Director, Head of FIU

Community Federal Savings Bank•New York, NY

10h•$170,000 - $205,000

About The Position

Community Federal Savings Bank is seeking an experienced FIU Director to lead the Bank’s Financial Intelligence Unit and oversee the identification, investigation, escalation, and reporting of suspicious activity across the Bank’s products, services, customer segments, and fintech partner programs. This role is responsible for the operational effectiveness of the FIU, including transaction monitoring investigations, AML referrals, 314(b) matters, law enforcement inquiries, subpoenas, high risk escalations, SAR decisioning support, SAR filing quality, staffing capacity, management reporting, and continuous improvement of investigative standards. The FIU Director will play a critical role in supporting the Bank’s ongoing financial crime compliance program enhancements, including process improvements, control strengthening, and work related to regulatory, audit, or internal review findings. The role requires a leader who can operate in a highly regulated environment, build sustainable processes, improve investigative quality, and demonstrate credible progress through clear documentation, metrics, and management reporting. The FIU Director will also be a key business stakeholder in the Bank’s transition to a new transaction monitoring platform and related financial crime compliance technology enhancements. This includes helping define investigation workflows, case management standards, alert handling expectations, escalation paths, AI enabled capabilities, reporting needs, quality control expectations, and operational readiness for go live and post implementation optimization. The successful candidate will be a strong people leader and an experienced financial crime professional with deep knowledge of BSA/AML escalation practices, SAR requirements, fintech partner banking, card products, international payments, MSBs, and complex transaction monitoring environments.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Business, Law, Criminal Justice, International Relations, or a related field; advanced degree or professional certification (e.g., CAMS, CFE) preferred.
Minimum of 10+ years of experience in compliance, with at least 5 years in a management role.
Strong knowledge of BSA/AML regulations, SAR requirements, FinCEN guidance, 314(a), 314(b), law enforcement requests, and regulatory exam expectations.
Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to write clearly for senior management, regulators, auditors, and governance committees.
Strong judgment, attention to detail, and ability to handle sensitive and confidential information.
Ability to lead through change, manage competing priorities, and build sustainable processes in a fast-moving environment.
Strong leadership skills with the ability to coach, develop, motivate, and hold team members accountable.

Nice To Haves

Experience working in or with fintech partner banking, MSBs, international payments, card programs, payment processors, correspondent banking, nested relationships, or other higher risk banking environments preferred.
Experience leading FIU operations during regulatory remediation, enforcement action response, audit remediation, or major program transformation preferred.
Experience participating in technology implementation, system migration, user acceptance testing, workflow redesign, or post implementation tuning preferred.
Familiarity with AI enabled investigation tools, automation, alert triage, case summarization, narrative support, or analytics driven workflow management preferred.
Experience managing high volume FIU operations, including inventory management, aging controls, productivity expectations, quality standards, and escalation governance preferred.

Responsibilities

Lead the FIU’s daily operations, including investigations, internal and partner program referrals, escalations, law enforcement requests, information sharing matters, and suspicious activity reporting processes.
Establish clear expectations for investigation quality, documentation, escalation, dispositioning, and SAR decisioning.
Maintain a sustainable operating model that aligns investigation capacity, staffing levels, alert volumes, referral volumes, case complexity, and regulatory expectations.
Develop and maintain procedures, job aids, workflow standards, and investigative guidance that support consistent execution across the FIU.
Promote a culture of ownership, accountability, sound judgment, collaboration, and timely escalation.
Support the ongoing enhancement of the Bank’s financial crimes compliance program, including investigation standards, escalation protocols, reporting processes, management information, and control documentation.
Translate regulatory expectations, audit findings, risk assessments, and internal reviews into practical FIU process improvements.
Maintain documentation that demonstrates effective execution, control discipline, and operational readiness.
Partner with Compliance, Legal, Risk, Internal Audit, FCC Systems, and senior management to support examinations, audits, reviews, and program enhancement initiatives.
Identify opportunities to strengthen FIU processes, improve consistency, and support sustainable compliance operations.
Serve as a key FIU stakeholder in the implementation and enhancement of financial crime compliance technology, including transaction monitoring, case management, workflow, reporting, and investigative tools.
Help define investigation workflows, case documentation standards, alert routing, escalation paths, SAR workflows, reporting needs, quality control points, and operational controls.
Support the controlled use of automation and AI enabled capabilities, including data enrichment, narrative support, workflow routing, investigative assistance, and management reporting.
Ensure technology enabled processes are appropriately documented, explainable, reviewable, and subject to human oversight.
Participate in system testing, workflow design, training development, readiness reviews, and post implementation optimization.
Oversee the review and investigation of potentially suspicious activity involving money laundering, terrorist financing, fraud, sanctions related concerns, cyber enabled crime, elder exploitation, human trafficking, high risk jurisdictions, structuring, mule activity, account takeover, and other financial crime typologies.
Ensure investigative findings are clearly documented, fact-based and supported by appropriate analysis.
Oversee suspicious activity reporting processes, including escalation review, decisioning support, narrative quality, filing timeliness, continuing activity reviews, and supporting documentation.
Ensure matters requiring management, Legal, Compliance, law enforcement, or regulatory escalation are handled timely and appropriately.
Integrate FinCEN advisories, regulatory guidance, emerging typologies, and law enforcement trends into FIU procedures, training, and investigative expectations.
Develop and maintain FIU metrics that provide visibility into inventory, aging, productivity, quality, staffing needs, escalation trends, reporting volumes, typologies, and operational risk.
Use data to assess workload, staffing capacity, productivity, backlogs, case complexity, and sustainability.
Forecast staffing and resource needs based on alert volumes, business growth, product changes, system enhancements, and investigation complexity.
Prepare clear and meaningful reporting for senior management, governance committees, auditors, and regulators.
Identify trends and control concerns from FIU activity and escalate them for broader program consideration.
Develop training plans that strengthen investigative judgment, typology awareness, case documentation, escalation standards, suspicious activity reporting, and system usage.
Conduct regular performance reviews and provide timely coaching, feedback, and development support to FIU managers and team members.
Ensure team members have the tools, training, procedures, and support necessary to perform their roles effectively.
Promote continuous improvement while maintaining strong control discipline and regulatory credibility.