Director of Financial Crimes, Alpaca
AML
+ stock options
API for stock and crypto trading
Open for applications
API for stock and crypto trading
201-500 employees
Open for applications
+ stock options
201-500 employees
Company mission
To unlock asset management for the people by modularising the world’s asset management activities.
Role
Who you are
- 4–6 years of relevant experience in financial crimes compliance, BSA/AML, or related areas, ideally with exposure to crypto, fintech, or high-growth startups
- Demonstrated ability to work independently on complex, cross-functional projects with minimal supervision
- Experience with resolving alerts, creating and refining processes, transaction monitoring systems, alert review, and SAR drafting
- A strong understanding of U.S. AML and sanctions laws and regulatory expectations, with the ability to apply them in a fast-moving crypto context
- A “builder” mindset—comfortable operating an evolving playbook, setting priorities, and adapting as you go
- Clear, concise communication skills and a track record of translating risk into actionable business decisions
- CAMS, CFE, or other relevant certification
- Familiarity with blockchain analytics tools (e.g., Chainalysis, TRM Labs)
- Experience preparing for regulatory exams or responding to inquiries
- Exposure to global compliance frameworks
What the job involves
- We’re hiring a Director of Financial Crimes to take ownership of our financial crimes program from the ground up. This is a highly hands-on role, ideal for someone who’s ready to roll up their sleeves, build systems, and lead key initiatives independently in a fast-paced crypto environment
- At this stage, you won’t inherit a team—you’ll build one. In the near term, your focus will be on developing and executing the core processes around transaction monitoring, alert clearing, investigations, and SAR filing. Over time, you’ll play a strategic role in hiring and scaling a high-performing Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) to support our growing platform
- We’re looking for a self-starter who understands both the regulatory expectations and operational realities of financial crimes risk in crypto—and is excited to be both the architect and the executor of this critical function
- Own the end-to-end financial crimes operations, including transaction monitoring, alert clearing, case investigations, and SAR filings
- Design and implement workflows and procedures for identifying, investigating, and escalating suspicious activity
- Identify gaps and inefficiencies in existing tools and processes, and work cross-functionally to improve them
- Collaborate with engineering, product, and legal teams to ensure compliance controls are built into new systems and features from the start
- Act as the primary subject matter expert on financial crimes risks, providing guidance and insight across the business
- Lay the groundwork for a scalable FIU, including developing playbooks, success metrics, and long-term resourcing plans
- Stay ahead of regulatory developments in the crypto space and adjust internal practices accordingly
Our take
Alpaca offers a developer-first API for stock trading. It enables companies to offer short-stock trading both worldwide and competitively commission-free across various programming languages. Within one year of launch Alpaca facilitated over $1 billion in transactions.
This is impressive, but not surprising. Fintech apps that facilitate stock trading on a level previously inaccessible to retail investors are on the rise. Alpaca puts this software within reach of companies who may previously have lacked the ability or the tech to do so. However, competition is growing, both from existing competitors like Interactive Brokers and Robinhood and robustly funded startups like Galileo and DriveWealth.
Alpaca now has the funding, including a round of convertible debt financing, available to scale its offering to larger businesses, and is looking further afield to work with international customers to earn income from foreign exchange fees. Whilst competition is strong in stock-trading APIs, casting their net wide could win Alpaca a head start.
Freddie
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
Company
Funding (last 2 of 9 rounds)
Apr 2025
$52m
SERIES C
Oct 2023
$15m
CONVERTIBLE
Total funding: $138.9m
Company benefits
- Competitive Salary & Stock Options
- Benefits: Health benefits start on day 1. In the US this includes Medical, Dental, Vision. In Canada, this includes supplemental health care. Internationally, this includes a stipend value to offset medical costs
- New Hire Home-Office Setup: One-time USD $500
- Monthly Stipend: USD $150 per month via a Brex Card
- Work with awesome people, clients and partners from around the world
Company HQ
Downtown, San Mateo, CA
Leadership
Hitoshi Harada
(CPO)Former Database Kernel Architect at pivotal Inc and contributor at PostgreSQL Global development Group. Graduated from Keio University.
Yoshi Yokokawa
(CEO)Co-founder of Ikkyo Technology and former Forex Trader. Former Vice-President at Nomura.
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