Sanctions Investigations Team Lead

Own end-to-end investigation quality, including case scoping, evidence standards, narrative quality, disposition rationale, and closure documentation

Act as escalation point and reviewer for complex, high-value, or politically exposed matters, making or endorsing disposition recommendations

Ensure dispositions are defensible against applicable sanctions regimes and internal standards, with documentation able to withstand regulatory, audit, and independent review

Manage intake, triage, and ageing of cases across the team's queue, prioritizing by risk and tracking against SLAs

Own team capacity planning, including allocation, time-zone coverage, and surge handling

Track and report throughput, cycle time, QA outcomes, and escalation volumes to senior management and governance forums

Identify and drive process improvements that reduce false positives and manual effort without weakening controls

Represent the team in interactions with regulators, external auditors, and independent reviewers, owning response quality and evidence packs

Partner with Sanctions Advisory on interpretive questions and novel typologies, and with Technology on screening rule tuning, model changes, and tooling

Escalate material or time-sensitive exposure to Financial Crime Compliance leadership and, where required, the business and Legal

Coordinate with law enforcement, industry bodies, and peer institutions where appropriate and approved

Set performance expectations and manage, coach, and develop investigators, including career progression and succession coverage

Build sanctions and CTF technical depth within the team, covering typologies, evasion techniques, and digital-asset and cross-border payment risks

Partner with Compliance Training on mandatory and role-specific training, keeping the team's knowledge current with evolving regimes and designations

Drive adoption of investigative tooling and AI-assisted workflows, validating output quality before scaling

Maintain team SOPs, investigation playbooks, and escalation protocols, keeping them current and aligned to policy

Ensure records, retention, and confidentiality standards are met, including for the most sensitive matters

Support internal audit, risk assessment, and control-testing exercises, and own remediation of team-level findings

7+ years of experience in sanctions investigations, CTF investigations, or financial crime investigations in a crypto or financial services environment

Direct people leadership experience, including performance management, coaching, and career development of investigators

Demonstrated ability to build SOPs, playbooks, and escalation protocols

Experience with regulatory exams, external audits, or independent reviews, including owning the evidence pack and remediating findings

Experience driving process improvement with measurable outcomes, reducing false positives or cycle time without weakening controls

Hands-on experience with blockchain analytics tools such as Chainalysis, Elliptic, TRM Labs, or equivalent

Exposure to emerging evasion typologies and digital-asset risks, including mixers, chain hops, and nested VASPs

Strong working knowledge of global sanctions frameworks (OFAC, UN, EU, UK) and CTF regulatory requirements

Working knowledge of sanctions-specific reporting obligations beyond SARs/STRs, including blocking and rejected transaction reporting

Proven ability to conduct complex, multi-source investigations and produce clear, defensible written outputs including SARs/STRs

Experience with sanctions screening platforms

Strong analytical and investigative skills, with the ability to connect disparate data points and form well-reasoned conclusions

Comfortable working in a fast-paced, high-volume environment with competing priorities