High Risk Customer Evaluation Manager

Block is one company built from many blocks, all united by the same purpose of economic empowerment. The blocks that form our foundational teams — People, Finance, Counsel, Hardware, Information Security, Platform Infrastructure Engineering, and more — provide support and guidance at the corporate level. They work across business groups and around the globe, spanning time zones and disciplines to develop inclusive People policies, forecast finances, give legal counsel, safeguard systems, nurture new initiatives, and more. Every challenge creates possibilities, and we need different perspectives to see them all. Bring yours to Block.

The Role

The Financial Crimes organization serves as the guardian of Block's ecosystem, ensuring that our platforms remain secure and trusted while advancing our mission of economic empowerment. We protect our customers' ability to participate in the economy while preventing criminal abuse of our systems, maintaining the integrity of both traditional and cryptocurrency transactions, and enabling responsible financial innovation.

The Customer Onboarding & Appeals team is part of the Financial Crimes organization. This team is essential to protecting Block’s ecosystem by developing and managing protocol that enable secure customer onboarding (e.g. customer identification and verification, merchant access), ongoing monitoring including EDD processes, and safe and compliant account restoration for customers returning to the platform while protecting Block from increased risk relating to financial crimes, money laundering, fraud, and terrorist financing.

Candidates for this role will have the opportunity to be placed within the Customer Onboarding & Appeals team to lead the High Risk Customer Evaluation (HRCE) function within the Financial Crimes organization.  

The HRCE Operations Manager plays a vital role in managing the operational aspects of high risk customer escalations and reputation and brand risk reviews. This role plays a critical function in protecting Block’s integrity, reputation, and regulatory standing by building a program responsible for ensuring that EDD reviews are conducted thoroughly, escalations are managed with precision, and decision-making is guided by both regulatory and brand risk considerations. 

You Will

You will own and support the following pieces of the Customer Onboarding and Appeals team: 

EDD Escalation & High Risk Case Management

• Lead the intake, review, and resolution of EDD escalations involving high risk customers, including PEPs, adverse media subjects, and complex customer scenarios
• Manage a team responsible for evaluating escalated customer profiles for financial crime risk, reputational exposure, and alignment with the organization’s risk appetite and brand risk
• Oversee the completion and quality of EDD investigations and documentation, ensuring defensible and audit-ready decisions
• Develop and maintain supplementary guidance documents and FAQs required to support consistent operations
• Partner with senior compliance stakeholders to assess residual risk and determine retention or exit strategies for high risk customers

Reputation & Brand Risk Evaluation

• Serve as the DRI for reputational risk assessments related to customer onboarding, events, and media exposure
• Manage a team responsible for conducting in-depth reviews of adverse media, public records, and other open-source intelligence to inform brand and reputational risk decisions
• Monitor KYC metrics to assess program effectiveness
• Coordinate with cross-functional teams (CCO, Legal, Risk) on high impact customer decisions that may affect the company’s public image

Stakeholder Engagement & Guidance

• Collaborate with Business Units, Legal, Compliance, and Risk to ensure a consistent approach to customer risk management and escalation handling
• Prepare and present case summaries and recommendations to governance forums, such as the Reputation and Brand Risk Committee
• Support responses to internal audit findings, regulatory inquiries, and Board-level escalations involving high risk clients
• Build and maintain relationships with key stakeholders across the organization

Team Management & Continuous Improvement

• Manage and mentor a team of senior EDD specialists
• Identify process enhancements to improve the efficiency, consistency, and accuracy of EDD escalation handling 
• Ensure activities align with regulatory expectations, internal policies, and best practices 
• Review and analyze HRCE metrics and program performance

• Monitor adherence to established standards and p