Program Manager, Sanctions Compliance

Remitly•Arlington, VA

1d•$136,000 - $170,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Remitly is seeking a Program Manager, Sanctions Compliance to serve as a subject matter and program expert within the Sanctions Compliance Program, exercising a high degree of independent regulatory judgment on the program's most complex and consequential matters. This role sits at the intersection of deep sanctions expertise, complex project execution, and cross-functional influence — owning a number of workstreams across the program's preventive and detective, and corrective workstreams. The person will work closely with Legal, Product Compliance, Identity & Trust, regional compliance leads, and Operations, and their work will regularly inform materials reviewed by senior leadership, banking partners, and regulators.

Requirements

4-6 years in sanctions compliance at a financial institution, MSB, regulatory body, or consulting firm, with recognized mastery of OFAC's sanctions programs.
Knowledge of global sanctions regimes across main markets in EMEA and APAC.
Demonstrated ability to independently issue well-reasoned, documented dispositions on novel or time-sensitive fact patterns without direct supervision.
Proven track record leading complex, cross-functional remediation from inception to closure against tight deadlines.
Executive-caliber written communication: control language, policy documents, regulatory analyses, and board or regulator-ready materials.
Experience with controls testing, internal audit, or regulatory examiners, including evidence production and remediation planning.
Proficiency with project tracking tools and multi-workstream governance infrastructure.

Nice To Haves

CAMS or CGSS certification
Experience translating compliance requirements into technical control specs with engineering or product teams.

Responsibilities

Act as a subject matter authority and primary escalation point for sanctions queries across Remitly's global teams, resolving matters requiring expert-level regulatory interpretation.
Translate program strategy into structured workplans with defined milestones and owners, driving them to completion and proactively surfacing risks to delivery.
Prepare executive-facing briefing materials enabling the program's status and risk posture to be represented to senior leadership, the board, banking partners, and regulators with precision.
Stand in credibly for the Global Head of Sanctions in working-level meetings.
Own execution of corrective actions from regulatory inquiries, audits, and self-identified gaps, building structured remediation plans and tracking them to closure.
Lead complex, time-sensitive remediation projects, maintaining clear audit trails of methodology and disposition.
Maintain the sanctions issues register, ensuring precise remediation language, realistic due dates, and prompt escalation of aging items.
Serve as primary program liaison to Remitly's Controls Testing and Internal Audit functions, owning evidence collection and continuous exam-readiness.
Track findings through to closure, translating management action plans into executable remediation steps.
Identify patterns across findings and proactively brief the Global Head of Sanctions on systemic, program-level gaps.
Serve as the first and primary compliance point of contact for escalated alerts, independently issuing well-reasoned, documented dispositions against OFAC, UN, EU, UK, and other applicable lists.
Own the sanctions policy lifecycle — annual reviews and ad hoc updates — ensuring language is current and meets regulatory expectations.
Provide policy requirements for Operations SOPs and approve completed SOPs for alignment with policy intent.
Review and approve sanctions training content, and lead the company-wide training refresh with Learning & Development.
Draft and own sanctions control intake requests, translating regulatory requirements into technically actionable specifications.
Identify sanctions control requirements from new products, corridor expansions, and regulatory developments with regional compliance leads and Product Compliance.
Maintain the sanctions controls library spanning screening, alert management, payout governance, policy, and training, mapped to specific regulatory authorities.
Lead execution of the annual Sanctions RCSA under the Global Head of Sanctions.
Manage KPIs/KRIs reflecting program performance, screening effectiveness, and remediation progress.
Produce recurring governance reporting for MBR, board-level deliverables, and banking partner communications on consistent reporting calendars.
Monitor developments across OFAC, OFSI, UN, EU, and relevant corridor jurisdictions, producing timely intelligence briefings.
Independently assess implications of new regulations, general licenses, and enforcement actions for Remitly's screening architecture and controls.
Serve as the go-to internal resource on sanctions matters, grounding guidance in regulatory text and enforcement precedent.