About this role
Mercury is revolutionizing finance for startups by building a complete, user-friendly banking* stack. We prioritize creating a secure and seamless experience for entrepreneurs while upholding the highest standards of compliance and safety.
In this role, you will own the day-to-day operation of Mercury's Operational Risk program. You will report to the Head of Operational Risk, within the Risk organization under the Chief Risk Officer, and partner closely with first-line risk teams, Compliance, Third-Party Risk, Information Security, and Internal Audit.
You will run the centralized issues and events program, coordinate risk and control assessments with first line teams, and drive reporting that give leadership and the Board a clear view of operational risk. This is a builder role. Much of the program is being stood up now, and you will have the autonomy to shape how it operates as Mercury prepares to operate as a bank.
*Mercury is a fintech company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided through Choice Financial Group and Column N.A., Members FDIC.
As part of the journey, we would expect you to:
• Run joint risk and control assessments with business units, assessing inherent risk and control design.
• Provide second-line review of new products and material changes, including inherent risk rating, control framework review, and post-launch assessment.
• Refine enterprise KRIs and thresholds tied to risk appetite, and turn first-line metrics into management and Board reporting.
• Oversee the operational event and issues programs. Challenge first-line root cause, ratings and remediation, and trend events and issues across the enterprise.
• Partner with 1LOD teams, InfoSec, Compliance and model risk owners to collect reporting inputs, challenge assessments and make sure risks are raised early.
• Provide second-line review and concurrence on high-risk new activities.
• Write and maintain the ORM standards, procedures and templates that first-line teams execute against.
• Support regulatory examinations, audits, and charter readiness reviews
There are lots of paths that could lead you to be successful in a role like this; we think the strongest candidates will have some of this experience:
• 8+ years in operational risk, compliance, or internal audit at a bank or a fintech partnered with a bank
• Hands-on experience running risk and control assessments, new product or change risk reviews, or operational event programs, and comfortable moving across all three.
• Experience administering a GRC platform (LogicGate, Archer, or similar), including workflow configuration and reporting
• Strong data skills: you turn raw issue and event data into trends leadership can act on
• Familiarity with interagency and OCC expectations for operational risk management
• You challenge constructively, with evidence, and keep strong relationships with the teams you oversee
• You find, prioritize, and execute key projects indepen