Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Verification Program Assistant

🎯 Role Definition

The Verification Program Assistant supports identity verification, KYC (Know Your Customer), compliance, and program operations by managing verification workflows, validating documents and data, coordinating cross-functional cases, and maintaining program documentation. This role is responsible for high-quality evidence review, case triage, escalation management, and continuous process improvement to reduce fraud and increase verification throughput while ensuring regulatory and internal policy adherence.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

Customer Service Representative with exposure to identity or document handling
Data Entry or Administrative Assistant supporting operations or compliance teams
Junior Fraud Analyst or Intake Specialist focused on KYC/ID checks

Advancement To:

Verification Program Coordinator / Senior Verification Specialist
Compliance Analyst or KYC Analyst
Program Manager — Identity & Verification Operations

Lateral Moves:

Quality Assurance Analyst (Operations)
Operations Analyst or Risk Analyst

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Manage daily case queues within the verification program by reviewing incoming verification requests, prioritizing cases based on risk and SLA, and ensuring timely resolution to meet operational targets and customer expectations.
Execute detailed document and identity verification tasks by validating government-issued IDs, utility bills, bank statements, and other supporting documents using established checklists and verification tools to detect fraud or inconsistencies.
Perform comprehensive KYC (Know Your Customer) checks, including name matching, address verification, and sanctions screening, escalating suspected matches to senior compliance or legal teams in accordance with policy.
Triage complex or ambiguous verification cases by gathering additional information, contacting applicants for clarifications, and coordinating with internal stakeholders to reach a defensible verification decision.
Maintain accurate case notes and audit trails in the case management system, documenting evidence, rationale for decisions, and steps taken to remediate problems to support future audits and regulatory reviews.
Monitor system alerts, identity verification tool outputs, and fraud signals to identify trends or spikes in suspicious activity and propose immediate mitigations or case holds as necessary.
Conduct secondary quality reviews on closed verification cases to ensure decision accuracy, compliance with SOPs, and to identify training opportunities for the verification team.
Support program onboarding of new verification tools and vendors by participating in testing, documenting functional requirements, and validating tool outputs against existing processes to ensure integration quality.
Coordinate cross-functional investigations with fraud, legal, customer support, and engineering teams to resolve escalations that require multi-team input or technical remediation.
Execute manual verification workflows for edge-case profiles and special populations (e.g., dual nationals, expired documents) while applying regulatory guidance and internal policy to ensure fair treatment and accurate outcomes.
Maintain up-to-date knowledge of regulatory requirements and industry best practices related to KYC, AML (Anti-Money Laundering), and identity verification, applying changes to daily processes and training materials.
Prepare and deliver concise case summaries and status reports to program managers, highlighting trends, outstanding high-risk cases, and process bottlenecks that require management attention.
Assist with creating, updating, and enforcing standard operating procedures (SOPs), decision trees, and verification playbooks to standardize handling across the verification program.
Conduct periodic reconciliation of verification data and system logs to ensure data integrity between source systems, the case management platform, and reporting dashboards.
Implement continuous improvement initiatives by documenting common failure modes, proposing automation opportunities, and supporting pilot projects to reduce manual effort and increase throughput.
Provide frontline support during system outages or vendor failures by executing contingency verification procedures, manually validating critical cases, and escalating to IT or vendor support as needed.
Train and mentor junior verification staff on case handling, tool usage, and policy interpretation to build team capacity and maintain consistent verification quality.
Participate in internal and external audits by pulling case samples, explaining decision rationale, and remediating any policy non-conformances identified during review cycles.
Monitor SLA and KPI performance metrics for verification queues, generating insights and action plans to address backlog, error rates, and throughput gaps.
Maintain confidentiality and secure handling of personally identifiable information (PII) and adhere to company data protection policies, encryption standards, and access controls.
Liaise with vendor partners for third-party verification services by validating vendor responses, coordinating escalations, and providing feedback to improve vendor performance and integration reliability.
Support product and engineering teams with verification requirements, providing real-world case examples and acceptance criteria to shape verification-related features and APIs.

Secondary Functions

Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory data analysis.
Contribute to the organization's data strategy and roadmap.
Collaborate with business units to translate data needs into engineering requirements.
Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies within the data engineering team.
Assist in drafting user-facing help articles and knowledge base content related to verification requirements and common outcomes.
Participate in periodic tabletop exercises and incident response drills to validate verification program readiness for large-scale fraud events.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

Proven experience with identity verification platforms and tools (e.g., Jumio, Onfido, IDnow, Socure) and understanding of their workflows and outputs.
Solid working knowledge of KYC and AML screening processes, including watchlist and sanctions screening best practices.
Proficiency in case management and ticketing systems (e.g., Zendesk, ServiceNow, Salesforce) and ability to maintain audit-ready case records.
Strong data validation and spreadsheet skills, including advanced Microsoft Excel (pivot tables, VLOOKUP/XLOOKUP, conditional formatting) for reconciliation and reporting.
Familiarity with basic SQL queries for extracting and validating verification data from relational databases or reporting platforms.
Experience using fraud detection signals and heuristics to assess risk (device intelligence, geolocation, velocity checks).
Ability to work with APIs and simple integrations — reading API responses and mapping fields for verification flows or vendor lookups.
Competence with document authentication techniques and familiarity with common ID formats, security features, and signs of tampering.
Experience preparing compliance reports and providing documentation for internal/external audits.
Knowledge of data privacy regulations (GDPR, CCPA) and secure handling of PII throughout the verification lifecycle.
Basic scripting or automation exposure (e.g., Python, RPA tools) to automate repetitive verification tasks is a plus.
Familiarity with business intelligence tools (Looker, Tableau, Power BI) to consume verification dashboards and produce actionable reports.

Soft Skills

Exceptional attention to detail with an ability to identify subtle inconsistencies in documentation and data.
Strong written and verbal communication skills for clear case notes, stakeholder updates, and escalation summaries.
Analytical problem-solving mindset to evaluate complex verification scenarios and recommend defensible outcomes.
Time management and prioritization skills to maintain SLA compliance in a high-volume operational environment.
High level of integrity and sound judgement when handling sensitive or confidential customer information.
Collaborative team player comfortable coordinating with cross-functional partners (fraud, product, engineering, legal).
Adaptability to evolving policies, toolsets, and regulatory requirements in a dynamic verification environment.
Customer-focused orientation with empathy for genuine users while maintaining rigorous verification standards.
Resilience under pressure and capacity to manage competing priorities during spikes in verification demand.
Proactive mindset toward continuous improvement, identifying process gaps and proposing effective solutions.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

High school diploma or equivalent; vocational training or certifications in compliance, fraud prevention, or data management considered an asset.

Preferred Education:

Associate or Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Criminal Justice, Finance, Information Technology, Cybersecurity, or a related field.

Relevant Fields of Study:

Business Administration
Criminal Justice / Criminology
Information Technology or Cybersecurity
Finance / Accounting
Data Analytics / Statistics

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

1 to 4 years in verification, KYC, compliance, fraud operations, customer trust & safety, or related operational roles.

Preferred:

2+ years of hands-on experience with identity verification processes, document validation, and case management in a regulated or high-volume operational environment; prior exposure to KYC/AML program requirements and vendor-managed verification solutions preferred.