Licensing and Audit Manager

Lightspark is creating the Money Grid, modern, open financial infrastructure that makes payments accessible, affordable, and instant for businesses and users worldwide. We're challenging the status quo, updating the current system, and empowering our partners to build better solutions. Together, we're building the most advanced financial infrastructure, open, instant, and global, inspiring a future where anyone, anywhere can access the full potential of digital money.

Lightspark Payments is building regulated services on the Lightning Network and holds Money Transmission Licenses in the United States. This role will lead and manage the licensing and audit function for our regulated payments business, including obtaining and maintaining state licenses, managing regulatory examinations and audits, and driving remediation of any resulting gaps. You will report to our Chief Compliance Officer and will work closely with the Compliance, Legal, Finance, Product, Engineering, and Operations teams as Lightspark Payments scales. This role will appeal to experienced licensing and examination professionals who combine rigorous attention to detail with a drive to build better, more scalable processes.

On-site attendance in our Los Angeles office is preferred. We will also consider candidates working remotely, in which case regular travel to our Los Angeles office is required to collaborate with your team and cross functional stakeholders.

WHAT YOU'LL BE DOING

- Own the end-to-end license lifecycle for Lightspark Payments’ money transmission business: prepare, file, and track new state license applications and change-of-control, key-individual, and other amendment filings in NMLS, and manage renewals and ongoing license maintenance across all states.

- Serve as the primary point of contact for state regulators and, where applicable, federal regulators during licensing cycles, responding to deficiency requests, supplemental information requests, and follow-up inquiries in a timely and complete manner.

- Maintain a licensing calendar and inventory of license conditions, surety bonds, net worth and permissible investment requirements, registered agents, and renewal deadlines; partner with Finance and Legal to gather the supporting information and documentation.

- Prepare, review, and submit regulatory reports, including the NMLS MSB Call Report and other periodic state and federal filings, ensuring accuracy, consistency with source data, and on-time submission.

- Manage regulatory examinations from notification through close-out: coordinate request lists, organize and review document production, prepare management and subject matter experts for interviews, and serve as the day-to-day contact for examiners.

- Manage the audit program, including bank and partner audits, the annual independent Title 31 BSA/AML audit, and the Compliance Management System (CMS) audit, coordinating with independent auditors and internal stakeholders on scope, timing, evidence, and findings.

- Lead audit and examination remediation: log findings and gaps, assign owners, define corrective action plans with realistic timelines, track progress to completion, validate that fixes are effective, and report status to the CCO and leadership.

- Establish and run a quality assurance and monitoring approach for licensing and audit activities, including a central repository of examination responses, audit evidence, and regulatory correspondence that supports consistent and efficient responses over time.

- Monitor changes in state and federal money transmission laws and regulations (including licensing, surety, reporting, and examination requirements), assess the impact to Lightspark Payments, and work with the CCO and Legal to update policies, procedures, and processes accordingly.

- Continuously improve licensing and audit processes: identify manual steps and recurring pain points, and design templates, trackers, workflows, and automation that make the function more scalable and audit-ready as Lightspark Payments grows into new states, products, and partners.

- Partner with Product, Engineering, Operations, Finance, and Legal to ensure new products, markets, and business changes are evaluated for licensing impact and regulatory notification requirements before launch.

- Support the CCO and the Compliance Program Manager with the Controls Inventory, risk assessments, policies and procedures, and other compliance program documentation as it relates to licensing and audit findings.

- Provide direction and work prioritization for the Compliance Analyst supporting licensing and examination activities, and support the CCO as needed.

WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR

- 5+ years of hands-on experience working in NMLS, actively applying for and maintaining state money transmission licenses for a licensed money transmitter or similarly regulated fintech.

- Demonstrated experience interacting directly with state and federal regulators (for example, state banking departments, FinCEN, and the IRS) during both the licensing cycle and examinations, including responding to findings and deficiency requests.

- Experience preparing and filing the NMLS MSB Call Report and other periodic regulatory reports.

- Working knowledge of state money transmission laws and the Bank Secrecy Act as applicable to MSBs, and of consumer protection requirements such as Reg E, with familiarity with digital asset or cross-border payments a plus.

- Proven experience managing examinations and audits (regulatory, bank partner, and independent audits such as Title 31 or CMS) and leading remediation of findings through to closure.

- Exceptional attention to detail and organization, with the ability to manage many concurrent filings, deadlines, and requests without compromising accuracy.

- A process-improvement mindset: comfortable building or redesigning processes, trackers, and workflows, and using tools or automation to make licensing and aud