Risk & Payment Operations Associate

Job description

RISK & PAYMENT OPERATIONS ASSOCIATE ABOUT SLASH Slash is reimagining the future of business banking, helping companies prepare their financial workflows for the fundamental shifts driven by technologies like AI and crypto. We’re building an elevated financial OS that combines the reliability of traditional banking—high yields, competitive rewards, and uncompromising security—with future-proof capabilities like stablecoins, tailored financial software, and agentic finance. Our core tenet is a relentless focus on our customers. We serve a wide spectrum of businesses: resourceful internet entrepreneurs, traditional SMB owners, and ambitious founders building at the bleeding edge of technology. We move quickly on customer feedback—building scalable, generalizable products as well as industry-specific software that strengthens our moat within each vertical we serve. Founded in 2021, Slash is one of the fastest-growing fintech companies in the world. We power over $10B in annual transactions across a diverse range of industries. To date, we’ve raised over $60M in venture funding from leading investors including Goodwater Capital, Menlo Ventures, NEA, and Y Combinator. Our team is deeply experienced yet dynamic, bringing together leaders from fintech companies like Cash App, Mercury, and Finix, alongside self-starters who have built and exited seven- and eight-figure businesses from their dorm rooms. Slash is headquartered in San Francisco, California. ABOUT THE ROLE As a Risk & Payment Operations Associate, you will help ensure that money moves through Slash safely, accurately, and efficiently. You will own the day-to-day investigation and resolution of payment reviews and operational exceptions across payment methods such as ACH, wires, RTP, cards, checks, and emerging global or stablecoin payment rails. This includes reviewing unusual or higher-risk activity, gathering information from customers, responding to inquiries from financial partners, and determining the appropriate path forward in partnership with Slash’s Compliance and Operations teams. This is not a purely queue-based operations role. You will be expected to develop strong judgment, recognize patterns across customer and transaction activity, and turn recurring operational problems into better processes, tooling, and controls. You will work closely with Compliance, Customer Success, Product, Engineering, and our external financial partners to protect Slash and its customers without creating unnecessary friction. We believe exceptional operations are built through close collaboration. WHAT YOU’LL DO - Investigate payment reviews, processing exceptions, and unusual transaction activity across ACH, wires, RTP, cards, checks, and other supported payment rails - Manage requests for information from financial partners from intake through resolution, including reviewing account activity, gathering customer documentation, and preparing clear and complete responses - Communicate directly with customers regarding payment delays, documentation requests, transaction reviews, returns, recalls, disputes, and account restrictions - Review the stated purpose of transactions, customer and counterparty relationships, supporting documentation, and broader account activity to identify inconsistencies or potential risk - Make timely, well-reasoned recommendations on whether transactions should be released, returned, escalated, or subjected to additional review - Coordinate payment recalls, returns, rejected transactions, beneficiary issues, and other time-sensitive payment events with customers and financial partners - Escalate potential fraud, money laundering, sanctions, account misuse, or other compliance concerns to the appropriate internal stakeholders - Maintain accurate and defensible case records documenting the information reviewed, analysis performed, and basis for each decision - Monitor operational queues and service levels, prioritize urgent or high-impact cases, and ensure issues do not fall through the cracks - Identify recurring failure points, customer-friction patterns, and control gaps, then work with Product and Engineering to improve internal tooling and automate manual workflows - Develop and maintain procedures, investigation templates, escalation standards, and operational playbooks as Slash introduces new products and payment capabilities - Analyze operational and risk trends and communicate actionable insights to Compliance, Product, Engineering, and company leadership - Help launch and operationalize new payment rails, products, and financial-partner relationships by translating requirements into scalable workflows and controls REQUIREMENTS - 2+ years of experience in payment operations, risk operations, fraud investigations, compliance operations, banking operations, or a related role at a fintech, bank, payments company, or other financial institution - Working knowledge of payment systems and transaction lifecycles, including familiarity with ACH, domestic and international wires, RTP, cards, or comparable payment rails - Strong investigative judgment and the ability to evaluate customer explanations, transaction patterns, counterparties, and supporting documentation in context - Excellent written communication skills, including the ability to summarize complex investigations clearly and communicate sensitive decisions professionally - Strong organizational skills and exceptional attention to detail, particularly when managing multiple time-sensitive cases - Comfort making decisions with incomplete information and knowing when additional diligence or escalation is necessary - Ability to balance customer experience, operational urgency, fraud exposure, and compliance requirements - Exceptionally high agency: you identify what needs to be done and execute without waiting for detailed direction - Ability to collaborate effectively with Compliance, Customer Success, Product, Engineering, and external financial partners - Interest in using technology and AI to improve investigations, reduce manual work, and build scalable operational systems NICE-TO-HAVES - Experience managing payment RFIs, recalls, returns, disputes, transaction holds, or other payment exceptions - Familiarity with BSA/AML, sanctions, fraud, and transaction-monitoring concepts - Knowledge of NACHA rules, wire-payment operations, card-network processes, or real-time payment systems - Experience investigating business customers, complex funds flows, cross-border payments, crypto-related activity, or stablecoin transactions - Experience working directly with sponsor banks, payment processors, card networks, or other regulated financial partners - Experience writing standard operating procedures, escalation frameworks, or investigation playbooks - Familiarity with SQL, spreadsheets, dashboards, or other analytical tools used to identify transaction and operational trends - Experience working with case-management, customer-support, transaction-monitoring, or identity-verification tools - Experience in a fast-paced startup environment where processes and responsibilities evolve quickly WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE - Payment reviews and partner inquiries are resolved accurately, clearly, and within established service levels - Customers receive timely and professional communication, even when the underlying decision is difficult - Escalations are supported by concise analysis, complete documentation, and a clear recommendation - Recurring issues are converted into durable processes, better controls, or product improvements - Slash can launch and scale new payment capabilities without operational quality or risk management becoming a bottleneck WHAT’S IN IT FOR YOU - Best-in-class health, vision, and dental coverage - Unlimited and flexible PTO - In-office perks, including lunch, dinner, and transportation - High-autonomy, ownership-driven culture - Competitive compensation and equity package