Senior Associate - Audit, Compliance and Operational Risk

The Voleon Group•Berkeley, CA

2d•$130,000 - $150,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Voleon is a technology company that applies state-of-the-art AI and machine learning techniques to real-world problems in finance. For nearly two decades, we have led our industry and worked at the frontier of applying AI/ML to investment management. We have become a multibillion-dollar asset manager, and we have ambitious goals for the future. Your colleagues will include internationally recognized experts in artificial intelligence and machine learning research as well as highly experienced finance and technology professionals. The people who shape our company come from other backgrounds, including concert music performances, humanitarian aid, opera singing, sports writing, and BMX racing. You will be part of a team that loves to succeed together. In addition to our enriching and collegial working environment, we offer highly competitive compensation and benefits packages, technology talks by our experts, a beautiful modern office, daily catered lunches, and more. As a Senior Associate – Audit, Compliance & Operational Risk, you will help build and operationalize governance, risk, and compliance within the Legal and Compliance organization, reporting directly to the Operational Risk and Audit Manager. Distinct from the firm’s Information and Technology GRC function, this role will focus on strengthening the audit, risk, and compliance program through control assessments, risk assessments, policy development, remediation, and practical improvements to processes and controls. Sitting at the intersection of operational risk, compliance, and audit, you will partner closely with business, operational, and compliance stakeholders and help translate governance, risk, and controls into clear business language for leadership, auditors, and investors. This is not a checkbox compliance role; it requires genuine audit, risk, or compliance expertise and the ability to understand how systems and processes actually work. You will also help strengthen the Legal and Compliance organization’s three-lines-of-defense model, serving as a key interface across Compliance, Operational Risk, Internal Audit, and Legal. As part of the Compliance department, you will have broad exposure to the firm’s trading, operations, and research groups, navigate issues related to the firm’s investment products in a fast-paced, evolving regulatory environment, and help develop policies and procedures to manage and mitigate regulatory requirements. This role is hybrid, with an expectation of working in our Berkeley office at least three days per week.

Requirements

2-5+ years of experience in audit, risk, or compliance with meaningful GRC depth — not pure audit/compliance
Demonstrated ability to write policies grounded in technical reality — you understand how process, risk and controls work, not just what controls should exist on paper
Experience working with or maturing a governance, risk and compliance program: risk registers, risk assessments, control mapping, remediation tracking
Familiarity with risk assessment methodologies (COSO, or equivalent)
Experience interfacing with operational risk, internal audit, legal, and compliance functions — comfortable navigating multi-stakeholder governance relationships
Strong understanding of compliance and operational processes and controls
Excellent written and verbal communication — policies, risk narratives, and executive summaries are primary deliverables
Experience with vendor risk management and third-party due diligence questionnaires
Self-directed and autonomous — this is a individual contributor role to start; you will prioritize and execute without a team

Nice To Haves

Experience creating investor-facing or board-level security materials is a plus
Experience with compliance frameworks (SOC 1, COSO and/or Rule 206 (4) - 7 or equivalent) and the practical work of achieving or maintaining compliance
Background in financial services, hedge funds, or regulated environments with investor due diligence requirements
Familiarity with automated compliance platforms
Experience with operational risk
Experience working in a quasi-academic, engineering-heavy culture where credibility is earned through demonstrated expertise, not authority

Responsibilities

Contribute to the risk universe, program and plan;
Contribute to foundation of governance, risk and controls by completing risk reviews, documenting process, and key controls for selected areas;
Assisting with raising and tracking of gaps and enhancements, identifying owners, developing actions plans, tracking remediation and closure.
Document risk processes, procedures, and operational workflows — build the institutional knowledge base
Contribute to the internal audit charter, audit universe, and multi-year risk-based plan;
Plan and execute scoped audits with oversight: scoping, walkthroughs, control design assessment, testing, reporting, and remediation follow-up.
Assisting with raising and tracking of gaps and enhancements, identifying owners, developing actions plans, tracking remediation and closure.
Independently managing the SOC project including: coordination with audit teams, document requests facilitation, review and preparation of audit materials to support SOC efforts, own the SOC check-ins and updates
Document audit processes, procedures, and operational workflows — build the institutional knowledge base
Assisting with developing compliance policy lifecycle: creation, review, updates, and enforcement across the organization
Assist with compliance tasks and ad hoc projects as needed such as day-to-day adminstration of the Compliance Program, compliance training, ad hoc compliance requests and reviews
Assist with compliance follow up remediation efforts and tracking
Document compliance processes, procedures, and operational workflows — build the institutional knowledge base