Risk Analyst

Relay is a digital banking platform that gives self-made business owners the tools and know-how to be great with money—bringing clarity, confidence, and control to every dollar earned, so they can turn hard work into lasting success. We do this by replacing financial guesswork with real visibility, transforming cash flow from a constant source of stress into a clear signal owners can use to run stronger, more resilient businesses.

A cleaning company is waiting on a deposit so they can make payroll Friday. A contractor needs his funds cleared so he can buy lumber for a job that starts Monday. A salon owner just wants to know why her account was flagged. These are the people on the other side of every transaction you review, every hold you place, and every alert you investigate.

321,000+ small business owners trust Relay with their money. The Risk team is why that trust is warranted.

About the Team

This role sits on either our Transaction Monitoring or Onboarding Risk team. Both are front-line teams where your decisions have immediate, visible impact.

Transaction Monitoring is where you intercept fraud attempts in real time. Shell companies trying to funnel money through business accounts. Altered checks. Wire requests that look clean until you notice the third soft signal. The team catches these every day, and the pattern recognition you develop here is something you can't learn from a textbook.

Onboarding Risk is the front gate. You're catching stolen identities, fabricated businesses, and coordinated fraud rings before they get through the door. You're also the reason a legitimate contractor gets approved in minutes. The team regularly reviews real edge-case decisions together to sharpen judgment and stay calibrated.

The Role

Every business day, Relay processes millions of dollars in deposits, wire transfers, and card transactions. Every one of those is a decision: hold or release, approve or decline, investigate or clear. You make those decisions. Good decisions mean legitimate business owners get their money fast and bad actors get stopped before they succeed.

You also satisfy a federal obligation. The Bank Secrecy Act requires continuous monitoring of all customer transactions for suspicious activity. You'll think in two frames simultaneously: fraud prevention and regulatory compliance. They aren't always the same thing.

In Your First 6 Months, You Might:

• Spot a pattern that breaks a case: a check issuer whose returns are 3x the normal rate, or a cluster of applications sharing the same device fingerprint. You flag it and stop it early.
• Write an investigation narrative that becomes a SAR referral to our bank partner, with quality good enough that it's accepted without revision
• Build proficiency with our vendor signals (device intelligence, document verification, business verification) so you can read them cold and make fast, confident calls
• Own the daily deposit review queue and develop the judgment to independently hold or release transactions up to $20K

What You'll Be Doing:

Transaction Monitoring:

• Hunt for fraud across every payment channel: deposits, checks, wires, card transactions. You're looking for the patterns that don't belong.
• Intercept suspicious deposits before funds settle. Check the signals, verify the story, make the call.
• Review inbound and outbound money transfers. Transaction behavior, stated purpose, sender verification, business email compromise detection, and much more.
• Catch velocity abuse: accounts moving money too fast, in patterns that don't match their profile.
• Document investigations at SAR-referral quality. Your work product goes to our bank partner and potentially to federal examiners.

Onboarding Risk:

• Separate real businesses from fake ones. Is this a legitimate contractor or a shell company with a Registered Agent address and no web presence? Is this beneficial owner a real person or a synthetic identity built from a stolen SSN?
• Read the signals across multiple vendor systems: device intelligence, document fraud detection, business verification, synthetic identity scoring. Make the call.
• Break up fraud rings. Coordinated applications sharing devices, addresses, or referral codes. You connect the dots.

Who You Are

• 2+ years in fraud investigation, AML/BSA, or financial crime at a bank, fintech, or payments company. You've made real hold/release or approve/decline decisions.
• You develop pattern recognition. You notice when something doesn't add up, and you dig into it rather than just flagging it.
• You can write clearly under pressure. Your case notes will be read by compliance officers, our bank partner, and potentially federal examiners. "Looks suspicious" is not documentation.
• You make calls and stand behind them. Holding a deposit means a business can't access their money. Releasing it means you're betting your judgment that it's clean. Both decisions have consequences. We need people comfortable with that.

Bonus Points:

• BSA/AML typology experience: structuring, funnel accounts, trade-based money laundering, bust-out
• SQL proficiency so you can pull your own data without waiting for the analytics team
• CAMS, CFE, or equivalent certification
• Experience at a company operating under a bank partnership
• Comfort with AI-assisted investigation tools

The Interview Process

• Stage 1: A 30-minute Google Meet video call with a member of the Talent team
• Stage 2: A 45-minute Google Meet video call with the Hiring Managers
• Stage 3: A case study interview with the Hiring Managers
• Stage 4: A 45-minute Google Meet video call with a member of our leadership team

Our Compensation Approach

We believe Relayers should feel rewarded for the impact they have on our mission and growth. Compensation follows impact. As impact increases, compensation grows, and we do not limit compensation changes to a once-a-year review cycle.

The annual salary range for this role is $72,900 CAD to $89,100 CAD.

For candidates who demonstrate full readiness for the defined scope of the role, the typical starting salary is $81,000 CAD. Offers below this point reflect candidates we believe can grow into the full scope of the role with support and development. Offers above this point reflect impact that meaningfully exceeds the role’s defined expectations or an expanded scope from day one.

We encourage you to have a conversation with your recruiter and ask questions about compensation throughout the hiring process. For more information on our compensation philosophy and perks and benefits, visit our Candidate Hub https://www.notion.so/Candidate-Hub-1c7da8b7f88580a893f7d7c7852b064e?pvs=21.

Why Relay Might Be the Perfect Fit For You

• You push relentlessly for reinvention: You're always asking "how can this be better?" -- in your work, in your craft, in yourself. Comfort is a signal to push harder, not coast. You'd rather build something better than defend something familiar.
• You crave autonomy: We trust our team with big challenges and the freedom to solve them. If you’re someone who takes initiative, is comfortable taking risks, and seeks input when needed, you’ll find the freedom here empowering.
• You own your work: You take pride in your work, follow through on commitments, and feel a deep sense of responsibility for outcomes, not just tasks.
• You build with AI, not just use it: You're actively embedding AI into how you work, pushing what's possible, and bringing your team along with you.
• You care about impact, not noise: You care deeply about the substance of your work. You measure success by results, not recognition, and you let your work speak for itself.
• You’re energized by complexity and ambiguity: You enjoy tackling problems that don’t come with a playbook. You’re comfortable building from scratch, iterating as you go, and collaborating to shape the best path forward.
• You seek out feedback: You see directness as respect, not criticism. You actively seek input, sit with hard truths, and use feedback as fuel for improvement.
• Small businesses are why we're here: Relay exists to help them thrive -- and that mission has to resonate with you.

Join Us

We're looking for people who are relentless, curious, and care deeply about the work. You're encouraged to apply even if your experience doesn't perfectly match the job description -- your perspective and drive matter more. We welcome diverse backgrounds and people who think critically, challenge the status quo, and want to help small businesses thrive.

If you require accommodations at any stage of the hiring process, please reach out to your Talent Partner.

Disclaimer: For compliance reasons, all offers of employment at Relay are conditional upon a successful background check and employment verification through Certn.