Chief Audit Officer

Overview

Mercury aims to provide a magical banking and financial workflow experience for its customers while maintaining rigorous internal audit practices. The Chief Audit Officer will lead the company's independent assurance program, serving as a strategic partner to the Board and Audit Committee.

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 that dive deep into our business, automated movement of funds, and cloud infrastructure to ensure data integrity and security.
• 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

• Proven track record in leading internal audit functions in high-growth banking or financial services environments.
• Experience in navigating complex regulatory landscapes and communicating effectively with stakeholders.
• Strong technical acumen, particularly in cloud-native and remote-first environments.
• Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal, with the ability to convey complex audit concepts to non-audit professionals.
• Ability to balance risk management with organizational agility and innovation.
• Leadership experience in developing and mentoring a team of auditors.

Benefits

• Competitive total rewards package including base salary, equity, and benefits.
• Regular updates to salary and equity ranges based on industry survey data.
• Flexible work arrangements to accommodate remote-first and cloud-native environments.
• Opportunities for professional development and advancement within a dynamic and innovative organization.

Pay

• 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 with flexible working hours to accommodate remote-first and cloud-native environments.