--- title: 'Head of Compliance Operations and Financial Crimes at Sphere Laboratories, Inc.' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/head-of-compliance-operations-and-financial-crimes-sphere-laboratories-inc-ap85se1m4n67' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-10-21' --- # Head of Compliance Operations and Financial Crimes at Sphere Laboratories, Inc. - **Company:** Sphere Laboratories, Inc. - **Location:** United States - **Compensation:** $180k–$220k - **Employment:** full-time - **Work type:** remote - **Posted:** 2026-08-25 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-21 - **Apply:** https://jobs.lever.co/sphere-laboratories/744c32fb-b7c2-4afe-a980-c8af0f11eaca ## Job description Sphere Labs The infrastructure moving the world's money today was built for another era: slow rails, walls between markets, and compliance layered in over time creating friction. Sphere Labs is building what comes next: modern, compliance-native infrastructure for cross-border payments and settlement, designed from the ground up to work for the businesses and regulated institutions it actually runs through. We work in active partnership with banks, licensed entities, and the regulators and jurisdictions shaping how global money moves, because the infrastructure that earns institutional trust has to be built alongside it. Backed by Coinbase, Kraken, The Chernin Group, Jump Trading, Hudson River Trading, and some of the world's largest sovereign affiliates, we're a fully remote, global team building at the moment stablecoins are crossing into mainstream finance and regulated institutions are ready for modern rails. We hire self-starters: strong communicators and systematic thinkers who can look at a blank page and build something real. If you want a meaningful role in how global money movement evolves, and the upside that comes with getting in early, we'd like to meet you. ## About the Role We are seeking an experienced Head of Compliance to build, mature, and lead our compliance program in a fast-paced, crypto-native environment. This role will partner closely with the product and engineering teams in order to automate the existing program into a scalable, highly embedded into the day-to-day operations of the business. This is a hands-on leadership role: the ideal candidate is a decisive operator who can write SOPs, work cross-functionally with Product and Ops to design guardrails for new business lines, manage a compliance program at scale (including nested onboarding flows with integrator/partner relationships), and mentor others  — all while combining deep AML/KYC/KYB expertise with a strong international regulatory background. ## Key Responsibilities - Program Build-Out & Maturity: Evaluate the existing compliance program, identify gaps in adoption and execution, and scale it into a program that is well-used, well-understood, and embedded across the business. This includes evaluating the risks associated with new geographic areas, and enhancing the existing program to account for those findings. - SOP Development: Write clear, actionable Standard Operating Procedures that translate policy into repeatable, auditable day-to-day practice. - Product & Ops Partnership on New Business Lines: Partner with Product and Operations to identify compliance requirements for new initiatives before they launch. - Day-to-Day Compliance Operations: Own and manage the organization's daily compliance activities, ensuring consistent application of policies, procedures, and regulatory requirements. - Transaction Monitoring & Alert Disposition: Review, investigate, and disposition alerts generated by the transaction monitoring system (built and maintained by the Risk team), ensuring timely and well-documented decisions. - Cross-Functional Partnership with Risk: Work closely and collaboratively with the Risk, Compliance, Product and Operations teams to align on system design, alert logic, thresholds, and escalation processes. - Complaints Management: Support the handling of complaints filed with regulatory bodies, ensuring timely, accurate, and well-documented responses. - Sales & Customer Onboarding Support: Partner with the Sales team on customer onboarding to ensure new relationships meet compliance and risk standards from day one. - Law Enforcement Requests: Support law enforcement inquiries and requests, ensuring appropriate handling, documentation, and legal coordination. - Investigations & SAR Filing: Lead internal investigations into suspicious activity and prepare and file Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) in accordance with regulatory requirements. - Team Development: Train, mentor, and develop current and future junior compliance team members, building a strong bench of compliance talent. ## Qualifications - Proven experience building or significantly maturing a compliance program from the ground up, ideally within crypto, fintech, or financial services. - Track record of meeting compliance SLAs and operating with strong, auditable rigor. - Experience managing a compliance program at scale, including nested/multi-layer onboarding flows involving integrator or partner relationships - Strong, hands-on knowledge of AML, KYC, and KYB frameworks and regulatory requirements. - Direct experience with transaction monitoring systems and alert disposition/investigation processes. - Demonstrated experience conducting investigations and filing SARs. - Crypto-native — deep familiarity with digital assets, blockchain transactions, and the unique compliance challenges of the crypto industry. - Highly decisive, with the judgment to make timely calls in ambiguous or high-stakes situations. - Ability to write clear, effective SOPs and translate policy into practice. - Excellent cross-functional collaboration skills, particularly with Risk, Product, Ops, and Sales teams. - Excellent judgment, attention to detail, and ability to operate independently in a fast-moving environment. Why Sphere? We sit at the intersection of crypto infrastructure and regulated