Government Relations & Compliance Lead

Middesk•San Francisco, CA

About The Position

Middesk makes it easier for businesses to work together. Since 2018, we’ve been transforming business identity verification, replacing slow, manual processes with seamless access to complete, up-to-date data. Our platform helps companies across industries confidently verify business identities, onboard customers faster, and reduce risk at every stage of the customer lifecycle. Middesk came out of Y Combinator, is backed by Sequoia Capital and Accel Partners, and was recently named to Forbes Fintech 50 List and cited as an industry leader in business verification by digital identity strategy firm, Liminal. As the founding member of our compliance function, you will help ensure we can continue to deliver on the second part of that mission as we scale. This role will be responsible for building and maintaining relationships with state and local government agencies that Middesk relies on to operate its Entity products. You will report into the Legal team, but this role is highly cross-functional. You should expect to collaborate closely with Legal, Entity Operations, Product Partnerships, Product Ops, and, at times, external consultants as you build this function from the ground up. This is a senior IC role with significant ownership and autonomy. Over time, the role may evolve to include player/coach responsibilities as the function grows, but it will not be a pure people management role.

Requirements

Prior experience working in one or more of the following areas: compliance, government, government relations, government sales, or public policy.
A strong individual contributor who can operate independently and be trusted to represent Middesk externally with professionalism and sound judgment.
Comfort acting as a player and, over time, a player/coach (this role may eventually involve managing a small team, but hands-on execution will always be core to the job).
Excellent relationship-building skills across phone, email, video, and in-person interactions.
A confident negotiator who is not phased by conflict and can work toward pragmatic, win-win outcomes.
Clear and effective communicator who can explain complex topics in simple, actionable terms.
Highly organized and process-oriented, with a bias toward building systems that scale.
Energized by ambiguous, early-stage problems and excited to take things from zero to one.
Willing and able to travel to state capitals, especially in the early stages before this function is fully built out.

Responsibilities

Build and maintain sustainable relationships with state and local government agencies that:
Ensure Middesk customers receive maximum value from our products
Provide reliable points of contact within agencies we depend on
Lay the groundwork for potential future opportunities to sell solutions to state agencies
Develop strategies, playbooks, and repeatable processes that allow Middesk to engage with government agencies consistently and effectively across states.
Partner closely with the Entity Operations team to:
Address time-sensitive issues with state Departments of Labor and/or Revenue
Create talk tracks, scripts, and guidance that Ops teams can use when interacting with state agencies
Help determine strategic prioritization for which states and agencies to engage, in collaboration with Ops, Product, and Sales
Collaborate with Product Partnerships and Product Ops to strengthen relationships with Secretaries of State and improve Middesk’s data acquisition efforts.
Stay up to date on a focused set of compliance, legal, and regulatory considerations related to how Middesk delivers its Entity products, translating that context into practical guidance for internal teams.