AML Escalations Manager – Vice President

JPMorgan Chase & Co.•Chicago, IL

1d•$95,500 - $153,000

About The Position

Join JPMorganChase Commercial & Investment Banking’s AML Escalations Team, where critical thinking, sound judgment, attention to detail, and strong leadership are essential to how we assess and manage financial crime risk. In this role, you will lead a team responsible for reviewing AML-related escalations, including suspicious activity-related matters, Politically Exposed Persons, or PEP, profiles, financial crimes media, and other high-risk client matters. As an AML Escalations Manager – Vice President in the AML Escalations Team, you will be accountable for team performance, operational execution, quality oversight, and continuous improvement. You will coach and develop investigators, set clear execution standards, and ensure work is completed in accordance with internal policies, regulatory expectations, and agreed service levels. You will also perform and oversee QA/QC of case work to ensure investigations, documentation, and conclusions are accurate, complete, well-supported, and aligned with policy and regulatory expectations. You will partner closely with Front Office, Operations, Compliance, Legal, and other stakeholders to resolve complex matters, remove blockers, and strengthen the control environment. This role requires a strong AML and financial crimes background, proven people leadership experience, excellent judgment in complex or ambiguous situations, and the ability to influence across functions while maintaining a high standard of quality, responsiveness, and risk management. The successful candidate will be transformation-minded and process improvement-oriented, with the ability to challenge existing processes, collaborate across functions, and drive sustainable enhancements that improve quality, efficiency, transparency, and control effectiveness. This role also requires a highly responsive and detail-oriented leader who proactively communicates, follows through on commitments, anticipates issues, and reinforces a culture of accuracy, accountability, and timely execution.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent work experience.
7+ years in banking/AML/financial crimes investigations or related compliance, risk, audit, legal, law enforcement fields.
People leadership experience (coaching, performance management, training, team development).
Strong AML/FC expertise: typologies, red flags, investigative techniques, KYC requirements, risk indicators, regulatory expectations.
Sound risk judgment in complex, ambiguous, and high-risk scenarios; able to form and defend risk-based conclusions end-to-end.
Ability to synthesize multi-source information (client behavior, transactions, KYC, internal intel, external media).
Hands-on experience with banking systems, KYC platforms, case management tools, or similar applications.
Strong operational management (capacity planning, work allocation, SLA management, quality oversight, metrics reporting).
Proven ability to manage high-volume concurrent team work with depth, accuracy, consistency, and control discipline.
Highly responsive and detail-oriented; manages time-sensitive matters, communicates proactively, follows through, and identifies gaps/issues.
Transformation and stakeholder leadership: challenges status quo, drives process/quality/control improvements, influences partners, and drives issues to resolution with strong ownership and communication skills.

Nice To Haves

Experience managing AML, KYC, enhanced due diligence, PEP, negative media, sanctions, or financial crimes escalation teams.
Demonstrated ability to lead process improvements, control enhancements, transformation, operational excellence, automation, workflow enhancement, or data-driven initiatives across teams or functions.
Experience using data, metrics, root-cause analysis, automation tools, workflow management tools, or emerging technologies to improve investigative efficiency, quality, reporting, and controls.
Experience supporting internal audits, regulatory exams, quality assurance reviews, or control testing.
CAMS, CFE, or other relevant financial crimes, compliance, risk, or audit certification.

Responsibilities

Lead, coach, and manage the performance of a team of AML escalation professionals, building capability through structured training, feedback, development planning, and succession planning.
Oversee in-depth reviews of AML escalations, including suspicious activity-related matters, PEP relationships, financial crimes media, and other potential financial crime risk indicators.
Provide guidance on complex cases, risk assessments, escalation decisions, and client risk disposition.
Ensure the team analyzes and connects information from multiple sources, including client behavior, transaction activity, KYC data, internal records, and external intelligence.
Partner with client owners, Middle Office, Legal, Compliance, and Operations teams to obtain information, assess risk, and drive timely case resolution.
Ensure timely responses to stakeholder inquiries, escalation requests, and aging matters, while balancing urgency with thoughtful risk-based analysis and high-quality execution.
Oversee accurate completion and maintenance of KYC documentation in accordance with internal policies and regulatory standards.
Manage team capacity, work allocation, prioritization, quality, and productivity across a high-volume portfolio of concurrent cases.
Proactively escalate risks, bottlenecks, aging items, and control concerns, while recommending practical and sustainable solutions.
Contribute to AML/KYC-related governance, projects, exams, audits, transformation initiatives, and process improvements as required.