finance — at the moment those worlds are finally converging. That means: The window is now: For the first time in decades, the backbone of cross-border payments is being rebuilt. Legacy systems are fading, stablecoins are entering institutional finance, and the next settlement layer is being shaped right now. We're building it alongside the institutions that will run it, not around them. High ownership, no playbook: This is early-stage work. You’ll be making decisions, building processes from scratch, and setting the direction instead of just following one. We’re looking for people who don’t wait for instructions, but jump in and figure things out. Adaptability is the job: Strategy pivots here aren't failures, they're how we stay ahead of a fast-moving market and that’s our strength. Real traction, real stakes: SpherePay is live and trusted by 200+ businesses. SphereNet is in active development with banks and regulators across 18 jurisdictions and counting. There’s real demand, real momentum, and a huge opportunity to shape what comes next. ## About Sphere Laboratories, Inc. ## Company Overview - **One-liner**: Sphere Laboratories, Inc. builds stablecoin-based payment infrastructure for cross-border B2B transactions, offering a platform and API suite called SpherePay and a regulated shared ledger called SphereNet. - **Entity Type**: Private (Seed & Strategic rounds; total $7.8M raised) - **Headquarters**: Wilmington, Delaware, United States (with an office in Boston, MA) - **Founded**: 2022 - **Founders**: Arnold Lee (Co-Founder & CEO) ## Core Business - Primary industry/industries: Financial Services, Fintech, Blockchain Infrastructure, Payments - Target customers: B2B — fintech companies, financial institutions, money transmitters, and businesses needing cross-border payment rails. - Mission or purpose statement: “Built to provide everyone a seat at the table of modern money movement” and “to open access to the future of money movement.” ## Products & Services - **SpherePay**: A B2B payments platform and API suite that enables fintechs and institutions to move value across borders quickly, transparently, and compliantly. Supports on/off-ramp flows, multi-chain stablecoin transfers, white-label embeds, and SDKs. It offers a developer toolkit, business dashboard, and private desk services for scaling global payouts across over 160 markets. - **SphereNet**: A unified, compliant, and privacy-preserving shared ledger built on a Solana Permissioned Environment for regulated global value transfers. Uses advanced cryptography, neutral governance, and built-in compliance controls. ## Market Standing - **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly disclosed for the latest rounds. (Caplight notes a Seed round in Feb 2024 and a Strategic round in Dec 2024 with undisclosed valuations.) - **Key Metric – Total Funding**: $7.8 million (Seed round of $2.8M led by TCG in Feb 2024; Strategic round of $5.0M led by Coinbase Ventures and Triton Capital in Dec 2024). - **Notable Investors/Partners**: TCG (The Chernin Group), Coinbase Ventures, Triton Capital, Echo, Anagram, Kraken Ventures, Solana Ventures. - **Growth Signals**: 53 employees (+87.5% YoY); workforce distributed across 12 countries (US, Brazil, Singapore, Colombia, India, Portugal, Norway, Argentina, Canada, France, and more); 13,524 LinkedIn followers (+245.6% yearly); recently expanded into Mexico with a regulated local entity (CNBV-registered money transmitter); active product development with Webhooks v2 launch; 3 open job postings as of Sep 2026. ## Competitive Advantages - Natively embedded compliance (AML/KYC/KYB frameworks) built directly into the payment and ledger products, allowing regulated institutions to adopt stablecoin rails without sacrificing regulatory control. - Multi-chain stablecoin support and coverage across 160+ markets, with a focus on underserved and emerging economies (e.g., US-Mexico corridor). - Leverages Solana Permissioned Environment for speed, low cost, and privacy, combined with advanced cryptography for a shared, neutral ledger. - Bare-metal banking rails and stablecoins combined in a single API/dashboard, offering an “operating system for the digital economy.” ## Strategic Focus - Deepening institutional adoption of stablecoins for cross-border payments, especially in high-volume corridors like US-Mexico. - Expanding regulated operations (recent Mexico launch) and building out in-country teams. - Continuing to invest in developer experience (Webhooks v2, SDKs, API improvements) to reduce integration time for partners. - Scaling the team with a focus on compliance, product management, and engineering talent to support growing demand. ## Why Work Here - Fully remote-first company with a distributed team across 12+ countries (US, Brazil, Singapore, India, etc.). - Engineering team is ~24% of the company (14 people), with a flat-ish structure that includes a Head of Engineering for SphereNet. - Active hiring for Frontend Engineer, SR Backend Engineer, and SR Product Manager (Onboarding & Compliance), with a strong focus on ownership and impact. - Culture described as assembling “exceptional individuals” with diverse backgrounds to “carve out this brave new world” of digital finance. - Notable perks: high growth trajectory (+87.5% YoY headcount), backing from top crypto and fintech investors (Coinbase Ventures, Kraken Ventures, Solana Ventures), and the opportunity to shape the foundational payments infrastructure for the internet. ## Sources 1. [spherepay.co](https://spherepay.co/) 2. [spherepay.co/about](https://spherepay.co/about) 3. [linkedin.com/company/sphere-laboratories](https://linkedin.com/company/sphere-laboratories) 4. [jobs.lever.co/sphere-laboratories](https://jobs.lever.co/sphere-laboratories) 5. [caplight.com/company/spherelabs](https://www.caplight.com/company/spherelabs) ## Other roles at Sphere Laboratories, Inc. - [Implementation Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/implementation-manager-sphere-laboratories-inc-brazil-6cqsek3p1rc0) — Brazil