Operational Controls Lead

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.

Learn more about what we do

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.

We understand that our culture and ways of working aren’t for everyone, and we’re very intentional about our hiring process as a result. We won't hire people who don’t seem like a strong fit for our core values, even if they're otherwise extremely qualified.

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.

Learn more about our culture.

You'll join our Operational Controls team within the Service guild, working across all operations functions. This team is the backbone of how Griffin stays compliant and keeps operational risk visible and manageable as we scale.

We're looking for someone to become the person who tells us, with confidence, whether our operations are actually working the way we think they are. You'll build and run our first-line controls programme from the ground up, working across deeply technical specialists and senior stakeholders alike. As Griffin scales, our control framework has to scale with it. You'll be central to making that happen, turning quality controls and assurance into a genuine source of confidence for the business.

In your first year, you'll have built meaningful relationships across every corner of Griffin, from operations teams to second line risk and compliance. You'll have helped stand up our controls capabilities from scratch, and you'll have taken full ownership of the RCSA process for the Service guild. Along the way, you'll have developed the QA/QC testing frameworks and MI that help leadership see exactly where our controls are strong and where they need attention.

• Quality assurance reviews and quality control testing across operations, ensuring processes are executed accurately and in line with approved procedures

• Sample-based testing and control checks, identifying errors, control gaps, exceptions, and potential operational risks

• Corrective action and remediation plans, working with operations teams to close out issues within agreed timelines

• The Service guild controls attestation framework, and support risk owners in first-line RCSA exercises

• QA/QC testing frameworks, control checklists, sampling methodologies, and quality standards

• Regular QA/QC reporting and MI, feeding into Griffin-wide operational risk reporting

• Coordination of internal audit, external audit, compliance, risk, and regulatory reviews, providing evidence of operational controls and remediation

This description reflects what we need today. How you achieve these outcomes, where you focus your energy, how this role evolves,that's for you to define as you learn what our customers need and where our technical gaps are.

We're looking for people who have:

• Strong experience in Operations QA/QC, control testing, transaction testing, or operational risk management within a bank or financial institution

• Experience reviewing operational processes and identifying errors, exceptions, control weaknesses, and process gaps

• Experience making recommendations to strengthen controls.

• Strong analytical and MI/data analysis skills, with experience producing QA/QC reports, dashboards, and trend analysis

• The ability to challenge Operations constructively and operate with an independent control mindset

• A love of writing - we have a major amount of written documentation that you will be contributing to, and we place a high degree of importance on clarity and readability (you can find out more here about how we write)

We are an early stage startup and we're working hard to expand our benefits package. We're planning to add to this list in the future.

• Salary: £50-60k (DOE)

• 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 (we shut down between Christmas and New Year)

• Share options: Own a part of what we’re building together

• Pension: Auto-enrolment into our Penfold scheme

• Insurance: Private medical with Bupa (including family cover) and life insurance with AIG

• Wellbeing: 1:1 coaching and therapy session available through Oliva

• Family leave: Enhanced parental leave with up to 6 months on full pay after two years’ service

• AI tools: Everyone has a Claude subscription on us and access to other premium tools

• Your setup: We’ll support you in creating a comfortable and effective WFH environment.

As a bank, we’re committed to maintaining the highest standards of security. This means that the successful candidate will need to complete background screening, and our offer will be conditional upon satisfactory review of these checks. This would include verification of right to work, criminal record, credit history, social media and professional reference checks.

We move as fast as possible, but it normally takes us about 2-3 weeks to get to know to each other.

• Step 1: An initial phone call with our Talent Team for us to tell you more about Griffin and learn about your recent experience.

• Step 2: Meet your manager to talk through your experience and how that relates to the requirements.

• Step 3: A task based on what you’ll be doing on a day to day at Griffin.

• Step 4: Meet with peers in your team for a more in-depth technical interview.

• Step 5: Culture and Founder interview: Learn more about this here.

Are we your next move? Apply via the link below, if there's a match our Talent team will reach out to schedule an initial conversation and talk you through what happens next.

We trust people to do great work wherever they are. We hire across the UK and most of our team works remotely full-time. We have a small London office in Moorgate for those who want it, and about a third of the company is close enough to use it occasionally, but there's no expectation to be there. What matters is the work, not where you do it.

At Griffin, we’re looking for people who instinctively vibe with our values, behaviours and mission. You’re encouraged to apply, even if your experience doesn’t tick every box. Careers, like life, can take many twists and turns. Your technical expertise and path to where you are today will stand out. We're committed to creating a place where everyone belongs and we welcome diverse perspectives, backgrounds and people who are ready to build a global platform for programmable finance