliance Operations: Own and manage the organization's daily compliance activities, ensuring consistent application of policies, procedures, and regulatory requirements.

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Transaction Monitoring & Alert Disposition: Review, investigate, and disposition alerts generated by the transaction monitoring system (built and maintained by the Risk team), ensuring timely and well-documented decisions.

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Cross-Functional Partnership with Risk: Work closely and collaboratively with the Risk, Compliance, Product and Operations teams to align on system design, alert logic, thresholds, and escalation processes.

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Complaints Management: Support the handling of complaints filed with regulatory bodies, ensuring timely, accurate, and well-documented responses.

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Sales & Customer Onboarding Support: Partner with the Sales team on customer onboarding to ensure new relationships meet compliance and risk standards from day one.

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Law Enforcement Requests: Support law enforcement inquiries and requests, ensuring appropriate handling, documentation, and legal coordination.

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Investigations & SAR Filing: Lead internal investigations into suspicious activity and prepare and file Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) in accordance with regulatory requirements.

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Team Development: Train, mentor, and develop current