Director of Financial Crimes

Valley Strong Credit Union•Bakersfield, CA

About The Position

The Director of Financial Crimes serves as the Credit Union’s designated BSA/AML Compliance Officer and provides enterprise leadership over the Financial Crimes Program, including BSA/AML, Fraud Risk Management, and Member Conduct Risk. This role is responsible for the design, execution, and continuous enhancement of a unified, risk-based financial crimes framework that protects the Credit Union from financial loss, regulatory exposure, and reputational harm. The Director partners closely with executive leadership, regulators, and cross-functional stakeholders to ensure compliance with the Bank Secrecy Act, USA PATRIOT Act, OFAC, FinCEN requirements, and related state and federal regulations, while advancing proactive fraud prevention and data-driven decision-making.

Requirements

Education: Bachelor’s degree in Business, Finance, Criminal Justice, or related field required; Master’s preferred.
Experience: Minimum 8–10 years of progressive leadership in BSA/AML and Fraud management within a financial institution.
Proven ability to manage regulatory interactions and present findings to senior leadership and the Board.
Demonstrated success leading change, integrating technology, and building cross-functional programs.
Strong analytical, interpersonal, and written-communication skills.
Ability to read and comprehend instructions, short correspondence, and memos.
Ability to write simple correspondence.
Ability to effectively present information in one-on-one and small group situations to Members and other Team Members at the organization.
Ability to add, subtract, multiply, and divide in all units of measure, using whole numbers, common fractions, and decimals.
Ability to compute dividends and interest.
Ability to solve practical problems and deal with a variety of concrete variables in situations where only limited standardization exists.
Ability to interpret a variety of instructions furnished in written or oral form.
Must be able to process transactions in an efficient manner.
Must be able to communicate policies and procedures to Members in an easily understood and professional manner.
Must comply with all Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and other Anti-Money Laundering (AML) laws and regulations, as they pertain to federal guidelines and internal policies and procedures.

Nice To Haves

Certifications: CAMS, CFE, or equivalent strongly preferred.

Responsibilities

Serve as the organization’s BSA/AML Compliance Officer, as designated by the Board of Directors.
Maintain the enterprise BSA/AML Program, including risk assessments, policies, procedures, training, and testing.
Ensure timely and accurate completion of SAR, CTR, OFAC, CIP/CDD/EDD, and 314(a)/(b) reporting obligations.
Act as the primary liaison with federal and state regulators, auditors, and law-enforcement agencies on all BSA/AML and Financial Crimes matters.
Present periodic BSA/AML and Financial Crimes reports to executive management, the Supervisory Committee, and the Board.
Lead an integrated Financial Crimes and Member Conduct Risk Program encompassing AML, fraud prevention and detection, and member conduct governance.
Oversee fraud-monitoring tools, suspicious-activity analytics, and loss-mitigation strategies across all delivery channels and products.
Establish and maintain key risk indicators (KRIs), key performance indicators (KPIs), dashboards, and trend analysis to support executive and Board oversight.
Oversee the member conduct escalation and expulsion review process, ensuring consistency, fairness, and compliance with policy and legal standards.
Partner with Operations, Lending, Information Security, Legal, and HR to align controls and mitigate cross-functional risks.
Coordinate regulatory examinations, independent audits, and Board presentations.
Provide strategic insight to executive leadership on emerging financial-crime trends and technological enhancements.
Lead, mentor, and develop a team of financial-crimes professionals, including investigators and analysts, fostering accountability, analytical rigor, and professional growth.
Deliver annual BSA/AML and Fraud training for employees, management, and the Board.
Foster a culture of proactive risk awareness and member-centric fraud prevention.
Evaluate, implement and optimize technology solutions to enhance alert triage, case management, automation and regulatory reporting.
Conduct annual financial-crimes risk assessments and incorporate results into enterprise risk frameworks.
Drive process improvements through data analytics, workflow redesign, and automation to improve efficiency and effectiveness.
Directly supervises investigators and analysts responsible for AML, Fraud, and Conduct-Risk investigations. Oversee scheduling, coaching, performance management, and succession planning.
As the designated BSA/AML Compliance Officer, this position ensures enterprise adherence to all BSA, AML, OFAC, and related regulatory requirements and oversees training completion for all employees.