Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Verification Program Coordinator
💰 $ - $
🎯 Role Definition
The Verification Program Coordinator is the operational owner and day-to-day driver of identity and transaction verification programs. This role coordinates cross-functional teams, manages third-party verification vendors, authors and maintains SOPs, conducts quality reviews and audits, and continuously optimizes verification workflows to reduce fraud, ensure regulatory compliance (KYC/AML), and improve customer experience. The ideal candidate blends process discipline, analytical fluency, vendor management skills, and strong communication to translate policy into reliable operational execution.
📈 Career Progression
Typical Career Path
Entry Point From:
- Verification Analyst / Identity Operations Specialist
- Compliance Analyst (KYC/AML)
- Quality Assurance Analyst in operations or customer verification
Advancement To:
- Senior Verification Program Coordinator / Program Manager
- Verification Operations Manager / Head of Identity Operations
- Compliance Manager (KYC/AML) or Fraud Operations Lead
Lateral Moves:
- Vendor Management / Procurement for verification tech
- Product Operations for identity and trust products
- Risk & Fraud Analyst roles
Core Responsibilities
Primary Functions
- Design, document, and maintain end-to-end verification program workflows and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) that reflect regulatory requirements (KYC/AML), company policy, and operational best practices.
- Manage day-to-day operation of identity verification programs, including oversight of manual reviews, automated checks, escalation queues, and decisioning rules to ensure timely, accurate determinations.
- Serve as the primary liaison with third-party verification vendors — negotiate SLAs, manage contract deliverables, drive vendor performance reviews, and resolve disputes or service degradations.
- Lead quality assurance and calibration programs: audit sample cases daily/weekly, score reviewer accuracy, provide feedback, and run root cause analyses to close quality gaps.
- Monitor and report key verification metrics (turnaround time, false positive/negative rates, approval rates, escalation volume, SLA adherence) and present insights to stakeholders to inform roadmap decisions.
- Own case triage and escalation processes: define severity thresholds, coordinate cross-functional incident response, and ensure timely remediation of verification errors or outages.
- Implement and maintain verification rulesets and decisioning logic in identity platforms (including rule change testing, rollout plans, and rollback procedures).
- Coordinate User Acceptance Testing (UAT) and production validations for changes to verification systems, ensuring test plans, test data, and acceptance criteria are documented and met.
- Run cross-functional change management for verification program updates — communicate release notes, train operations and support teams, and update training materials and SOPs.
- Conduct periodic regulatory and internal compliance reviews to ensure verification practices meet local and international laws; prepare and support internal and external audits.
- Build and maintain operating dashboards and automated reports for senior leadership, compliance, fraud, and product teams using business intelligence tools.
- Analyze transaction and verification data to identify fraud patterns, process inefficiencies, or bias in automated decisioning; recommend and implement process or model adjustments.
- Coordinate onboarding and training for verification reviewers, including curriculum design, competency assessments, and certification tracking.
- Oversee documentation management including evidence retention practices, version control, and audit-ready documentation for compliance teams.
- Drive continuous improvement projects using lean methodologies (e.g., process mapping, root cause analysis, Kaizen) to increase throughput, reduce manual touches, and lower verification costs.
- Manage workforce planning for verification operations: shift scheduling, capacity forecasting, peak readiness, and vendor resource planning to meet SLAs.
- Partner with product and engineering to evaluate, pilot, and implement identity verification technologies (biometrics, document OCR, liveness detection, device intelligence), and assess ROI and integration complexity.
- Maintain privacy and data protection posture within verification workflows: ensure PII handling follows internal policies and regulatory requirements (e.g., GDPR, CCPA), coordinate with privacy and security teams on remediation.
- Prepare and deliver executive summaries and playbooks for incident response tied to identity verification failures, fraud spikes, or regulatory inquiries.
- Coordinate cross-border verification strategies: assess localization needs (document types, transliteration, language), regulatory constraints, and vendor coverage to scale verification programs internationally.
- Manage ticketing and case management systems for verification operations (e.g., Zendesk, ServiceNow) to ensure proper routing, SLAs, and tracking of verification issues.
- Evaluate and coordinate automation opportunities (RPA, rules automation, ML-assisted triage) to increase automation rate while controlling risk and preserving auditability.
- Maintain strong relationships with compliance, legal, fraud, product, engineering, and customer support teams to align verification program goals and resolve escalations effectively.
- Track industry trends, regulatory updates, and new verification technologies; produce recommendation briefs and roadmap proposals for senior leadership.
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 the preparation of regulatory filings and responses to compliance inquiries related to verification activities.
- Help coordinate vendor invoices, performance-based billing disputes, and cost optimization efforts.
- Provide front-line support for critical escalations during peak fraud events or system outages.
Required Skills & Competencies
Hard Skills (Technical)
- Strong understanding of identity verification systems and technologies (document verification, biometric liveness, OCR, device intelligence).
- KYC/AML regulatory knowledge applicable to consumer onboarding and transaction monitoring.
- Experience with case management and ticketing platforms (e.g., Zendesk, ServiceNow, Jira).
- Proficiency with analytics tools and languages: SQL for data extraction, Excel (advanced), and BI tools such as Tableau, Looker, or Power BI.
- Familiarity with vendor management processes and SLA negotiation.
- Experience with quality assurance frameworks, audit sampling techniques, and performance calibration.
- Ability to author technical SOPs, runbooks, and compliance-ready documentation.
- Basic familiarity with authentication technologies (SAML/OAuth), ID proofing flows, or fraud detection signals.
- Experience participating in UAT and deploying process/system changes in production.
- Exposure to automation tools and concepts (RPA, orchestration, or ML-assisted decisioning).
- Knowledge of data privacy principles and frameworks (GDPR, CCPA) as applied to identity data.
Soft Skills
- Strong written and verbal communication; able to translate technical and regulatory concepts for non-technical stakeholders.
- Excellent stakeholder management and cross-functional collaboration.
- Analytical mindset with strong attention to detail and pattern recognition.
- Problem solving and root-cause analysis orientation.
- Project and program management skills; comfortable managing multiple priorities and timelines.
- Ability to coach, train, and develop operational teams.
- High degree of integrity and discretion when handling sensitive personal data.
- Resilience and calm under pressure during incidents and escalations.
- Continuous improvement mindset; proactive in identifying efficiency gains.
- Customer-focused orientation with a bias for balancing risk mitigation and user experience.
Education & Experience
Educational Background
Minimum Education:
- Bachelor’s degree or equivalent practical experience in Business, Criminal Justice, Information Systems, Finance, or a related field.
Preferred Education:
- Bachelor’s or Master’s in Business Administration, Information Security, Data Analytics, or related discipline.
- Professional certifications (CAMS, CIPP/US, CIPP/E, or vendor-specific verification certifications) preferred.
Relevant Fields of Study:
- Business Administration
- Information Systems / Computer Science
- Criminal Justice / Criminology
- Finance / Risk Management
- Data Analytics / Statistics
Experience Requirements
Typical Experience Range:
- 2–5 years in identity verification, KYC/AML operations, fraud operations, or related program coordination roles.
Preferred:
- 3+ years managing verification workflows or vendor relationships, with demonstrable experience driving quality programs and working with identity technologies or compliance teams.