Chief Audit Officer

Mercury•Portland, OR

9d•$247,900 - $344,200

About The Position

Arthur C. Clarke famously said that “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” At Mercury, we aim to deliver a magical experience to our customers who rely on us for their banking and financial workflows. But behind the magic lies a lot of rigor—internal audit is a key part of keeping Mercury safe, resilient, and worthy of our customers’ trust. As Mercury’s first Chief Audit Officer, you’ll establish and lead the company’s independent assurance program that allows us to scale with confidence. You will serve as a strategic partner to the Board and Audit Committee, providing an objective, enterprise-wide view of our financial, operational, and technical resilience. This role is about finding the right balance between high-velocity innovation and the rigorous expectations of our partner banks and regulators. By moving beyond manual checklists and toward data-driven, continuous monitoring, you will ensure our growth is anchored in integrity. You’ll drive a culture of audit readiness where excellence is the baseline and regulatory exams result in no surprises. Mercury is a fintech company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided through Choice Financial Group and Column N.A., Members FDIC.

Requirements

Bring proven leadership in audit — you’ve built or scaled internal audit functions within high-growth banking or financial services, ideally at the intersection of traditional finance and fintech innovation.
Have technical fluency — you are comfortable in a cloud-native, remote-first environment. You can discuss API integrity and automated controls as easily as you can discuss balance sheets and reconciliations.
Navigate the regulatory landscape with confidence — you know what regulators expect, you’re comfortable engaging directly with them, and you can help Mercury anticipate and adapt to a changing environment.
Maintain strong and effective independence — you have the fortitude to deliver difficult news and the diplomacy to ensure those insights lead to positive change.
Communicate clearly and simply — whether you’re talking to the Board, regulators, engineers, or product teams, you cut through jargon and make risk concepts understandable and actionable.
Balance protection with possibility — you know how to safeguard the company without slowing it down, and you see the audit function as a way to unlock and safeguard innovation, not stop it.
Lead with curiosity and vision — you’re ambitious about where audit can go in a modern fintech, and you bring the curiosity to explore new ideas, new markets, and new ways of serving customers safely.
Inspire and develop others — you build strong teams, mentor future leaders, and foster a culture of accountability, transparency, and trust across the company.

Responsibilities

Define the Audit Vision — establish and lead a risk-based internal audit strategy.
Provide Independent Assurance — deliver objective evaluations to the Board and Audit Committee(s) on the effectiveness of our risk management, internal controls, and governance.
Audit the Stack — oversee technical and operational audits that dive deep into our business, automated movement of funds, and cloud infrastructure to ensure data integrity and security.
Validate the "Magic" — ensure our product workflows and financial controls are operating exactly as intended, identifying potential friction before it impacts the customer.
Bridge the Regulatory Gap — act as a key point of contact for our partner banks and regulators, providing them with the confidence that Mercury’s internal oversight is rigorous and proactive.
Automate Oversight — design and implement continuous monitoring systems that replace manual checklists with real-time, data-driven audit insights.
Drive Meaningful Remediation — partner with Engineering, Product, and Risk leads to ensure audit findings result in structural improvements, not just temporary fixes.