Sanctions Compliance Officer

Sanctions Compliance Officer

About Polymarket

Polymarket is the world's largest prediction market platform. We enable individuals to express views on real-world events by trading on outcomes across politics, economics, sports, culture, and current affairs. Built as a peer-to-peer marketplace with no centralized "house," Polymarket aggregates diverse opinions into transparent, market-based probabilities that reflect collective expectations about the future.

We're growing fast, both in terms of volume ($21B traded in 2025) and adoption as an alternative news source. Our ambition is to become a ubiquitous beacon of truth in global media and we need your help adding fuel to the fire.

About the Role

Polymarket US is hiring a Sanctions Compliance Officer to build and lead our sanctions compliance program and the operational screening function that supports it. This is a hands-on role within the Financial Crimes organization with responsibility for both program strategy and day-to-day operations across our growing U.S. business.

We are looking for someone who is both a deep sanctions subject matter expert and a strong operator. You should bring extensive knowledge of U.S. economic sanctions requirements, including OFAC regulations and guidance, as well as demonstrated experience building and running effective sanctions operations. You will own the policies, controls, screening framework, escalation standards, technology, and governance that support the sanctions program, while also building and leading a standalone sanctions team responsible for reviewing sanctions alerts.

This is not a purely advisory or policy role. The Sanctions Compliance Officer will be responsible for ensuring the program works effectively in practice, including establishing operational procedures, staffing and managing the screening team, setting productivity and quality standards, overseeing escalations, and continuously improving screening effectiveness.

The role will work closely with Legal, Compliance, KYC, AML, Product, Engineering, and Operations. You should be equally comfortable interpreting sanctions requirements for a new product or counterparty, designing a screening control, managing an operational queue, and diving into a complex sanctions escalation.

What You'll Do

Own and continuously enhance Polymarket US's sanctions compliance framework, including policies, procedures, governance, risk assessments, screening controls, escalation standards, and supporting documentation.

Serve as the company's primary sanctions subject matter expert, translating OFAC requirements, U.S. economic sanctions programs, regulatory developments, and emerging risks into practical controls and operational requirements.

Own the end-to-end sanctions screening framework across customers, transactions, counterparties, beneficial owners, and related parties, including requirements for list management, matching logic, thresholds, testing, quality assurance, and ongoing effectiveness reviews.

Build and lead the sanctions team responsible for executing the screening framework, including establishing staffing, workflows, procedures, escalation criteria, service levels, quality standards, and performance expectations.

Manage the investigation and disposition of sanctions screening alerts, including potential sanctions matches, ensuring decisions are consistent, well documented, and aligned with applicable requirements.

Develop and maintain escalation and decision frameworks for potential blocked or prohibited activity, partnering with Legal and senior Compliance leadership on significant matters and regulatory reporting where required.

Advise Legal, Compliance, Product, and business teams on sanctions risks associated with customers, counterparties, products, jurisdictions, transactions, and new business initiatives, including ownership and control considerations and application of OFAC's 50 Percent Rule.

Partner closely with Product, Engineering, and Data teams to embed sanctions controls into onboarding, transaction flows, and other relevant product processes and to continuously improve screening effectiveness.

Establish a strong quality and testing framework to assess whether sanctions controls are operating as designed and to identify opportunities to improve accuracy, consistency, and efficiency.

Identify and implement opportunities to leverage AI and automation to improve the effectiveness, consistency, and efficiency of sanctions screening and alert reviews, while maintaining appropriate human oversight, controls, testing, and governance.

Ensure the sanctions function remains closely integrated with KYC, AML Investigations, Fraud, and other Financial Crimes teams.

What We're Looking For

8+ years of sanctions, financial crimes, AML, or related compliance experience, with significant direct responsibility for U.S. economic sanctions.

Deep subject matter expertise in OFAC regulations, sanctions programs, and guidance.

Demonstrated experience building or leading both a sanctions program and sanctions / financial crime screening operations within a regulated financial institution, FinTech, broker-dealer, derivatives firm, payments company, or similarly complex environment.

A combination of sanctions advisory and operational leadership experience - this role requires someone who can interpret complex requirements and build and manage the teams and processes used to execute them.

Experience leveraging AI, automation, and emerging technologies to improve sanctions screening, alert review, investigations, or other financial crimes processes, with a practical understanding of appropriate governance, testing, and human oversight.

Hands-on experience with sanctions screening, alert investigation, escalation, disposition, and blocked or rejected transaction analysis.

Experience designing or overseeing sanctions screening systems, including matching logic, tuning, testing, list management, QA/QC, and false-positive reduction.

Experience establishing operational metrics, productivity expectations, quality programs, escalation frameworks, and queue-management processes.

Experience advising on sanctions risks associated with customers, counterparties, jurisdictions, transactions, products, and new business initiatives.

Demonstrated ability to translate complex regulatory requirements into clear, practical guidance and operational controls.

Experience drafting sanctions policies, procedures, risk assessments, escalation standards, and operational documentation.

Experience supporting regulatory exams, audits, investigations, or independent testing.

Strong judgment and the ability to independently assess and escalate complex sanctions matters.

Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to communicate sanctions risks and recommendations to senior leadership and non-specialist stakeholders.

Ability to operate effectively in a fast-moving environment and build a program and operations function while the business continues to scale.

Plus

Prior experience working at the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC)..

Experience at a CFTC- or NFA-registered entity, including a DCM, DCO, or FCM.

Experience with digital assets, blockchain analytics, or sanctions risks associated with crypto or blockchain-based activity.

Experience implementing or enhancing sanctions, PEP, and adverse media screening technology.

Experience building a screening operations function from the ground up.

Benefits

Competitive salary & equity

Unlimited PTO

Full Health, Vision, & Dental coverage

401k match

Hardware setup: new MacBook Pro, big display, & accessories