KYC Analyst

Company Mission

Payhawk is one AI-powered spend management platform for scaling businesses — corporate cards, expense management, procurement, and accounts payable, unified in one place. We serve finance teams across 32+ countries, cutting month-end close time and reconciling 99.7% of transactions with zero manual touch. AI runs through the platform as core infrastructure, not a bolted-on feature — and we hire the top 1% of talent in every function to keep building it that way.

Why Payhawk

Payhawk, where the bold builders make an impact.

We're not a family, we're a high-performance team — and that's deliberate. We debate, ideate, and push each other to be better, because the best ideas come from direct feedback. We've already made history as Bulgaria's first unicorn, but the ambition doesn't stop there: if you want to grow fast - own it; do not wait for it.

Give: Honest opinions, real ownership, a focus on outcomes.

Get: A front-row seat to a market leader in one of the fastest-moving industries.

The role, in one line

Payhawk's automation now does much of the KYC data work, from document intake to risk scoring, and you will own corporate onboarding cases end to end, bringing the judgement and calibration it cannot.

What you will own

• Own corporate client applications end to end, across all our markets, from first review to decision.
• Analyse complex corporate structures and international documentation, and work out what each structure really tells you about risk.
• Run PEP, sanctions, and adverse media screening on applicants, companies, and their representatives, and resolve alerts with a clear rationale.
• Use our AI and automation tooling as your default way of working. Check its output rigorously, and tell us where it is wrong so we can refine it.
• Challenge what we ask customers for. If a document adds no risk value, say so and make the case.
• Escalate potentially fraudulent activity to the MLRO with a tight, evidence-led write-up.
• Work directly with customers and Account Executives to move cases forward, rather than waiting for a thread to update.
• Hit and beat throughput and quality targets, and help the team do the same.
• Bring ideas that change how the function works, not just how your own queue works.

What you will need

Must-have

• Strong reasoning ability. You can hold a messy, ambiguous problem in your head, break it into parts, and reach a defensible answer without a checklist.
• Excellent written and spoken English. You can explain a decision plainly to a customer and defend the same decision to an auditor.
• You are genuinely AI native. You already use AI daily, you know what it is good and bad at, and you treat a wrong output as something to diagnose, not a reason to go back to doing it by hand.
• You are target driven. You want to know what good looks like and beat it, and you find the numbers motivating rather than oppressive.
• You are inventive. You look at a process, see the eleven steps that could be three, and do something about it.
• Willingness to learn compliance properly, including the regulation and the reasoning behind the rules, and to be assessed on it.
• Judgement and ownership under uncertainty. You would rather make a reasoned call and be accountable for it than wait to be told. You know when to escalate, you escalate with a recommendation rather than a question, and you can always show your working.
• Comfort talking to customers. Much of this role is a service role as well as a control role.
• Ownership and entrepreneurship.
• A positive attitude and energy.
• Openness to feedback.
• Comfort with a fast-changing environment.
• A team orientation and strong interpersonal skills.
• A degree in any discipline, or equivalent evidence that you learn quickly and think rigorously.

Nice-to-have

• Experience in a regulated financial services, fintech, or professional services environment.
• Prior AML, KYC, or KYB experience, or exposure to fraud, audit, or forensic work.
• Additional European languages.
• A history of building your own tools, scripts, prompts, or workflows to make your work faster.

What you will get

• Recharge properly — 30 days of paid holiday
• Change the view — a week-long exchange to London, Amsterdam, Paris, Munich, Vilnius, Berlin, Sofia, or Barcelona
• Win together, celebrate together — regular team-wide events that are actually worth showing up to
• Covered, properly — additional medical care
• Stay in the game — a sports card, fully funded, for the gym, classes, or your sport of choice
• Commute easily — a monthly travel allowance that covers getting to and from the office
• Use what you build — hands-on access to the actual product you're hiring people to help build

Payhawk is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender perception or identity, national origin, age, marital status, protected veteran status, or disability status.