Payments Risk

Central 1 cooperatively empowers credit unions and other financial institutions to deliver banking choice to Canadians. Central 1 provides critical services at scale to enable a thriving credit union system. We do this by collaborating with our clients, developing strategies, products and services to support the financial well-being of their more than 5 million diverse customers in communities across Canada. For more information, visit

What we offer:

• Work-life flexibility 

• Hybrid work environment 

• Variable annual incentive plan

• Generous annual vacation allotment

• Top-notch flexible benefits plan including family building and gender affirmation

• Retirement Plan, matched contributions at 6%

• Access to a learning platform and educational assistance support

• Access to a virtual wellness platform

• Career development opportunities

• Wellness Flex Fund to support personal interest and activities

• Day off to volunteer in your community and other paid time off options

• Corporate discounts

*subject to employment agreement

Job Summary:

The Payments Risk & Controls Specialist supports enterprise-wide risk and control activities across the full Payments portfolio, including day-to-day risk management, reporting, and coordination across Products, Operations, Business Development, AML/Fraud, Compliance, Technology, and Enterprise Risk.

This role helps the Payments Group maintain a clear, consolidated view of risks across all Payment products and services, including core offerings and new capabilities introduced through the Client Expansion strategy. The Specialist assists with risk reviews, control assessments, compliance activities, issue tracking, and supporting materials for leadership and governance forums. Other duties may be assigned as needed to support risk-informed decision making.

The role acts as a central coordination point for ensuring Payments teams complete required risk tasks, maintain documentation, and follow standard processes for risk identification, mitigation, and reporting.

What you'll be doing:

Payments Group Risk Coordination

• Support risk management activities across the Payments Group, including e-Transfers, Wires, ACH, RTR readiness, onboarding flows, settlement arrangements, and new client segments.

• Assist the Payments team in maintaining risk inventories, assessments, and control documentation for products, client processes, and operational workflows.

• Coordinate and track payments-related risk activities, ensuring deadlines and deliverables are met.

• Support the Senior Manager in preparing responses to audit, compliance, assurance, and regulatory inquiries.

Risk Assessment & Control Validation

• Assist with risk and control assessments across Payments processes, supporting both recurring assessments and targeted deep dives.

• Help validate that controls are operating as designed by reviewing evidence, collaborating with operational teams, and documenting results.

• Support control design updates as product changes, new onboarding requirements, or as new client risks emerge.

Issue, Incident & Mitigation Tracking

• Track operational issues, audit findings, and risk mitigation plans from initiation to closure.

• Follow up with owners to ensure timelines, evidence, and required validation steps are completed.

• Assist in preparing summaries for leadership, providing clear status updates and escalation points.

Risk Reporting & Analysis

• Produce regular and ad-hoc reports on Payments risk and control performance, including dashboards, trend summaries, KRIs, and emerging issues.

• Consolidate input from multiple teams and turn it into clear, actionable summaries for decision makers.

• Support materials for Payments governance forums, such as Client Expansion working group, Executive forums, and Enterprise Risk committees.

Stakeholder Engagement

• Foster strong relationships with Operations, Product, AML/Fraud, Technology, Compliance, and Enterprise Risk teams.

• Build awareness and understanding of the Payments team risk processes, documentation expectations, and reporting timelines.

• Support training and awareness activities to strengthen risk culture and shared accountability.

• Degree or diploma in business, risk management, analytics, finance, or a related field.

• 5-7 years of experience in risk management, payments operations, compliance, or audit.

• Experience working with risk frameworks (RCSA, control testing, issue management, KRIs) is an asset.

• Strong relationship management and interpersonal skills are required to manage, coordinate, and integrate input from a diverse range of internal and external stakeholders.

• Strong analytical skills and ability to work with data to identify themes, trends, and risk signals.

• Effective communication skills, including the ability to write clear summaries and prepare materials for leadership.

• Proven ability to coordinate cross-functional activities and manage multiple timelines.

• Familiarity with financial institution risk practices, payments products, or client onboarding is an asset.

• Experience with GRC tools, dashboards, or structured reporting environments is an advantage.

Salary range: $72,000-$85,000

The salary range represents the job rate determined for the successful candidate who is fully competent in the role. The actual salary will vary depending on market conditions and relevant job-related factors such as knowledge, skills, qualifications, experience, and education/training.

#LI-Hybrid

Central 1 is an equal opportunity employer and committed to building an inclusive workforce by creating an environment where everyone feels like they belong and has the opportunity to be successful. We welcome all applicants to join our diverse workforce and we will provide an accessible candidate experience including, but not limited to accommodations to interview sites and alternate formats upon request to our Recruitment team.