Independent Risk Management Director, Big Business Banking

The role:

SoFi is seeking an energetic, detail-oriented, self-motivated, and intellectually curious Independent Risk Management Director to support the development and launch of SoFi’s Big Business Banking (Commercial) products.  As part of the Second Line of Defense (2LOD), this individual will provide oversight across risk types for all product and feature launches as well as partner with 1LOD risk owners on ensuring we are appropriately identifying, monitoring, and mitigating risks as part of our framework programs as we scale and grow this business.

Your success in this role will rely on deep subject matter expertise in commercial banking risks—including operational, credit, liquidity, fraud, financial crime, technology, third-party, and regulatory risk. You will apply lessons learned from peers across the industry - both benchmarking against industry leaders as well as learning from underperforming commercial payment platforms, ensuring strong risk governance, diversified exposures, and rigorous controls. 

By joining SoFi, you'll become part of a forward-thinking company that is transforming financial services for the better. We offer the excitement of a rapidly growing startup with the stability of an industry leading leadership team.

What you’ll do: 

• Monitor and address risks, issues, and resolve escalation items resulting from our commercial activities including onboarding, servicing, and payments.

• Oversee the commercial risk management framework and governance for the execution of risk-related initiatives.

• Provide credible challenge and advisory services on strategic initiatives and ongoing operations

• Liaise with Regulatory Affairs for any interactions with regulators and/or internal audit - ensuring successful outcomes through careful planning and monitoring.

• Collaborate with business units, Enterprise Risk Management, and commercial teams to define the Enterprise Risk Appetite and tolerance.  Monitor Key Risk Indicators (KRIs) against tolerance thresholds.

• Apply lessons learned across the industry to ensure appropriate mitigation to prevent concentration risk and liquidity instability, reducing exposure to rapid outflows or contagion events.

• Assess volatility characteristics of commercial deposits and ensure alignment with liquidity buffers, funding strategies, and asset-liability management practices; challenge business assumptions around intraday liquidity needs for high-speed payment rails.

• Challenge processes to evaluate client and partner control environments—particularly for onboarding, transaction monitoring, and payment origination—where upstream weaknesses can expose the bank to regulatory and reputational risk.

• Identify emerging risk themes and ensure timely root-cause analysis and remediation.

• Support post-launch reviews and continuous control enhancements as the business scales.

What you’ll need:

• Bachelor’s degree with 10+ years experience in commercial banking including functional responsibility in risk management.

• Deep knowledge of commercial banking products, payment operations, KYC/AML expectations, treasury operations, and institutional client risk drivers.

• Demonstrated expertise in concentration risk, liquidity risk, and operational/financial crime risks in commercial or high-velocity payment environments.

• Ability to independently challenge business growth assumptions and identify latent risks associated with scale, client mix, or insufficient controls.

• Exceptional interpersonal, verbal and written communication skills

• Strong leadership, collaboration, influencing and organizational skills with attention to detail

• Must be self-motivated with the ability to work independently or within a group under minimal daily direction.

• Intellectually curious. You adapt to change, embrace bold ideas, ask questions, test assumptions, and challenge conventional thinking

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to analyze complex issues, develop innovative solutions, and make data-driven decisions

• Experience leading and managing meetings with cross functional teams, effectively and efficiently communicating and driving engagement.

• Proficiency in data analysis preferred and deriving meaningful insights for decision-making

• Demonstrated ability to collaborate with multidisciplinary teams, take ownership of deliverables, and drive assigned tasks to completion, in a timely manner.

• Strong knowledge of risk management principles and practices including risk and control assessments

• Experience with regulatory compliance and corporate governance standards

• Ability to work under tight deadlines

• Ability to manage multiple initiatives and competing priorities, meet deadlines, and adapt to change

• Proficiency with Google Suite and/or Microsoft Office products

• Strong team player

• Experience with Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) systems