Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Verification Program Specialist

🎯 Role Definition

We are seeking a Verification Program Specialist to build and operate robust identity verification programs that protect the business and customers while enabling seamless onboarding. This role owns day-to-day verification operations, vendor relationships, process design, quality assurance, and compliance monitoring for KYC/AML and identity verification workflows. The ideal candidate balances operational rigor with continual process improvement, owns metrics and reporting, and partners with Product, Trust & Safety, Legal, and Engineering to scale verification systems and reduce fraud and friction.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

Trust & Safety Associate or Analyst (Identity Operations)
Customer Onboarding / KYC Analyst
Fraud Analyst or Risk Operations Associate

Advancement To:

Senior Verification Program Specialist / Lead
Verification Program Manager / Head of Identity Operations
Trust & Safety / Risk Manager or Director

Lateral Moves:

Vendor Management Program Manager
Compliance Analyst (KYC/AML)
Fraud Prevention Product Specialist

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Own end-to-end identity verification program operations, including design, implementation, optimization, and scaling of verification workflows across manual and automated channels.
Manage day-to-day verification case queues: triage, investigate, resolve, and accurately document identity and document verification cases while maintaining SLA compliance.
Develop, maintain, and enforce Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for document review, biometric checks, liveness tests, and identity resolution processes to ensure consistency and auditability.
Coordinate with third-party verification vendors (document verification, biometric providers, watchlists) including onboarding, daily operations, SLA monitoring, performance reviews, and issue remediation.
Execute KYC/KYB and AML screening processes for new customer onboarding and periodic reviews, escalating suspicious activity to compliance and investigations teams as required.
Monitor fraud trends and signals in verification workflows, run root cause analyses, and design process or product changes to reduce false positives and false negatives.
Configure and maintain case management and identity orchestration platforms (IDV systems, fraud/risk engines, ticketing) and document configuration changes, routing rules, and decisioning logic.
Design and run quality assurance programs: sampling, double-blind reviews, error rate measurement, agent scorecards, and continuous training loops to raise adjudication accuracy.
Create and maintain detection rules, acceptance thresholds, and risk scoring models in partnership with data science or fraud teams to improve automated decisions.
Lead cross-functional projects to integrate new identity data sources (eID, government databases, biometric SDKs, electronic IDs) into verification pipelines.
Produce regular operational metrics and executive-level reporting (verification volume, SLA performance, accuracy, adjudication time, vendor KPIs, false acceptance/rejection rates).
Respond to regulatory and audit requests: prepare evidence, process maps, policy documentation, and remediation plans for internal and external audits.
Implement and maintain data privacy and security safeguards for personally identifiable information (PII) in verification processes, ensuring SOC2/ISO/PCI alignment where applicable.
Maintain up-to-date knowledge of global identity regulations (KYC, AML, eIDAS, GDPR) and adapt verification policies to meet jurisdictional requirements.
Triage and manage complex or high-risk verification escalations, coordinating with legal, compliance, and investigations teams to determine final disposition.
Conduct vendor performance assessments, negotiate SLAs and pricing, and identify opportunities to consolidate or diversify vendors to optimize costs and coverage.
Provide hands-on training, coaching, and onboarding for new verification analysts and cross-functional partners on program rules, tools, and fraud typologies.
Manage pilot programs for new verification technologies and suppliers: define success criteria, run A/B tests, and translate results into deployment recommendations.
Drive process improvement initiatives to reduce manual effort, decrease decision time, and increase automation—documenting business requirements and coordinating with engineering/product to implement changes.
Maintain a detailed issues register and run incident post-mortems for verification failures or production incidents; implement corrective actions to prevent recurrence.
Ensure comprehensive documentation of workflows, decisioning criteria, and exceptions; keep knowledge base articles current and easily accessible to operational staff.
Support customer service and appeals workflows related to verification denials and re-verification requests, ensuring timely and compliant responses.
Maintain strong working relationships across Trust & Safety, Product, Engineering, Legal, and Customer Support teams to prioritize verification roadmaps and operational risks.
Coordinate cross-border verification strategy to ensure consistent user experience while complying with region-specific KYC/AML and identification requirements.
Forecast verification capacity needs based on growth models and implement staffing or automation strategies to meet demand without sacrificing quality.

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.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

Identity verification (IDV) tooling experience: knowledge of document verification, facial liveness/biometric systems, watchlist screening, and identity orchestration platforms.
KYC/KYB and AML process knowledge, including sanctions and PEP screening workflows.
Vendor management experience: SLAs, performance metrics, contract interaction, and vendor escalation protocols.
Case management and CRM systems experience (Zendesk, Salesforce, Jumio, Onfido, Socure, GBG, Veriff, Sift, Riskified, etc.).
Strong data literacy: ability to analyze operational metrics (SQL, Excel/PivotTables), produce dashboards (Looker, Tableau, Power BI) and interpret A/B test results.
Fraud detection fundamentals: understanding of signal detection, false positive / false negative trade-offs, and basic rule-based decisioning.
Familiarity with API integrations and basic troubleshooting of production issues tied to verification systems.
Documentation and policy writing skills for SOPs, playbooks, and audit artifacts.
Knowledge of privacy and security standards (GDPR, SOC2, ISO27001) as they apply to PII and verification data handling.
Project management skills for running pilots, migrations, and cross-functional process improvements.

Soft Skills

Exceptional attention to detail and an evidence-driven approach to case adjudication.
Strong written and verbal communication: can explain complex verification outcomes to technical and non-technical stakeholders.
Problem-solving mindset with comfort owning ambiguous operational problems and driving them to resolution.
Effective stakeholder management and collaboration across Product, Legal, Engineering, and Customer Support.
Ability to prioritize high-volume workloads, maintain composure under pressure, and meet strict SLAs.
Coaching and team development: experience mentoring junior investigators and operational staff.
Analytical curiosity and continuous improvement orientation—always looking to reduce friction and improve outcomes.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience in a related field (Business, Criminal Justice, Information Systems, or similar).

Preferred Education:

Bachelor's degree in Finance, Computer Science, Cybersecurity, Criminal Justice, Information Systems, or Business Administration.
Certifications related to AML/KYC, fraud prevention, or data privacy (ACAMS, CIPP/US, CISSP basics) are a plus.

Relevant Fields of Study:

Criminal Justice
Finance or Accounting
Computer Science / Information Systems
Cybersecurity / Information Security
Business Administration / Operations

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 2–5 years of hands-on experience in identity verification, KYC operations, fraud prevention, or trust & safety operations.

Preferred: 3–7+ years managing verification programs, vendor relationships, or complex operational processes in regulated environments; prior experience with global verification flows, AML/KYC compliance, or identity technology providers preferred.