astra - Senior Transaction Monitoring Analyst
Requirements
• 4+ years in BSA/AML, financial crimes compliance, or transaction monitoring within fintech, payments, or banking. • Hands-on experience designing, implementing, and tuning monitoring rules — not just reviewing alerts. • Track record of independently conducting complex investigations and escalating suspicious activity. • Strong command of BSA/AML requirements, financial crimes typologies, and risk-based monitoring. • Working knowledge of payment rails, particularly ACH, RTP, and debit networks. • Experience managing alert queues while maintaining quality and timeliness. • Comfortable working independently and cross-functionally in a fast-paced environment, with rigorous attention to detail and documentation. • Bachelor's degree in finance, economics, computer science, criminal justice, or a related field preferred; exceptional relevant experience counts equally. • CAMS, CFE, or equivalent certification preferred. • Strong SQL skills for querying and analyzing large transaction datasets. • Experience configuring, testing, and optimizing rules in platforms such as Unit21, Sardine, Actimize, or Verafin. • Ability to translate detection requirements into rule logic — thresholds, velocity calculations, aggregation windows, and behavioral patterns. • Experience using data to evaluate rule effectiveness and reduce false positives. • Working knowledge of API-driven payment architecture and rails including ACH/NACHA, RTP, FedNow, and Visa Direct. • Experience at a payments fintech, BaaS company, or processor operating under a sponsor-bank model. • Prior experience building or significantly improving a transaction monitoring program. • Exposure to complex use cases such as embedded finance, payroll, lending, card disbursements, or real-time payments. • Python or similar tools for transaction analysis, rule testing, or automation. • Familiarity with model validation, rule governance, and sponsor-bank expectations. • Startup experience spanning technical implementation and day-to-day compliance operations.
Responsibilities
• DESIGN AND IMPLEMENT TRANSACTION MONITORING RULES • Design, build, test, and maintain monitoring rules across ACH, RTP, FedNow, debit networks, and other payment rails. • Develop risk-based scenarios for typologies such as structuring, velocity anomalies, and rapid movement of funds, and close gaps in coverage. • Translate financial crimes risks into monitoring logic and thresholds, configuring rules with Product and Engineering as needed. • Backtest and tune rules to improve detection and reduce false positives. • Document each rule's rationale, configuration, testing results, and change history. • MANAGE TRANSACTION MONITORING ALERTS AND INVESTIGATIONS • Investigate potentially suspicious transactions and customer activity using transaction histories, customer data, and other sources. • Document findings and dispositions with clear investigative narratives and recommendations. • Prepare and submit suspicious activity referrals to sponsor banks, coordinating with the Head of Compliance. • Respond to sponsor-bank requests for information and support follow-up reviews. • Track alert volumes, backlogs, and case aging to keep operations timely. • Feed investigation insights back into rules, scenarios, and workflows. • ANALYZE TRANSACTION DATA AND OPTIMIZE MONITORING • Use SQL and other tools to query transaction data and evaluate monitoring performance. • Analyze activity across customers, rails, and use cases to identify emerging risks and coverage gaps. • Report on alert volumes, false-positive rates, rule performance, and investigation outcomes. • Recommend changes to thresholds, scenarios, and segmentation as products and customers evolve. • PARTNER ACROSS THE BUSINESS • Work with Product and Engineering on new monitoring capabilities, data availability, and case management workflows. • Partner with Compliance and Operations on complex investigations, emerging risks, and escalation procedures. • Support sponsor-bank inquiries, audits, and examinations with documentation and analysis. • Define monitoring requirements for new products and payment flows before launch. • Improve internal compliance tooling through automation and operational feedback.
Benefits
• Astra's promise of fast, secure transfers depends on the trust we've built with banking partners, payment networks, and customers. Compliance isn't a secondary function here — it's part of our operating infrastructure. • As transaction volume and complexity grow, effective monitoring is essential to managing risk and supporting responsible growth. You'll own a critical function, building the controls that protect Astra and its customers, with direct, visible impact on our ability to scale. • Competitive compensation with equity in a growing fintech company. • Remote-first culture with flexible working arrangements. • Small team, big impact — your work directly supports Astra's ability to scale responsibly. • Professional growth opportunities in compliance and risk management. • Mission-driven — build infrastructure that powers financial innovation while meeting the highest regulatory standards. • REMOTE WORK AND CULTURE
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