Compliance Manager

Salient is one of the fastest-growing AI startups in consumer finance. In less than two years, we’ve achieved product-market fit, scaled to 8-figure ARR, and emerged as one of the undisputed leaders in financial voice AI.

A few fast facts:

• Backed by YC and raised the largest Series A for a B2B startup from a16z

• Reached product-market fit in <2 years and scaled to 8-digit ARR

• 19-person team building a speech AI agent that handles millions of real customer calls per day, and fully deployed in production across major financial institutions (not just PoCs)

• We’re on a mission to pass the Turing test for conversational speech in a telephony setting

• In-person office culture in San Francisco, CA

About the Role

As a Compliance Manager, you will be Salient’s first dedicated compliance team member. You’ll partner with our various teams to design and implement scalable compliance policies, manage vendor management reviews with enterprise customers, and ensure we’re adhering to industry standards and regulatory requirements. You’ll be both strategic and hands-on: drafting procedures, responding to customer compliance questionnaires, and preparing us for audits.

What You’ll Do

• Develop, document, and maintain compliance policies, procedures, and internal controls across Salient.

• Lead the completion of enterprise customer compliance/vendor management requests during onboarding.

• Partner with Sales and Business Operations to ensure smooth and timely responses to security, privacy, and compliance questionnaires.

• Support readiness for external audits (SOC 2, ISO 27001, etc.), including evidence collection and control testing.

• Educate internal teams on compliance requirements and help operationalize best practices across functions.

• Serve as the primary point of contact for compliance inquiries from customers, vendors, and partners.

Who We’re Looking for

• 5+ years of experience in compliance, risk, or audit roles within SaaS, fintech, or regulated industries.

• Familiarity with common compliance frameworks (SOC 2, ISO 27001, GDPR, CCPA, etc.) and vendor risk management processes.

• Strong project management skills and ability to own processes end-to-end.

• Excellent communication skills - able to translate compliance concepts into practical guidance for business teams.

• Comfortable working in a fast-paced, high-growth startup environment.

Nice to Have

• Experience building compliance functions from scratch at a startup.

• Prior success supporting enterprise sales processes through compliance/vendor reviews.

• Background working with lenders, financial institutions, or other highly regulated partners.

As an early-stage company building at the frontier of AI, we work with high intensity and commitment. While schedules can vary by role/team, many weeks will demand extra focus, flexibility and time particularly during major launches and high impact sprints. We're seeking those who are aligned to and able to commit to that expectation which includes 4 days per week in our San Francisco Office.