Sanctions & Screening Review Specialist

About Uphold
One of the fastest-growing fintech companies, Uphold is pursuing a mission to democratize investments and payments for people and companies worldwide. A bridge between old and new money systems, Uphold allows people to buy, exchange and send more than 250 cryptocurrencies, precious metals, and currencies instantly. Our mission is to create trusted access to digital money and financial services for the many. Since inception, we have fought to provide a fairer, easier and more affordable system. We put security and transparency first.
At Uphold, we are looking for people with passion, initiative, and integrity. We encourage you to apply even if your experience doesn't 100% match the job description. We welcome diverse perspectives and people who aren't afraid to challenge the status quo. If you’re a rock star and this sounds interesting and challenging, we want to hear from you.

The opportunity:
Uphold is seeking a Sanctions & Screening Review Specialist to support the execution and continuous enhancement of our global screening program. This role is responsible for the second-line review and disposition of screening alerts, including name screening, transaction screening, and evasion detection across Uphold’s global ecosystem.
You will focus on applying expert judgment to complex name-matching and risk scenarios, providing clear escalation outcomes for sanctions (OFAC, UK, EU, UN) and Politically Exposed Persons (PEP), including secondary PEP and Related Close Associate (RCA) determinations. This is a hands-on, individual contributor role that requires a blend of investigative curiosity, technical understanding of screening controls, and the ability to operate effectively in a fast-paced crypto environment.

What you’ll be doing primarily:
Technical Adjudication: Act as a specialized second-line reviewer for escalated Sanctions, PEP, and RCA alerts, performing deep-dive research to provide definitive, audit-ready dispositions.
Control Optimization: Partner with the Global Head of Sanctions and cross-functional teams to assist in tuning efforts for screening tools; identify "noise," perform root cause analysis on false positives, and suggest logic enhancements.
Complex PEP/Secondary PEP Assessment: Lead investigations into”PEP” and "Secondary PEP" relationships, synthesizing public records and database hits into concise, risk-based summaries.
Evasion Detection: Monitor alert trends for potential sanctions evasion patterns and technical control gaps, recommending corrective actions or enhanced monitoring where necessary.
Cross-Functional Guidance: Provide sanctions screening advisory to Product, Engineering, and Operations teams to ensure compliance requirements are embedded into the customer lifecycle.
Regulatory Readiness: Drive exam-readiness through high-quality screening documentation, rationales, and BRDs.

Required Qualifications:

• 4-5 years of experience in sanctions compliance, with a focus on second-line oversight in a fintech or high-volume financial institution.


• Domain Expertise: Deep knowledge of global sanctions regimes (OFAC, EU, UK, UN) and a sophisticated understanding of PEP/RCA risk profiles and red flags.


• Screening Tech Savvy: Familiarity with the "mechanics" of screening - you understand string-matching algorithms, fuzzy logic, and how threshold tuning impacts risk coverage.


• Investigative Rigor: Demonstrated ability to use screening platforms (e.g., World-Check, Bridger, ComplyAdvantage) and OSINT tools to resolve complex "gray area" matches.


• Analytical Communication: Excellent written skills, with the ability to translate complex data-driven investigations into clear, executive-ready memos.


• Integrity & Ownership: A high degree of discretion and the ability to take full ownership of escalation outcomes within established governance frameworks.

Nice to haves:
Relevant professional certification: (CAMS, CGSS, CSS, CFCS, or ICA Diploma).
Crypto-native expertise: Proficiency in blockchain analytics tools (e.g., Chainalysis, TRM Labs, or Elliptic) is a significant advantage.
Regulatory intelligence: Experience reviewing enforcement actions and translating those findings into internal control improvements.
Technical fluency: Familiarity with data analysis tools (SQL or similar) for ad-hoc investigations and reporting.