Director, Financial Crimes Technology

About the Role

The Director of BSA Technology is the BSA functional lead responsible for ensuring the bank’s screening models are accurately implemented, operating as intended, producing reliable and explainable outputs, and meeting all applicable regulatory and internal governance expectations.

This role resides within the Financial Crimes Program and Technology Assurance team and serves as the bridge between model design — owned by stakeholder groups within the broader BSA Department — and technology delivery, owned by a technology/product counterpart responsible for software implementation and vendor execution.

The Director partners with BSA model design stakeholders to understand design intent and translate it into detailed requirements, then works with the technology/product counterpart to ensure those requirements are built and delivered as specified.

This role provides strategic oversight of model implementation, change management, and ongoing performance monitoring of model outputs and data quality from a compliance lens.

This is not a model design role.

Decisions regarding risk, fuzzy logic, and calibration thresholds reside with the appropriate BSA stakeholder groups.

This is also not a software delivery role.

System build, vendor management, and technical deployment are owned by the technology/product counterpart.

This role’s mandate is to define what the technology must do from a BSA perspective, validate that it does so correctly, and monitor ongoing performance to ensure continued accuracy and regulatory alignment.

Requirements & Functional Ownership

• Partner with BSA/AML stakeholders, Compliance, and Financial Crimes teams to translate screening strategy and program requirements into detailed functional specifications, business rules, acceptance criteria, and expected system outcomes for technology and product partners.
• Serve as the BSA/AML subject matter expert during requirements discussions, ensuring regulatory requirements, risk considerations, and operational impacts are appropriately reflected in system design and functional specifications.
• Evaluate and challenge proposed technical solutions to ensure alignment with BSA/AML program objectives, screening methodology, risk management expectations, and intended business outcomes.
• Provide functional oversight for customer screening, transaction screening, watchlist screening, and alert generation capabilities to ensure solutions are designed and implemented in accordance with program requirements.
• Maintain and prioritize a portfolio of enhancement requests, defect remediation efforts, model tuning activities, and regulatory-driven changes to support continuous improvement and evolving compliance obligations.
• Partner with Technology, Product, Data, and Operations teams to ensure screening logic, data requirements, and system functionality are implemented consistently across platforms and business lines.
• Testing, Validation & Ongoing Monitoring
• Own user acceptance testing (UAT) for BSA/AML screening platform enhancements, model changes, system releases, data integrations, tuning initiatives, and regulatory-driven updates, including development of test strategies, test plans, test cases, execution oversight, and sign-off procedures.
• Validate that BSA/AML screening outcomes are accurately generated, appropriately risk-ranked, and consistently applied across customer screening, transaction monitoring, watchlist screening, payment screening, and related financial crimes detection processes.
• Oversee ongoing monitoring of screening outputs, alert volumes, and operational performance to identify anomalies, unexpected trends, data quality issues, or changes in model effectiveness, escalating findings and recommendations to Compliance, Financial Crimes, and model stakeholders.
• Lead tuning and optimization activities designed to improve screening effectiveness, reduce false positives, enhance alert quality, and balance operational efficiency with regulatory and risk management expectations.
• Investigate and resolve discrepancies between expected and actual screening outcomes, partnering with Compliance, model design teams, Technology/Product teams, and data stakeholders to identify root causes and implement corrective actions.
• Establish and monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) and effectiveness metrics to evaluate screening performance and support ongoing program enhancements.
• Ensure completeness and accuracy of functional documentation including screening logic, business rules, data mappings, model assumptions, validation results, tuning decisions, monitoring activities, control evidence, and remediation actions to support regulatory examinations, internal audits, and governance requirements.
• Leadership & Cross-Functional Coordination
• Coordinate with Technology, Product, Data, and platform partners on delivery timelines, release schedules, enhancement priorities, and issue resolution activities to ensure BSA/AML screening objectives and regulatory requirements are appropriately represented.
• Partner closely with Compliance, Financial Crimes Operations, Risk Management, and BSA stakeholders to ensure screening capabilities, workflows, and outputs effectively support risk identification, alert generation, and case management processes.
• Develop and maintain a strategic roadmap for BSA/AML screening capabilities, including customer screening, transaction screening, watchlist screening, and related financial crimes technology solutions, aligned with business objectives and evolving regulatory expectations.
• Prepare and present management reporting and governance materials related to screening performance, alert trends, data quality metrics, model effectiveness, tuning outcomes, operational risks, and strategic enhancement initiatives.
• Build, mentor, and lead teams of BSA technology analysts, functional specialists, and screening subject matter experts by establishing clear performance expectations, accountability, and development opportunities.
• Support new products, business initiatives, and market expansion efforts by assessing impacts to BSA/AML screening requirements, data needs, workflow considerations, and regulatory obligations.
• Partner with enterprise teams to drive continuous improvement initiatives focused on operational efficiency, control effectiveness, scalability, and modernization of BSA/AML screening capabilities.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required.
• Advanced degree (JD, MBA, or Masters in a related field) preferred.
• Preferred certifications: CAMS, CFCS, or similar.
• 10+ years of experience in BSA/AML, Financial Crimes, screening technology, or risk management systems, with at least 5 years in leadership roles overseeing complex programs, teams, or technology initiatives.
• Strong working knowledge of BSA/AML screening platforms and financial crimes technologies such as Actimize, Lexis Nexis, SAS, Oracle Financial Crimes, or similar solutions, including experience defining business requirements, implementing enhancements, and validating system outputs.
• Demonstrated experience leading functional design activities, developing business and system requirements, overseeing user acceptance testing (UAT), and managing validation processes within a highly regulated environment.
• Strong understanding of BSA/AML regulatory requirements and financial crimes risk frameworks, including customer screening, transaction screening, sanctions screening, and risk-based compliance program expectations.
• Experience supporting screening model governance activities, including model lifecycle management, tuning, performance monitoring, and validation processes aligned with model risk management frameworks.
• Strong knowledge of data governance, data quality management practices, monitoring frameworks, and reporting processes within a financial services environment.
• Experience leveraging data analytics tools and techniques to support screening performance analysis, trend identification, alert optimization, and decision-making.
• Proven ability to communicate complex BSA/AML, compliance, and functional requirements effectively to both technical and non-technical stakeholders, including senior leadership and regulatory partners.
• Demonstrated ability to lead cross‑functional initiatives and influence stakeholders across Compliance, Financial Crimes, Operations, Technology, Product, and Risk organizations.
• Analytical rigor with a focus on output accuracy and regulatory defensibility.
• Strong attention to detail, particularly in testing, validation, and data quality assessment.
• Collaborative leadership style with the ability to work effectively across organizational boundaries, particularly with BSA model design stakeholders and technology/product counterparts.
• Excellent written and verbal communication.
• Adaptability in a dynamic regulatory and technology landscape, with comfort navigating the intersection of compliance requirements and technology delivery.

This role is also eligible for an annual performance‑based incentive opportunity.

Pathward offers a comprehensive benefits package for eligible employees, including health insurance, 401(k) retirement benefits, life insurance, disability benefits, paid time off, and more.

Equal Employment Opportunity

We provide equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, ethnicity, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, transgender status, pregnancy, national origin, age (age 40 and over), disability, genetic information, marital status, hair texture or hairstyle, ancestry, service in the uniformed services, protected veteran status, status as a victim of domestic violence or any other class protected by federal, state and local laws.

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