AVP, Program Governance — BSA/AML & Sanctions Operations

Pathward, N.A.

2h•$104,000 - $174,000•Hybrid

About The Position

The Assistant Vice President (AVP), Program Governance provides centralized governance, vendor and outsourced-review oversight, and operational reporting for Pathward’s BSA/AML & Sanctions Operations. Reporting directly to the SVP, BSA/AML Deputy Officer, the AVP owns the relationship with vendors and outsourced review providers, consolidates and maintains the vertical’s KRIs, KPIs and backlog reporting, and translates operational metrics into decision-grade executive and regulatory deliverables. The AVP also owns the governance framework for assessing and escalating risk arising from breaches or emerging breaches to established KPIs and service levels, ensuring leadership has early, accurate visibility into performance and control health across Alerts, Cases, Quality Control, Complex Investigations, Sanctions and Merchant Acquiring.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Business, Risk Management, or related field; equivalent experience considered.
8+ years in BSA/AML, compliance operations, risk governance or program management within banking or fintech, including people leadership.
Demonstrated experience managing vendor or outsourced-provider relationships and service levels.
Proven ability to build KPI/KRI and backlog reporting and translate operational data into executive- and regulator-facing deliverables.
Working knowledge of transaction monitoring, cases/SARs and OFAC screening operations and the regulatory environment (OCC).
Strong governance mindset with the ability to build controls, documentation and escalation into everyday operations.
Analytical rigor — turns complex data into clear thresholds, insights and decisions.
Excellent written and verbal communication; advanced skills in Excel, PowerPoint and reporting/BI tools.
Program leadership — drives outcomes across teams and third parties without direct authority over every contributor.
Sound judgment under regulatory scrutiny; comfortable engaging senior stakeholders and examiners.

Nice To Haves

Professional certification such as CAMS, PMP or equivalent preferred.

Responsibilities

Serve as the primary relationship owner for vendors and outsourced/managed-service review providers supporting BSA/AML & Sanctions Operations (domestic and international).
Own engagement governance — statements of work, service level agreements, KPIs, milestone acceptance, change control and escalation — in partnership with Vendor Management, Third-Party Risk, Legal and Information Security.
Oversee onboarding, least-privilege system access and offboarding for outsourced resources; ensure data-handling, residency and confidentiality controls are met.
Provide oversight of outsourced review quality and throughput, ensuring deliverables meet Pathward procedures and regulatory expectations before reliance; maintain examiner-ready evidence of third-party oversight.
Own the consolidated operational reporting for the vertical, bringing together all KRIs, KPIs, production, throughput and backlog/inventory metrics into a single source of truth.
Maintain and publish recurring KPI/KRI and backlog reporting packages for leadership, committees and regulators, with consistent definitions across teams.
Own a single deliverables calendar for the vertical — regulatory responses, MRA workstream reporting, board and committee materials, offsite packs and resource models.
Manage intake, prioritization, quality control and on-time delivery of committed deliverables; run the operating cadence that keeps workstreams on track.
Act as business manager / chief of staff to the SVP, coordinating leadership meetings, tracking decisions and actions, and reducing day-to-day management load on the SVP.
Translate raw production, backlog and productivity data into meaningful narratives and visualizations for leadership, committees and regulators.
Establish and maintain a standard monthly executive reporting pack reconciled to the single source of truth.
Ensure reporting is decision-grade and framed to support resourcing, risk and remediation decisions.
The AVP owns the framework for identifying, assessing and escalating risk arising from breaches — or emerging breaches — to established KPIs, KRIs and service levels.
Define KPI/KRI thresholds, tolerances and early-warning triggers across each operational vertical, aligned to Board risk appetite and regulatory expectations.
Monitor performance against thresholds; identify actual and emerging breaches (e.g., SLA misses, aging inventory, throughput shortfalls, vendor performance gaps) on a proactive basis.
Assess the risk, root cause and potential regulatory or control impact of each breach, and assign severity to drive appropriate response.
Maintain a documented escalation protocol — who is notified, within what timeframe, and what remediation or compensating controls are required — and track breaches through to resolution.
Report breach trends, themes and remediation status to the SVP and BSA Officer, ensuring leadership has early, accurate visibility into performance and control health.