Chief Audit Officer

Overview

Mercury is a fintech company that aims to provide a magical experience to its customers through banking and financial workflows. Internal audit plays a crucial role in maintaining the company's safety, resilience, and trustworthiness.

About the Role

You will lead Mercury’s independent assurance program, serving as a strategic partner to the Board and Audit Committee. Your responsibilities include evolving the risk-based internal audit strategy, delivering objective evaluations, ensuring audit coverage, validating product workflows, navigating the regulatory landscape, automating oversight, and championing sustainable remediation.

Responsibilities

• Own the Audit Vision — evolve the risk-based internal audit strategy and ensure alignment with the company’s growth, regulatory expectations, and emerging risks.
• Provide Independent Assurance — deliver objective evaluations to the Board and Audit Committee(s) on the effectiveness of our risk management, internal controls, and governance.
• Ensure we Audit the Stack — own the audit universe; ensuring completeness of Audit coverage across Mercury. Oversee the audit program to ensure the plan includes the appropriate mix of technical and operational audits.
• Validate the "Magic" — ensure our audit program includes timely validation that new and existing 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.
• Champion Sustainable Remediation — serve as the senior escalation point to partner with Engineering, Product, and Risk leads to ensure audit findings result in structural improvements, not just temporary fixes and that remediations are appropriately prioritized within the roadmaps, in line with risk.

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.

Qualifications

• Experience leading internal audit functions in high-growth banking or financial services, preferably at the intersection of traditional finance and fintech innovation.
• Technical fluency in cloud-native environments and the ability to discuss API integrity and automated controls.
• Strong understanding of regulatory requirements and the ability to navigate the regulatory landscape effectively.
• Proven track record of maintaining strong and effective independence in delivering difficult but necessary audits.
• Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal, to articulate complex audit concepts to various stakeholders.
• Able to balance the need for robust internal controls with the need for innovation and growth.
• Ability to inspire and develop a team, fostering a culture of accountability, transparency, and trust.

Skills

• Leadership in audit
• Technical fluency
• Regulatory knowledge
• Independence in delivering audits
• Clear communication
• Balance protection with possibility
• Curiosity and vision
• Team development

Benefits

• Competitive salary range based on location and experience
• Equity compensation
• Comprehensive benefits package

Pay

• New hire offers are made based on a candidate’s experience, expertise, geographic location, and internal pay equity relative to peers.
• Target new hire base salary ranges for this role are:
• US employees in New York City, Los Angeles, Seattle, or the San Francisco Bay Area: $275,400 - $361,400
• US employees outside of the New York City, Los Angeles, Seattle, or the San Francisco Bay Area: $247,900 - $325,250

Schedule

Full-time position.

Company Information

Mercury is a fintech company that provides banking and financial workflows to its customers. The company is committed to providing a magical experience while maintaining rigorous internal audit practices to ensure the safety, resilience, and trustworthiness of its operations. Mercury is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer and values diversity and belonging.