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Financial Crime, AML & KYC Analyst

Company: Mercor · Pay: $75–$100/hr · Location: Remote — Global · Type: contractor · Posted: 2026-09-14

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$75 - $100 / hr

The Modern Transformation of Anti-Money Laundering and Compliance Careers

The landscape of financial crime compliance, anti-money laundering (AML), and know-your-customer (KYC) operations has historically been anchored within strict institutional boundaries. For decades, compliance analysts, investigators, and risk officers have operated inside traditional banking halls, legacy financial institutions, and fast-paced fintech compliance centers. While these operational hubs remain critical to global security, the nature of specialized expertise is shifting rapidly. Today, elite compliance professionals are discovering groundbreaking ways to monetize their deep investigative frameworks, regulatory insight, and analytical acumen on flexible schedules through advanced technological platforms like Mercor.

As artificial intelligence systems and automated models permeate every facet of modern finance, financial institutions and AI research labs face an unprecedented bottleneck: frontier models cannot accurately process complex financial crime typologies, multi-layered corporate ownership structures, or nuanced Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) narratives without human expert guidance. This dynamic has catalyzed high-compensating remote opportunities, such as the Financial Crime, AML & KYC Analyst role on Mercor, which commands an exceptional hourly rate of $75 to $100 for specialized case evaluations.

Detailed Job Overview & Core Responsibilities

For seasoned compliance specialists, fraud investigators, and risk managers looking to diversify their professional impact or transition into flexible remote contracting, this role offers an intellectually stimulating environment. Rather than dealing with live proprietary institution servers or risking sensitive client data leaks, analysts work within controlled, self-contained libraries of realistic mock case exercises and files.

Key Responsibilities:

  • Transaction Monitoring Adjudication: Review detailed alert packets, KYC/CDD profiles, and historical transaction logs to document dispositions accurately and draft robust SAR narratives where warranted.
  • Onboarding & Remediation Audits: Inspect client onboarding and KYC packets for omissions, discrepancies across documents, and formulate comprehensive remediation checklists.
  • Beneficial Ownership Resolution: Deconstruct complex, multi-layered UBO (Ultimate Beneficial Owner) legal structures, correctly applying 10% and 25% threshold standards.
  • Sanctions & Adverse Media Screening: Adjudicate screening hits (determining true matches versus false positives or escalations) supported by clear, concise, defensible rationales.
  • Fraud & Queue Triage: Triage supervisory alert queues, resolve card fraud and dispute cases, and cross-examine flagged operational communications against underlying trade records.

Candidate Qualifications: Who Flourishes in This Role

Because these positions directly train and fine-tune state-of-the-art financial AI systems used across top-tier enterprise networks, the selection criteria are tailored to find experienced practitioners who possess a rigorous grasp of regulatory frameworks.

Must-Have Requirements:
  • 3+ Years of Hands-On Experience: Proven professional background in AML, financial crime investigation, KYC/CDD compliance, sanctions screening, fraud dispute resolution, or transaction surveillance within a bank, fintech platform, payments processor, or MSB.
  • Regulatory Framework Mastery: Working familiarity with FinCEN, FATF, and OFAC guidelines, alongside standardized SAR and CDD documentation protocols.
  • Defensible Writing Skills: Exceptional ability to draft clear, evidence-backed, and logically sound compliance rationales.

Preferred Credentials & Skills: Holding a CAMS/ACAMS or CFE certification; experience with enhanced due diligence (EDD) or corporate entity unwinding; proficiency in SQL or complex transaction analytics.

Understanding the Assessment Process

To ensure alignment with high-level institutional standards, applicants undergo a targeted, timed practical assessment that mirrors daily compliance operations. This evaluation typically spans three core modules:

  1. Mock Alert Packet: Evaluating a simulated transaction alert to determine the proper disposition and drafting a professional SAR narrative.
  2. KYC Packet Review: Spotting cross-document discrepancies in a mock client file and compiling an accurate remediation list.
  3. Sanctions Batch: Rapidly adjudicating a batch of sanctions or adverse media hits with concise, policy-compliant rationales.

Contract Flexibility, Global Payouts, and Work-Life Autonomy

One of the principal advantages of contracting through Mercor is the freedom it grants independent professionals. The position is structured around an estimated 15 hours per week, making it an ideal companion to consulting work, advisory roles, or personal projects:

  • Independent Contractor Status: Complete all case exercises on your own schedule from any remote location within the United States (note: H1-B or STEM OPT support is unavailable).
  • Predictable Weekly Remuneration: Compensation is disbursed on a weekly basis via reliable global payout solutions like Stripe and Wise, ensuring seamless cash flow.
  • Dynamic Scalability: Projects adapt to enterprise training timelines, allowing professionals to balance high-yield income with ultimate schedule control.

Why Financial Crime Expertise is More Valuable Than Ever

Compliance professionals often face burnout within traditional corporate settings due to repetitive backlogs, mounting regulatory pressures, and rigid office policies. Transitioning your investigative prowess into AI training and model evaluation allows you to focus purely on the intellectual rigor of the work. You help build the security systems of tomorrow while earning an elite hourly rate between $75 and $100.

Moreover, partnering with leading AI laboratories keeps your technical skills ahead of industry curves, blending traditional regulatory knowledge with cutting-edge technological literacy.

Take the Next Step in Your Compliance Career

High-caliber remote contractor roles with flexible hours and competitive compensation packages attract immense interest from early applicants. If you meet the background requirements in AML, financial crime, or KYC compliance and want to shape the future of automated risk detection, now is the ideal moment to submit your application.

Responsibilities

  • Transaction Monitoring Adjudication: Review detailed alert packets, KYC/CDD profiles, and historical transaction logs to document dispositions accurately and draft robust SAR narratives where warranted.
  • Onboarding & Remediation Audits: Inspect client onboarding and KYC packets for omissions, discrepancies across documents, and formulate comprehensive remediation checklists.
  • Beneficial Ownership Resolution: Deconstruct complex, multi-layered UBO (Ultimate Beneficial Owner) legal structures, correctly applying 10% and 25% threshold standards.
  • Sanctions & Adverse Media Screening: Adjudicate screening hits (determining true matches versus false positives or escalations) supported by clear, concise, defensible rationales.
  • Fraud & Queue Triage: Triage supervisory alert queues, resolve card fraud and dispute cases, and cross-examine flagged operational communications against underlying trade records.

Qualifications

  • 3+ Years of Hands-On Experience: Proven professional background in AML, financial crime investigation, KYC/CDD compliance, sanctions screening, fraud dispute resolution, or transaction surveillance within a bank, fintech platform, payments processor, or MSB.
  • Regulatory Framework Mastery: Working familiarity with FinCEN, FATF, and OFAC guidelines, alongside standardized SAR and CDD documentation protocols.
  • Defensible Writing Skills: Exceptional ability to draft clear, evidence-backed, and logically sound compliance rationales.

Apply now →