AML Transaction Monitoring, Analyst

We are hiring an anti-money laundering (AML) Transaction Monitoring Analyst to own alerts and cases end to end—from triage and investigation through disposition and the record supporting it. You will prepare SAR referrals and narratives for review, contribute evidence that improves detection, and see defined operational projects through to completion.

Within Shopify’s Payment Operations organization, the Financial Crimes and Complaints (FCC) team protects Shopify, our merchants, and our partners from money laundering, sanctions evasion, terrorist financing, and other financial-crime risk. As Shopify’s payments and money-movement footprint grows across the US, EU, UK, and beyond, we are building the AML program that scales with it. Our mission is to build detection, investigation, and reporting capabilities that hold up under regulator, bank-partner, and card-brand scrutiny while keeping pace with the business.

Our ideal candidate is a hands-on investigator who follows the evidence, reaches defensible conclusions, and knows when to escalate. You question assumptions, identify unnecessary friction, and propose creative, practical solutions. You use data and AI to accelerate your work while checking the results.

Your key areas of ownership are:

• Alert and case quality and timeliness: Assigned alerts and cases are worked within agreed timelines, dispositioned correctly, and documented to a standard that holds up in QA and exam review.

• SAR referral quality: Referrals and narratives are accurate, complete, and on time, and need minimal substantive revision at review.

• Detection feedback: Rule gaps, noisy alerts, and emerging typologies you see in your cases are surfaced with evidence, so detection improves over time.

• Defined improvement projects: Assigned projects, such as rule backtests or process automation, are delivered with documented findings and a clean handoff.

Responsibilities

• Own alerts and cases: Independently manage assigned alerts through triage, investigation, and disposition, following established playbooks and maintaining complete supporting records.

• Deliver defensible investigations: Document the evidence, analysis, and reasoning behind each conclusion. Produce files that another investigator, bank partner, or examiner can follow.

• Prepare SAR referrals and narratives: Produce clear, accurate submissions ready for review without heavy rewrites. Escalate potential SARs and sanctions concerns early through the appropriate channels.

• Identify detection issues: Spot when an alert reveals risks beyond a rule’s intended purpose or when a rule is not working effectively. Explain what you observed, how often it occurs, and why it matters.

• Complete defined projects: Own assigned projects, such as backtesting a rule or automating process steps, and see them through to documented findings and handoff.

• Use and validate data: Run and adjust queries, check results against source information, and investigate when the numbers do not add up.

• Measure your own work: Use data to quantify your throughput, quality, and timeliness (such as alert aging, case cycle time, SAR filing deadlines, and QA results), and use those trends to flag where the queue or process needs attention.

• Challenge assumptions with evidence: Identify ineffective processes and unnecessary friction. Propose creative solutions using tools, automation, or different approaches, and deliver approved improvements within the agreed scope.

• Use AI by default: Use approved AI tools to accelerate triage, research, and drafting. Check outputs against source evidence and follow data-handling requirements.

• Collaborate and maintain continuity: Work effectively within FCC and with Risk, Fraud, Support, and Legal partners involved in a case. Keep notes and records current so another investigator can pick up the work.

Qualifications

• Hands-on AML transaction monitoring experience within a payments or money-movement business, such as a bank, acquirer, processor, or fintech.

• Experience independently owning alerts and cases end to end, including investigation, disposition, documentation, and escalation.

• Working knowledge of AML requirements in the US, EU, or UK (such as the BSA and FinCEN SAR rules, the EU AML Directives, or the UK Money Laundering Regulations and POCA), along with money-laundering typologies, SAR/STR processes, sanctions screening and escalation, and CDD/EDD frameworks.

• Strong investigative writing, including evidence-based conclusions and SAR referrals and narratives that require minimal substantive revision.

• Sound judgment about when to investigate further, follow the playbook, seek guidance, or escalate.

• A strong sense of accountability: you take responsibility for the quality of your investigations and their outcomes.

• Ability to run and adjust queries, interpret results, validate against source data, and identify discrepancies.

• A habit of using AI tools to accelerate work while verifying their accuracy.

• Creative problem-solving grounded in evidence: you can explain what is not working, propose a practical alternative, and test an approved approach.

• Strong organization and follow-through, including managing a case queue and completing defined projects.

• Clear communication and effective collaboration with teammates and case partners.

Nice to have

• Experience with payment facilitators, e-money institutions, or wallet products.

• CAMS, ICA Diploma, or equivalent AML certification.

• Experience preparing case evidence for regulatory examinations, audits, or bank-partner reviews.

• Familiarity with Actimize, Verafin, Hummingbird, or in-house transaction monitoring platforms.

• Experience backtesting detection rules or evaluating false positives.