Head of Compliance

Title; Head of Compliance

Location:

New York City / San Francisco / Los Angeles / Remote

Operations /

Full Time /

Remote

The role

Gauntlet is hiring its first dedicated Head of Compliance. Compliance responsibilities currently sit across Legal and the wider business. This role brings that work together, identifies the gaps, and establishes a clear, practical program that scales with the company.

Reporting to the General Counsel, you will set the direction but also own the execution: writing the policies, building the processes, implementing the tooling, and running the monitoring to make sure the program works in practice.

Gauntlet recently completed its Series C and as the business grows we need a compliance program that keeps pace without creating unnecessary friction. The scope is broad - financial crime, securities regulation, privacy, marketing, employment, anti-corruption, regulatory registrations, and other areas that emerge as the business develops.

This is a hands-on senior role with meaningful ownership, direct access to company leadership, and the chance to build a program suited to an onchain financial business rather than inherit one designed for a different kind of company.

About Gauntlet

Gauntlet builds the financial systems of the future. While much of on-chain finance is focused on point solutions, we operate across the entire stack to offer best-in-class vault products. Today, we serve over $1.6B in client TVL across some of the largest fintechs/neobanks, protocols, exchanges, and capital allocators in crypto, and, increasingly, traditional asset management. Our team brings together traditional finance and crypto-native expertise to deliver durable, sophisticated products for institutional clients moving on-chain

What you'll do;

• Build and run Gauntlet's compliance program, including its priorities, governance, controls, and operating cadence.
• Draft, update, and implement policies and procedures across the business, and establish a practical compliance testing and monitoring program.
• Create reporting, escalation, and governance processes that give leadership a clear view of compliance risks and issues.
• Support upcoming registrations, help prepare the business for the regulatory requirements that follow, and coordinate regulatory examinations, audits, and related information requests.
• Partner with Legal, Product, Engineering, Finance, People, and commercial teams to incorporate compliance requirements into their day-to-day work, and review and improve company-wide compliance training.
• Advise the business across financial crime, privacy, marketing, securities, anti-corruption, employment, and other relevant areas.
• Use AI and automation to make monitoring, reporting, policy management, and other compliance workflows more efficient.
• Keep the program current as Gauntlet's products, clients, and regulatory obligations evolve.

What success looks like;

First 30 days. Map the compliance work already happening across Legal and the wider business. Meet stakeholders across Product, Engineering, Finance, People, and commercial teams. Form a clear view of the gaps and a prioritized plan for closing them.

First 3–6 months. Core policies and procedures drafted and rolling out. A practical testing and monitoring program stood up. Reporting, escalation, and governance cadence running, giving leadership a clear view of compliance risk. Registration preparation on track.

In 1 year. A compliance program that scales with the business: registrations supported, examinations and audits running smoothly, and teams involving compliance early — not only after a problem has occurred. The program manages risk practically, without unnecessary friction.

What you bring

• Experience building a compliance program, standing up a major part of one, or materially improving how an existing program operates.
• Broad compliance experience across several domains rather than a single speciality, with strong knowledge of how policies, controls, monitoring, testing, training, reporting, and governance work together.
• Experience supporting regulatory registrations, examinations, audits, or similar engagements.
• A willingness to work directly on the detail — you can both set the approach and execute it, without needing a mature compliance function around you to get started.
• The ability to give clear, practical guidance without overcomplicating it: managing risk pragmatically rather than defaulting to the most conservative answer, while giving a clear "no" when the risk requires it.
• Good judgement and the confidence to raise concerns directly when something does not look right.
• Comfort working in a growing company where the priorities and regulatory questions will continue to evolve.

Bonus points

• Experience in crypto, digital assets, or onchain financial products, and familiarity with the regulatory questions facing businesses operating across traditional and onchain finance.
• A compliance designation such as CAMS, CRCM, or CCEP.
• Existing experience working with relevant regulators.
• Experience using AI, automation, or data tooling within a compliance program.

Benefits and Perks

• Remote first - work from anywhere in the US & CAN!
• Regular in-person company retreats and cross-country "office visit" perk
• 100% paid medical, dental, and vision premiums for employees
• $1,000 WFH stipend
• Monthly reimbursement for home internet, phone, and cellular data
• Unlimited vacation
• 100% paid parental leave of 12 weeks
• Fertility benefits
• Opportunity for incentive compensation

The national pay range for this role is $200,000 - $240,000 base plus additional On Target Earnings potential by level and equity in the company. Our salary ranges are based on paying competitively for a company of our size and industry, and are one part of many compensation, benefits and other reward opportunities we provide. Individual pay rate decisions are based on a number of factors, including qualifications for the role, experience level, skill set, and balancing internal equity relative to peers at the company.  

We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses and identifying potential inconsistencies or verification signals in application materials based on available information. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.