Chief Compliance Officer

Chief Compliance Officer

Dakota is building regulated infrastructure for the next generation of digital money. We power fintechs, payment service providers, marketplaces, and enterprises through a stablecoin platform that enables compliant money movement, custody, and cross border settlement. Our API abstracts the complexity of banking partnerships, regulatory obligations, and digital asset orchestration into infrastructure designed for institutional use.

Dakota has raised $16.5M from CoinFund, 6th Man Ventures, and Triton Ventures. We operate as a FinCEN registered Money Services Business, are pursuing Money Transmitter Licenses across the United States, and are building toward Electronic Money Institution (EMI) licensing and Crypto-Asset Service Provider (CASP) authorization in Europe. We issue our own fully collateralized USD backed stablecoin, DKUSD, backed 1:1 by cash and cash equivalents held in segregated accounts.

Our founding team has built regulated financial infrastructure before. Ryan Bozarth previously led Coinbase Custody, helping scale it into the largest crypto custodian in the world. Dakota's technical co-founder built core infrastructure at Airbnb, bringing deep experience in designing resilient, high-scale systems. Compliance and engineering have been tightly integrated from day one, we build infrastructure to withstand scrutiny, not retrofit it later.

We are a remote first team across North America and Europe. We value high quality work, clear thinking, and ownership.

Why Now

Stablecoins are becoming foundational to global financial infrastructure. What began as a crypto native mechanism for settlement is now being adopted by fintechs, payment processors, marketplaces, and enterprises moving real volume across borders. As that adoption accelerates, regulatory frameworks in the United States and Europe are being defined in real time. The companies building compliant infrastructure now will shape how this category matures.

Dakota is building that infrastructure. We are not a crypto exchange or a consumer wallet. We are the regulated plumbing that allows companies to move between dollars and digital dollars — programmatically, compliantly, and at scale. Our platform handles fiat to stablecoin orchestration, digital asset custody, compliance-as-a-service, and stablecoin issuance.

The Opportunity

We are hiring a Chief Compliance Officer to lead this next phase of our compliance and regulatory program as we scale from a U.S. licensed Money Services Business into a globally regulated stablecoin infrastructure platform.

Executive impact starts on day one. You will report directly to the CEO, sit on the executive team, present to the Board, and directly influence product roadmap, go to market timing, and partnership decisions. At Dakota's stage, the Chief Compliance Officer shapes the company, not just the compliance function.

We already have a strong compliance foundation: a capable team, engineering integrated controls, BSA/AML programs designed for state examination readiness, and a vendor ecosystem that includes Sumsub, Unit21, and TRM Labs. Compliance is embedded in the product, reported to the Board and treated as a strategic driver.

What comes next is materially different. We are progressing toward trust level supervision in the U.S. while building toward EMI and CASP authorization in Europe. Stablecoin regulation is evolving through frameworks such as the GENIUS Act in the U.S. and MiCA in Europe. As institutional participation increases, so does scrutiny.

The surface area is significant: U.S. state licensing, trust level supervision, European expansion, stablecoin specific regulation, blockchain analytics, and B2B and B2B2C operating models. You are designing the compliance architecture for a platform built to move billions.

One distinctive element of Dakota's compliance program: we think about compliance-as-code. Controls are embedded directly into the product, not layered on after the fact. The right leader will find this approach energizing. More on our compliance principles here

What You'll Do

Lead Dakota's Next Regulatory Chapter

• Own the progression from state level readiness into trust-level supervision in the United States.
• Serve as the primary point of contact for regulators, auditors, and examiners.
• Strengthen governance, escalation, and control frameworks to meet higher tiers of oversight.

Build Multi-Jurisdictional Compliance Infrastructure

• Lead the design and implementation of Dakota's European compliance architecture under EMI and MiCA CASP requirements.
• Align U.S. and European programs into a cohesive, scalable framework.
• Navigate evolving regulatory expectations across jurisdictions while maintaining operational clarity.

Own Financial Crime and Risk End-to-End

• Oversee Dakota's BSA/AML, sanctions, and transaction monitoring programs.
• Expand the compliance program as regulatory scope increases.
• Establish a clear and defensible risk posture that balances onboarding rigor, monitoring depth, and scalability.

Partner Deeply with Engineering

• Continue embedding compliance controls directly into Dakota's infrastructure.
• Leverage and evolve existing tooling investments (Sumsub, Unit21, TRM Labs).
• Evaluate where automation and AI can responsibly increase leverage without compromising rigor.

Lead and Scale the Function

• Lead and develop a high performing compliance team.
• Build operating rhythms, documentation discipline, and board ready reporting aligned with institutional standards.
• Advise the executive team on regulatory developments, stablecoin legislation, and licensing pathways.

Who You Are

You have 10+ years in compliance, risk, or regulatory leadership, with meaningful time spent at a regulated financial institution, fintech, payments company, or digital asset business. You have personally led a compliance program through at least one of the following: a licensing process (MTLs, trust charters, EMI), a federal or state examination cycle, or a multi jurisdictional expansion. Ideally, you've done more than one.

You understand the difference between building compliance at a 20 person startup and maintaining it at a 2,000 person bank and you're drawn to the former. You've operated in environments where the program was still being built, where you had to make judgment calls without perfect precedent, and where compliance was an enabler of growth rather than a blocker.

Background signals we value:

• Direct experience with BSA/AML program design and regulatory examination preparation
• Working knowledge of stablecoin specific regulatory requirements (reserve management, issuance controls, the GENIUS Act framework)
• Familiarity with MiCA, European EMI licensing, and cross border compliance coordination
• Experience managing compliance technology stacks (transaction monitoring, KYB/KYC platforms, blockchain analytics tools)
• Track record of working productively with engineering teams to automate and embed compliance controls
• Prior experience at companies operating across both traditional payments and digital assets

Traits that succeed at Dakota:

• You lead with judgment, not just policy. You can distinguish between real risk and compliance theater.
• You build systems, not just documents. Policies are only as good as the controls that enforce them.
• You communicate regulatory complexity in ways that product, engineering, and business teams can act on.
• You are comfortable operating as a player /coach today while building the team and infrastructure for tomorrow.
• You treat automation as a force multiplier. Dakota's compliance program is engineering integrated by design. You should be excited by that, not intimidated.
• You move with urgency but never cut corners on rigor.

How We Work

At Dakota, we value people who strive for excellence, practice with extreme ownership, experiment fearlessly, stay close to customers and communicate clearly and directly.

What We Offer

• Engaging problems that increase economic freedom globally
• Competitive salary and equity
• Employee friendly equity terms (extended exercise)
• Remote work, no commuting to the office
• Paid co-working space/desk at an office
• Health, dental, and vision insurance
• Regular team events and off sites