Chief Risk Officer

Mercury•Portland, OR

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—risk management is a key part of keeping Mercury safe, resilient, and worthy of our customers’ trust. As Mercury’s first Chief Risk Officer, you’ll set the vision for risk at Mercury. You’ll build and lead the program that measures, monitors, and manages credit, market, financial, and operational risks across the company. You’ll partner with our Board and Risk Committee to define Mercury’s risk culture, appetite, and limits—and make sure the way we operate every day stays aligned with those standards. 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 risk management — you’ve built or scaled enterprise risk programs in banking or financial services, ideally at the intersection of traditional finance and fintech innovation.
Have breadth and depth across risk disciplines — from credit and market risks to liquidity and operations, you can see the connections between them and design frameworks that work in practice, not just on paper.
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.
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 risk management as a way to unlock innovation, not just prevent downside.
Lead with curiosity and vision — you’re ambitious about where risk management 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

Set the vision for risk at Mercury — define and lead our enterprise-wide risk strategy and framework.
Safeguard our platform — ensure customer data and technology assets are protected, with clear and regular communication to the Board.
Look around corners — identify emerging risks, especially those tied to new products, services, and markets, and help teams navigate them.
Keep us aligned — make sure our strategies and operations stay in step with laws, regulations, and regulatory expectations.
Build systems that scale — design and implement processes to consistently identify, assess, measure, monitor, and report risks across the company.
Translate complexity into clarity — partner with business leaders to turn risk topics into actionable insights that guide smart decisions.
Strengthen accountability — support our audit programs, ensure findings are addressed, and embed improvements into how we work.
Represent risk at the highest level — serve as the primary point of communication on risk with the Mercury Board and its Risk Committee.