Partner Diligence

About Column

For companies building financial technology and transforming the financial services space, the biggest bottleneck to their growth and innovation is often the underlying banks and infrastructure stack they rely on. We have spent our careers founding and scaling companies like Plaid, Square, SoFi, Blend, and Affirm, and have seen this problem firsthand — builders and developers needing to partner with traditional banks, and creating API and abstraction layers over the patchwork that is the bank, its core, and many other vendors. All of this results in a complex (and often expensive) banking supply chain involving a user, fintech, BaaS middleware provider, bank, core and the Federal Reserve.

At Column, we set out to simplify and fix this. We are a bank and a software company built from the ground up, offering builders and developers technology-forward banking solutions that cut out the hundreds of vendors, middleware providers, and abstraction layers. This means a safer, more transparent, and less costly banking supply chain. Come build with us!

The opportunity

The Partner Diligence team leverages deep regulatory compliance expertise to manage the diligence, risk assessment, control review, approval, and onboarding of Column’s fintech partners.  The regulatory landscape for fintech-banking partnerships is evolving daily, and Column is committed to exceeding regulatory expectations when it comes to partner onboarding. As such, we’re looking for someone who not only has a deep command of federal and state financial regulations, but also understands how to identify, assess, and mitigate the compliance risks posed by both consumer and commercial partnerships.  Implementation of a best-in-class Third-Party Risk Management program is critical to the success of Column’s business model and growth of its partnership business, and the individual in this Partner Diligence role will have an opportunity to meaningfully influence the Bank’s strategic direction, growth, safety & soundness, and success.

This position will report to the Bank’s General Counsel, our Chief Risk Officer. This role can be in-person in our Presidio-based office in San Francisco, or remote with frequent travel to San Francisco.

What you’ll do

• Partner closely with the business, finance, other risk leads, legal, compliance, and regulatory affairs in the ongoing execution of the Third-Party Risk Management Framework

• End-to-end ownership for the risk management of third-party partner onboarding, including risk identification, due diligence, risk assessment, and control review

• Extensive diligence and review of a prospective partner’s policies, procedures, customer agreements, TOS, audit reports, marketing materials, and disclosures  The diligence process will include working closely with clients’/partners’ compliance teams to understand, evaluate, assess, and document their internal compliance controls

• Advise on applicable compliance risks and related severity, appropriate internal controls, risk and issue identification, root cause analysis and remediation, and risk reporting and escalation

• Develop corrective actions, where required, to ensure timely remediation by prospective partners of any open issues before launch

• Develop compliance requirements and ongoing monitoring and reporting standards for Column’s oversight of each partner once live

• Assess third-party risks in the context of the applicable risk appetite and related limits and thresholds

• Play a key role in an effective governance program, including appropriate Third-Party Risk related committees, policies, procedures, and reporting

What you’ll need to be successful

• 10+ years of regulatory compliance experience in regulated financial services, including experience evaluating compliance programs

• Familiarity with the fintech-banking partnership model, and key risks and risk mitigation strategies relevant to the partnership model

• Willingness to roll up your sleeves and do the legwork one day, and set strategy the next. You are scrappy, strategic, humble, and have a deep level of subject-matter expertise and intellectual rigor

• Deep understanding of commercial banking products, relevant requirements, and product-specific risks (e.g.,  lending, deposits, cross-border payments, etc.)

• Fluency with key regulations, including those addressing Fair Lending, Privacy, Funds Availability, Truth in Lending, Electronic Funds Transfers, NACHA, E-Sign, UDAAP, and Prepaid Access

• Experience presenting to senior management, the Board, and with regulators

• Strong communication skills, both verbal and written

• Basic familiarity with BSA/AML and OFAC requirements preferred

What you’ll get from us

• 🏥 Comprehensive health, dental, and vision plans, including options that are 100% covered by Column for you and 50% covered for your dependents

• 💳 FSA and HSA account options to enable use of pre-tax money for medical and dependent care expenses

• 📈 401k plan, including self-directed brokerage options

• 🌴 Flexible time-off policy - take the time off that you want and need to relax and recharge

• 👶 100% paid parental leave, including 16 weeks for birth mothers, 12 weeks for primary caregivers, and 8 weeks for secondary caregivers

• 🍽️ Catered lunches and dinners for SF employees

• 🚆 Commuter benefits

• 🎉 Regular team building events, including annual offsite

Pay transparency:

The annual base salary range for this position is $160,000 - $250,000, exclusive of equity compensation and benefits.

The range provided may be inclusive of several career levels at Column, and will be narrowed during the interview process based on a number of factors including, but not limited to, the candidate’s skill sets, experience, licensure and certifications, location, and other business and organizational needs.

We look forward to hearing from you

Column is committed to working with the best and brightest people from the broadest talent pool possible. We value bringing together a team with different perspectives, educational backgrounds, and life experiences, and believe a diversity of ideas is what allows us to develop the best solutions. All qualified individuals are encouraged to apply.

If you need assistance or a reasonable accommodation during the application and recruiting process, please reach out to accommodations@column.com.

We participate in the E-Verify program in certain locations as required by law. Learn more about the E-Verify program here.