BSA Officer

About Dakota Dakota is building regulated infrastructure for the next generation of digital money. We power fintechs, payment service providers, marketplaces, and enterprises through a stablecoin platform that enables compliant money movement, custody, and cross-border settlement. Our API abstracts the complexity of banking partnerships, regulatory obligations, and digital asset orchestration into infrastructure designed for institutional use. Dakota has raised $16.5M from CoinFund, 6th Man Ventures, and Triton Ventures. We operate as a FinCEN registered Money Services Business, hold active Money Transmitter Licenses across the United States. In parallel, we are building toward a federal trust charter and Electronic Money Institution (EMI) licensing and Crypto-Asset Service Provider (CASP) authorization in Europe. We issue our own fully collateralized USD-backed stablecoin, DKUSD, backed 1:1 by cash and cash equivalents held in segregated accounts. Our founding team has built regulated financial infrastructure before. Ryan Bozarth previously led Coinbase Custody, helping scale it into the largest crypto custodian in the world. Dakota's technical co-founder built core infrastructure at Airbnb, bringing deep experience in designing resilient, high-scale systems. Compliance and engineering have been tightly integrated from day one — we build infrastructure to withstand scrutiny, not retrofit it later. We are a remote-first team across North America and Europe. We value high-quality work, clear thinking, and ownership. Why Now Stablecoins are becoming foundational to global financial infrastructure. What began as a crypto-native mechanism for settlement is now being adopted by fintechs, payment processors, marketplaces, and enterprises moving real volume across borders. As that adoption accelerates, regulatory frameworks in the United States and Europe are being defined in real time. The companies building compliant infrastructure now will shape how this category matures. Dakota is not a crypto exchange or a consumer wallet. We are the regulated plumbing that allows companies to move between dollars and digital dollars — programmatically, compliantly, and at scale. Our platform handles fiat-to-stablecoin orchestration, digital asset custody, compliance-as-a-service, and stablecoin issuance. The Opportunity Dakota is hiring a BSA Officer to formally lead and operate our financial crimes program as we scale into increasingly complex regulatory environments, including our pending federal trust charter. This role reports directly into the Chief Compliance Officer and serves as Dakota's designated BSA Officer for the federal trust charter entity, with SAR decisioning and filing authority and direct responsibility for the day-to-day execution, integrity, and defensibility of our AML and sanctions programs. You will also provide senior oversight across all US financial crimes programs — including our MTL entities, which will have their own designated BSA Officer — and act as a compliance program manager, helping uplevel our onboarding and transaction monitoring programs over time. If the Chief Compliance Officer designs the regulatory architecture, you ensure it works in production. Dakota operates at the intersection of traditional payments and blockchain-based settlement. The risk surface includes fiat-to-stablecoin orchestration, digital asset custody, cross-border settlement, and B2B and B2B2C operating models. This is not a static AML program — it is a dynamic, evolving financial crimes environment that must scale with the platform. If you are motivated by ownership, complexity, and building a defensible AML program inside a scaling infrastructure company that is moving into federal charter territory, this role offers meaningful scope. What You'll Do Own Financial Crime Program Execution Serve as Dakota's formally designated BSA Officer for FinCEN, applicable state regulators, and the federal trust charter entity Hold SAR decisioning and filing authority Oversee Dakota's BSA/AML, sanctions, and transaction monitoring programs across all US entities Ensure monitoring systems are tuned, effective, and defensible Manage alert review, investigations, SAR filings, and escalation workflows Maintain documentation discipline and audit-ready program artifacts Coordinate independent testing and remediation tracking Support regulatory examinations, audits, and remediation efforts Lead and Scale the AML Compliance Team Directly manage and develop a growing AMLteam (currently two team members, with near-term expansion planned) Oversee external analysts and overflow support partners, including Ankura Build operating rhythms, case quality standards, and escalation clarity Design hiring plans and org structure as volume scales Partner Deeply with Engineering Work closely with product and engineering to embed controls into infrastructure — not layer them on after the fact Optimize and evolve Dakota's compliance tooling stack (Sumsub, Unit21, TRM Labs) Contribute to rule design, threshold tuning, and monitoring enhancements Identify opportunities for responsible automation and AI leverage Support Multi-Jurisdictional Coordination Provide senior oversight across all US financial crimes programs, including MTL entities Act as the primary regulatory point of contact for financial crimes across US examinations as Dakota advances through trust charter and federal charter supervision Coordinate financial crime monitoring as Dakota expands into Europe, aligning US BSA program requirements with emerging MiCA and EMI expectations Ensure appropriate risk posture across US compliance programs Who You Are You have 8+ years of experience in BSA/AML, financial crime, or regulatory compliance within a regulated financial institution, fintech, payments company, or digital asset business. You have been through at least one regulatory examination cycle and understand what regulators expect — not just in theory, but in documentation, evidence, and execution. You are comfortable being hands-on: reviewing cases, making SAR decisions, tuning rules, and building dashboards, not just supervising others. You understand the difference between compliance theater and real risk management. Background signals we value Direct experience serving as a designated BSA Officer or Deputy BSA Officer SAR decisioning and filing authority experience Experience preparing for and responding to state or federal AML examinations, including trust charter or bank charter environments Familiarity with stablecoin or digital asset transaction monitoring Experience with transaction monitoring systems (Unit21 or similar), KYC/KYB providers, and blockchain analytics tools Experience managing external investigative vendors Exposure to cross-border or multi-jurisdictional compliance programs Traits that succeed at Dakota You lead with judgment, not just policy. You can distinguish between real risk and compliance theater. You build systems, not just documents. Policies are only as good as the controls that enforce them. You communicate regulatory complexity in ways that product, engineering, and business teams can act on. You are comfortable operating as a hands-on individual contributor today while building the team and infrastructure for tomorrow. You treat automation as a force multiplier. Dakota's compliance program is engineering-integrated by design. You should be excited by that, not intimidated. You move with urgency but never cut corners on rigor. How We Work At Dakota, we value people who strive for excellence, practice extreme ownership, experiment fearlessly and learn quickly, stay close to customers, and communicate clearly and directly. What We Offer Engaging problems that increase economic freedom globally Competitive salary and equity Employee-friendly equity terms (extended exercise) Remote work, no commuting to the office Paid co-working space/desk at an office Health, dental, and vision insurance Regular team events and off-sites