Counterparty Risk & Due Diligence Manager

Job Description

About the Role

The Counterparty Risk & Due Diligence Manager is a critical member of the Legal & Compliance team, responsible for building and operationalizing a comprehensive due diligence function across the organization's key risk categories. This individual will own the end-to-end lifecycle of counterparty risk assessment — from initial onboarding through ongoing monitoring — for our school-client network, our vendor ecosystem, and our investor-facing obligations. 

This is a high-impact, cross-functional role that requires strong legal and business judgment, exceptional organizational skills, and the ability to move between detail-oriented analysis and executive-level communication.

Key Responsibilities

1. School, Client & Partner Due Diligence - 40%

This pillar covers all counterparties categorized as School. The role will:

• Conduct and document initial due diligence on all new school, client, and partner counterparties, including legal entity verification, regulatory standing, financial screening, sanctions and watchlist checks, and reputational review

• Maintain and improve the Initial onboarding due diligence framework 

• Maintain and improve the existing client recurring due diligence framework; conduct ad hoc and schedule due diligence reviews on existing partners

• Conduct or coordinate background research, reference checks, and third-party database screenings (TransUnion/TLO, OFAC, sanctions, litigation history, etc.)

• Produce standardized risk assessment reports and escalate material findings to senior leadership

• Create a counterparty risk system or rubric for new and existing clients

• Work closely with the Revenue Team to increase efficiency in onboarding, and meet current SLAs

• Iterate and Improve upon the current process by adding new inputs, scoping new vendors, and recommending process improvement 

2. Program Development & Reporting 30%

• Develop and maintain the organization's counterparty risk management policy and related procedures

• Build and maintain a risk intelligence infrastructure, including screening tools, database subscriptions, and tracking systems

• Produce periodic reporting for leadership on diligence activity, pipeline, open risk items, and enhancement recommendations

• Identify and recommend process improvements to increase diligence quality, speed, and scalability

• Serve as a thought leader and document owner in improving upon existing policies and procedures

3. Vendor Due Diligence & Management 25%

All new and existing vendor relationships present financial, operational, and compliance risk that must be systematically managed:

• Build and own a vendor risk tiering framework (critical, significant, standard) with corresponding diligence requirements

• Lead pre-contract due diligence for new vendors, including financial reviews, security assessments, and compliance checks. 

• Improve the current Vendor Onboarding procedure

• Coordinate with Finance, IT, and Legal to ensure contract terms reflect identified risks

• Own the vendor inventory and risk register; conduct periodic performance and risk reviews

• Support vendor monitoring and offboarding processes to ensure appropriate data, access, and contractual wind-down

4. Investor-Facing Due Diligence 5%

Institutional investors, lenders, and strategic partners routinely submit due diligence requests to our organization. Today this process is ad hoc. This role will:

• Serve as the primary point of coordination for all incoming due diligence requests

• Delegate, review work product, and deliver DD questionnaire responses in coordination with Compliance, Finance, and Operations

• Track and manage timelines and document versions across concurrent investor processes

• Implement lessons learned from each DD cycle to continuously improve the readiness of our response package

Qualifications

Required

• 3–6 years of experience in due diligence, risk management, compliance, legal operations, or a related field

• Demonstrated experience conducting counterparty, vendor, or third-party risk assessments

• Strong written communication skills; experience drafting risk memos, DDQ responses, compliance reports, and/or policies and procedures

• Familiarity with sanctions screening, KYC/KYB processes, and regulatory compliance frameworks

• Highly organized with strong project management skills and the ability to manage multiple workstreams simultaneously

• Proficiency with due diligence tools, data room platforms, and productivity software, including but not limited to: Google Suite, Slack, SalesForce, Atlassian, Microsoft PowerBI

• Willingness to take ownership of processes and implement changes

Preferred

• Experience in a legal, compliance, or risk function at a technology company, financial services firm, consumer lender, or similarly regulated industry

• Familiarity with investor due diligence processes, including DDQ completion and data room management

• Familiarity with Vendor RFPs and due diligence

• Experience building or scaling a due diligence or third-party risk management program from an early-stage foundation

• Knowledge of EdTech, education-sector regulatory requirements, or school/Title IV contracting frameworks (highly preferred given our school counterparty focus)

• Knowledge of credit, application and/or lending data analysis and ability to apply that analysis to processes

Competencies & Attributes

• Sound judgment — able to independently assess risk materiality and know when to escalate

• Detail orientation — takes pride in accuracy and thoroughness in research and documentation

• Cross-functional collaboration — comfortable working across legal, finance, operations, and leadership

• Communication clarity — translates complex risk findings into clear, actionable language for non-technical audiences

• Ownership mindset — builds programs with durability and scalability, not just point solutions

• Integrity — maintains confidentiality and exercises discretion with sensitive commercial and investor information