Assurance Manager - Griffin

About Griffin

Hi, we’re Griffin. We’re a fully regulated UK bank that powers the accounts and payments offerings of product-led fintechs and platforms like Uber, Yonder, Prosper, and Sidekick. By doing the heavy lifting behind the scenes, our customers can focus on what they do best - delivering amazing customer experiences.

We’ve grown rapidly since our launch in 2024, and today provide the banking backbone behind products in remittance, payroll, wealth, insurance, proptech, payments, neobanking and more.

We’re moving into card issuing, stablecoin infrastructure, and agentic finance next as we continue to support the next generation of product-led companies.

Our culture

We believe that smart, motivated, conscientious people thrive in high-trust, high-autonomy environments and have done our best to create such an environment at Griffin. People who thrive here don’t require much hand-holding, and go out of their way to figure out how to contribute in the most valuable way possible.

We've been remote-first since we were established in 2017 and we remain so today. Work here is asynchronous and fully flexible - because we want to be a part of your life in a way that helps you to get the most out of both your work and home life.

Our strong culture has helped us to remain a mission-driven company as we have scaled, and gives our people a clear, explicit operating framework and the space to focus on delivering real value for our customers.

The team

Assurance is how we check that our risk management, controls and governance hold up in practice, not just on paper, and we're growing the team to keep pace with the business. Our Head of Assurance oversees and leads independent reviews across the business as part of our second line of defence, working closely with Compliance, Risk, FinCrime and our internal audit partner to keep Griffin's risk and control environment sharp as we grow.

The opportunity

We're expanding assurance from the ground up, and financial crime is where we need depth first. You'll build and run our financial crime assurance coverage, alongside assurance reviews across the rest of the business, working with real independence because Griffin's BaaS model throws up challenges you won't see everywhere — nested customers, reliance-model relationships, cross-border payment flows. You'll report to our Head of Assurance, with a dotted line to our MLRO for financial crime priorities. You'll get direct exposure to our CRO and Exco, and you'll help shape how we test, report and close out findings as the function matures.

What success looks like

Within 6 months, you'll have delivered three to four assurance reviews end-to-end, with no material quality concerns raised. You'll have built a working relationship with first line teams that gets you fast access to the information you need. By 12 months, you'll have measurably grown our assurance capacity, reducing overdue actions and giving the team confidence that coverage is holding up as we scale.

What you’ll own

• Deliver independent assurance reviews, thematic deep dives, and control testing across the business, with a focus on financial crime.
• Manage the financial crime scope within the assurance plan, agreeing priorities directly with the MLRO, and manage other assurance scope as directed by the Head of Assurance.
• Help embed the combined assurance approach with Compliance, Risk, FinCrime, and Internal Audit, avoiding overlap while protecting independence.
• Set the evidence bar for remediation, checking fixes actually hold rather than just looking closed on paper.
• Own and maintain our actions tracker, keeping the backlog moving.
• Produce assurance workpapers and reports that stand up to scrutiny, and represent the Head of Assurance at risk and audit committees (ERCO/BRC) when needed.
• Help us mature our testing methodology, templates, and tooling as the function grows.

Your background

• Assurance, audit, or QC experience that includes testing controls, not just reviewing against a checklist.
• Financial crime experience as a reviewer, process owner, consultant, or within a prior assurance role, plus solid knowledge of the UK regulatory framework (POCA, SAR obligations, FCA/PRA expectations).
• A track record of raising uncomfortable findings when they're warranted and standing behind them unless new evidence says otherwise.
• Experience working in a regulated financial services environment.
• The judgement to hold a challenging conversation with the first line without damaging the relationship, and the coordination skills to keep a combined assurance model working smoothly.
• Strong written communication skills and a passion for clarity and readability.

Nice to have:

• Relevant qualification (ICA financial crime, CAMS, or IIA), or experience in model validation, prudential risk, or tech assurance.

What we offer

• Salary: Up to £60k
• Remote-first flexibility: Work from anywhere in the UK
• Work from abroad: Up to 20 days a year
• Time off: 25 days' holiday, bank holidays, and a winter break (Christmas to New Year shutdown)
• Share options: Equity ownership in Griffin
• Pension: Auto-enrolment into Penfold pension scheme
• Insurance: Private medical with Bupa (including family cover) and life insurance with AIG
• Wellbeing: 1:1 coaching and therapy sessions available through Oliva
• Family leave: Enhanced parental leave (up to 6 months on full pay after two years' service)
• AI tools: Claude subscription and access to premium tools
• WFH Setup: Support in creating a comfortable WFH environment

Interview Process

1. Talent screen
2. Technical interview with hiring manager
3. Task
4. Peer interview
5. Culture interview
6. Founders chat