Enterprise Architect for Financial Crimes

M&T Bank•Buffalo, NY

5d•Hybrid

About The Position

Provides enterprise architecture leadership across financial crime and fraud prevention capabilities. Defines technology strategies, target-state architectures, integration patterns, data foundations, and roadmaps spanning AML, KYC, CDD, sanctions, transaction monitoring, adverse media, fraud prevention, digital identity, behavioral analytics, case management, and investigator workflows across Consumer, Commercial, Institutional, Payments, and enterprise operations. The architect develops and maintains current-state and target-state architectures, defines enterprise patterns, guides platform integration, and embeds cybersecurity, privacy, model risk, resilience, explainability, auditability, data governance, and evidence requirements into architecture decisions. The role also defines production controls for analytics and AI/ML models and partners with business, risk, compliance, data, legal, operations, and technology stakeholders to resolve cross-domain dependencies. The position evaluates vendors and platforms for functional coverage, enterprise fit, data needs, integration, cost, resilience, third-party risk, and duplication. It provides architecture governance and lifecycle oversight from strategy through implementation and production operation, while keeping architecture accountability distinct from day-to-day delivery ownership. The role requires on-site presence at the Seneca One Tech Hub in Buffalo, New York, for one week per month.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree and a minimum of 7 years of relevant work experience, or, in lieu of a degree, a combined minimum of 11 years of higher education and/or relevant work experience.
At least 7 years of experience in enterprise, solution, data, security, or application architecture, including at least 3 years supporting AML, KYC, sanctions, financial crime, digital identity, or fraud prevention capabilities.
Experience integrating financial crime, fraud, identity, analytics, data, alerting, workflow, and case management platforms within a regulated environment.
Demonstrated experience developing target-state architectures, reference patterns, data and integration architectures, roadmaps, and transition plans.
Working knowledge of architecture modeling and documentation practices, with the ability to communicate effectively with executive, business, risk, compliance, data, and engineering audiences.
Experience evaluating vendors and technology options and translating business, regulatory, model risk, operational, data, and financial considerations into clear recommendations.
Knowledge of AML/KYC, customer due diligence, beneficial ownership, sanctions and watchlist screening, adverse media, transaction monitoring, case management, suspicious activity investigation, and regulatory reporting.
Knowledge of fraud typologies and controls, digital identity, identity proofing, authentication, behavioral analytics, financial crime and fraud data architecture, analytics and AI/ML architecture, and modern architecture patterns.
Familiarity with applicable regulatory frameworks and guidance, including BSA/AML requirements, OFAC sanctions requirements, FinCEN regulations and guidance, FATF recommendations, the USA PATRIOT Act, GLBA, privacy obligations, and relevant FFIEC guidance; the architect translates confirmed requirements into architecture rather than acting as legal counsel.

Nice To Haves

Experience with AML/KYC, sanctions, transaction monitoring, fraud, identity, behavioral analytics, or case management products such as NICE Actimize, LexisNexis Bridger, BioCatch, Prove, Socure, Bottomline, or comparable platforms.
Experience with model validation, performance monitoring, explainability, false-positive reduction, graph analytics, entity resolution, or investigator feedback loops.
Experience within a large financial institution with complex regulatory, legacy, data lineage, cybersecurity, and operational resilience requirements.
Familiarity with enterprise architecture methods and tools, including capability models, value streams, roadmaps, and architecture repositories.

Responsibilities

Define and evolve financial crime and fraud prevention architecture strategies and roadmaps aligned with business priorities, risk appetite, regulatory obligations, enterprise standards, and the evolving threat landscape.
Maintain current-state and target-state architectures across customer due diligence, KYC, sanctions and watchlist screening, adverse media, transaction monitoring, fraud detection, identity verification, authentication, behavioral analytics, alerting, case management, investigations, remediation, and regulatory reporting.
Define and connect capability needs for AML and financial crime compliance, fraud prevention, identity and authentication, and insider threat management where applicable.
Define enterprise patterns for customer and counterparty identity, entity resolution, graph analytics, event streaming, feature and decision services, model execution, alert generation, case integration, evidence, and data lineage.
Guide integration of financial crime, fraud, identity, analytics, data, alerting, workflow, and case management platforms, including comparable services to the named products, subject to enterprise standards and strategy.
Embed cybersecurity, privacy, model risk, resilience, explainability, auditability, data governance, and evidence requirements into architecture decisions.
Define production controls for analytics and AI/ML models, including approval, validation, monitoring, performance thresholds, drift, explainability, false-positive management, and investigator outcome feedback.
Partner with Financial Crime, Fraud, Operations, Payments, Digital Identity, Cybersecurity, Data, Legal, Compliance, Model Risk, business, and technology stakeholders to resolve cross-domain dependencies and sequencing decisions.
Evaluate vendor and platform options for functional coverage, enterprise fit, data needs, integration, cost, resilience, third-party risk, and avoidance of unnecessary duplication.
Provide architecture governance and lifecycle oversight from strategy through implementation and production operation, maintaining the distinction between architecture accountability and day-to-day delivery ownership.
Produce capability maps, current-state and target-state architectures, multiyear roadmaps, reference architectures, high-level designs, architecture decision records, technology assessments, vendor evaluations, data lineage and model-control analyses, governance briefings, and reusable architecture standards.