Risk Analyst at Relay

Job description

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. Our mission is to increase the success rate of small businesses. Traditional banking has been a growth limiter rather than a growth enabler for business owners, and we're changing that. Relay is the all-in-one, collaborative money management platform. We're building for employer SMBs and their finance function, and we're focused on delivering a human-centric customer experience. Relay processes millions of dollars in deposits, wires, checks, and card transactions every business day, and 321,000+ small business owners trust us with their money. The Transaction Monitoring team is why that trust is warranted. Every transaction we review is a decision: hold or release, investigate or clear. Good decisions mean legitimate business owners get their money fast and bad actors get stopped before they succeed. We're looking for someone with real transaction monitoring experience who is curious, decisive, and excited to build with AI, not just work a queue. What You'll Be Doing: • Review and investigate suspicious activity across every payment channel: deposits, checks, wires, and card transactions • Make hold/release decisions on flagged transactions, and own them — verify the signals, check the story, make the call. Review customer documentation and verify business activity to support hold and release decisions. • Detect patterns that don't belong: velocity abuse, accounts moving money in ways that don't match their profile, business email compromise, altered items • Document your investigations clearly and completely — your case notes are read by compliance, our bank partner, and potentially examiners • Suggest improvements to fraud rules and controls: flag rules that are generating false positives, spot gaps that let bad activity through, and bring recommendations to Risk Strategy so your findings shape how we detect fraud • Collaborate with Compliance, Customer Experience, and Product to resolve cases quickly without compromising on risk • Use AI tools daily to investigate faster, pull data, and improve how the team works Who You Are: • You have 2+ years of transaction monitoring experience at a bank, fintech, or payments company. You've made real hold/release decisions, not just escalated them. • You're curious and investigative. When something doesn't add up, you dig into the why instead of just flagging it and moving on. • You make calls and stand behind them. Holding a deposit means a business can't access their money; releasing it means betting your judgment that it's clean. You're comfortable owning both. • You're a problem solver with high agency. You don't just spot issues — you come with solutions and drive them forward without waiting to be asked. • You build with AI. You're actively using AI tools in how you work today and you're excited to push what's possible with them. • You communicate clearly . You document findings well and can present them to teammates, compliance, and non-risk partners like CX and Sales. • You thrive in a fast-paced environment. You're comfortable wearing multiple hats, handling ambiguity, and adapting as fraud patterns shift. • You have a growth mindset. You want to get a little better every day and you treat feedback as fuel. Bonus Points: • SQL proficiency — you can pull your own data without waiting on analytics • Card and disputes experience, including familiarity with the relevant regulations • Working knowledge of compliance: BSA/AML, KYC/CIP, and how regulations shape monitoring decisions • CAMS, CFE, or equivalent certification • Experience at a company operatin